Hootie and the Blowfish Bring Out Public Enemy for Potent Stagecoach Set

On Sunday evening, Hootie and the Blowfish made their Stagecoach debut under the bright desert lights. The crowd was already swaying with nostalgia before frontman Darius Rucker took the mic and kicked off the band’s set with their bittersweet 1994 number, “Hannah Jane.”

The offering from their colossal debut album, Cracked Rear View, was one of several deep-fried jams the band played, along with “Let Her Cry,” “Hold My Hand,” and “Time.” The set reached a glorious peak when Hootie and the Blowfish got to “Only Wanna Be With You,” which they tagged with a bit of Kool and the Gang’s “Get Down on It,” setting off dancers throughout the massive crowd. The band also performed Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel” — which was a smash solo hit for Rucker — and Led Zeppelin’s “Hey, Hey, What Can I Do.”

Then in a moment that echoed Rucker’s love for music that spans Seventies soul to Nineties hip-hop, the frontman brought out Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy. The duo delivered “He Got Game,” which revisits Buffalo Springfield’s 1966 protest classic “For What It’s Worth,” and the revolutionary anthem, “Fight The Power.” Rucker looked right at home with Chuck D and Flav, and sent the thousands gathered for their set jumping and jamming.

After a massively successful run with Hootie and the Blowfish, Rucker became one of the top stars in country music as a solo artist. And while it was the band’s first time at Stagecoach this weekend, Rucker has previously performed at the desert fest three times. “I think country music today and a lot of the ’90s alt-rock definitely have a kinship,” Rucker recently told The New York Times.

“There’s no rock ’n’ roll in pop music anymore,” he continued. “It’s not driven by guitar, it’s not driven by angst. People that were big into that in the ’90s are now bigger into country music.”

Alongside Hootie and the Blowfish, fellow rockers Third Eye Blind, Journey (whose set got nixed due to a temporary evacuation on Saturday), and Counting Crows were also on the Stagecoach roster this year. “You look at the lineup and you don’t go, ‘That’s crazy.’ It makes sense,” the singer pointed out. “It’s the aesthetics of the mood, the music, and maybe the way it makes you feel.”