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Stagecoach 2023: Trixie Mattel slays Late Night in Palomino performance

April 29, 2023

“I’m probably the only person on the Stagecoach lineup who has like 45 different careers,” country-pop star and drag queen Trixie Mattel, the persona of Brian Michael Firkus, said during a phone interview just days before her Late Night in Palomino performance at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio on Friday, April 28.

“When I’m not doing a million other things, it’s so great to be back on stage,” she continued. “And for Stagecoach, I’m probably going to be the nastiest, most naked person in drag there, but that’s a good thing.”

Performance by performance, Mattel’s taken over the world, one stage and wig at a time.

During her set over at the Diplo-curated Late Night in Palomino after-party on Friday, Mattel made sure to give fans a slew of original songs and fun covers, including “Venus” by Bananarama, “Blister in the Sun” by Violent Femmes and she whipped out the autoharp for Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games.”

“If you go on Wikipedia for autoharp players, it’s literally June Carter Cash and me, and I’m very proud of that,” she said, gleaming to the audience with her harp. “But putting this thing on is like wearing underwear, don’t be fooled. It’s difficult.”

Trixie Mattel performs on the Palomino Stage during the Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 28, 2023. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Contributing Photographer)

Fans watch as Trixie Mattel performs on the Palomino Stage during the Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 28, 2023. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Contributing Photographer)

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The performance is also Stagecoach history-making as Mattel is the first drag queen booked to play the three-day festival. For Mattel, country music has consistently played a crucial part in her character archetype since living in rural Milwaukee during her adolescence, nodding to women like Dolly Parton and June Carter Cash as influences. Her style evokes a retro-tinged ’60s glamour midcentury housewife with a dash of Barbie pink.

“You know, you’d be surprised, but a lot of queer people like country music,” Mattel said during our interview. “They just don’t play it at gay clubs usually, but that type of community does exist. But also, you don’t have to be gay to like us. It’s irrelevant.”

Fans that left Friday headliner Luke Bryan’s set a little early to catch Mattel in the Palomino were seemingly star-struck by the queen, who changed into at least six different pink fits with glitter and fringe.

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It wasn’t a packed house, but the crowd she did have were die-hard fans holding up pink or LGBTQ+ flags and screaming, “Trixie, I love you!”

The show was a nice blend of comedy and glamour as the queen spun around the stage, laughing, singing and occasionally speaking to fans about “important matters,” which included a chat on the recent Bud Light controversy that’s taken social media storm.

“Do you like my hair? Do you like my body? Do you like my face? You know I had one sip of Bud Light, and this is what happened. You gotta be careful,” she said to the crowd.

In April, Bud Light sent Dylan Mulvaney, a well-known transgender influencer, a pack of beer to post in a promotional video where Mulvaney is seen dressed like Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The video shows Mulvaney celebrating her first year of womanhood with the cans featuring her face. When the video appeared online, some more conservative country artists took to their social media accounts to bash the company for supporting LGBTQ+ names and even went as far as wanting to boycott the beer. The company is also a sponsor of this year’s Stagecoach, so for artists like Mattel, it was necessary to note that the issue at hand is something she doesn’t appreciate.

“I’m not offended by somebody supporting trans people with a product, and I’m not offended by people choosing not to support trans people,” Mattel said. “But I find it very offensive when you show support for a community and a marginalized group, and at the first sign of pushback, you not only don’t say anything or even change your tune and backpedal. Instead, you just put up a big, fancy corporate PR word salad and call it a day.”

But that’s as serious as Mattel wanted to get because for her, the Stagecoach performance means connecting with fans and a new crowd.

Since her appearance on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” back in 2015 and winning the all-stars season in 2018, it’s been a non-stop stream of success for the 33-year-old artist. Now, the multi-hyphenate Mattel operates Trixie Cosmetics, co-hosts the widespread YouTube series UNHhhh alongside drag superstar Katya Zamolodchikova, is a New York Times bestselling author and co-owns Wisconsin’s oldest running gay bar.

And coming to the desert feels right at home for Mattel given her other business venture, the Trixie Motel, located in Palm Springs, just a few miles from the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The Motel opened its doors in April 2022 and has now been selling out months in advance, cementing itself as a mainstay in the LGBTQ+ scene in the city. Mattel adds that she built the business in Palm Springs to have somewhere to go that was campy and summer-like.

“Everything I put out is from my own money, my own investment,” she said. “So I don’t go into anything without 100 percent knowing it’s going to be a great idea.”

Her motel, which sports bubble gum pink walls, is also hosting events during the Stagecoach weekend.

“If anybody is in town for Stagecoach, we’ll be doing events all weekend long,” she said. “I’m literally cocktail waitressing in drag which will be a ticketed event where you can drink by the pool. So I’ll be running around in drag serving people. I mean, tell me how many celebrities are willing to do that.”

She’ll also be serving drinks on Sunday morning and made sure to park her tour bus in front of her motel so fans could come and hang out. When asked about what she was looking forward to the most with her Stagecoach performance, she said it wasn’t so much about that particular show, but allowing her fans to connect with something even bigger than herself, a character that’s now connected with millions worldwide.

“Trixie means a lot to me, but it means a lot to other people,” she shared. “And when you build a brand for fans to basically worship, it’s a way for people to connect with Trixie without breaking into my house.”

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