Stagecoach 2024: Leon Bridges packs the Palomino for impressive set with guest Carin Leon

In life, there are regular moments, there are great moments and then there is hearing Leon Bridges performing “River” as the sun was setting over the mountains at Stagecoach.

There’s nothing country about the singer — but that didn’t seem to matter to a single one of the hoard of people spilling far out of the Palomino tent as the singer launched into the powerful song.

While a quick online search tells me Bridges says the song is about spiritual cleansing, it seems many of the couples were convinced it was about something else as they began kissing, slow dancing and doing other (mostly situationally appropriate) couple things.

But as special as that moment was, Bridges topped it a few minutes later when he sang his biggest “Beyond,” which provoked several similarly sultry displays, that were this time supported by the romantic lyrics.

But while nothing could compete with the absolute VIBE that was Bridges singing those two songs, the singer had one other major treat in store.

That was when Leon met León as the singer invited Regional Mexican musician Carín León — the Latin Grammy-winning artist who received the key to the City of Coachella last weekend — on stage to perform their popular duet “It Was Always You (“Siempre Fueste Tu”).

The crowd was rapturous (between his sets yesterday and this appearance, it was clear León has no shortage of fans here ), which provided a particularly cool illustration of how the Stagecoach crowd has evolved in recent years to become one that enjoys much more than the latest from Nashville.

The only major downside of this impressive set was that Leon didn’t play “Beyond” last, which meant he had to suffer what I assume is the awkward feeling of watching a crowd that had previously hanging on his every word, note and charming subtle bit slightly goofy dance move stream out of the tent presumably in a rush to catch the start of Post Malone’s set. Then again, Bridges seemed to proved himself to be the kind of established star confident enough in himself not to care about such things.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Stagecoach: Leon Bridges packs the Palomino for set full of good vibes