New York Blog

Hmm...yeah artists being late is pretty annoying. The Glow In The Dark Tour is really high production, so I would have thought that they were planning to use all the lights and stuff all along. I would be disappointed too if I had to wait that long for a show in the middle of the night.
However, I don't agree with your evaluation of Kanye as a performer. Pretty much everyone who saw him during this last tour said they were blown away by his performance. I have only seen him live once, but there was nothing disappointing about his energy. As far as having the tracks playing...That was not my experience. In fact, for Good Life Kanye even performed a lot of the vocals that are T-Pain on the album.
I really like Kanye, so maybe that's why I don't agree, but really, most other people I've talked to loved The Glow In The Dark Tour.

I was at Bonnaroo this year. I did not see Kayne's show; wouldn't see it if they paid me my $250 ticket price back. But I did see most of the other shows on the 'Big Stage'. And everyone started on time. I noticed this and was impressed by it. In years past there have been issues about starting on time. But this year, every show started right on time. Just shows what lack of class Kanye has. You know the Bonnaroo management stressed to him to be on time. What a jerk. What else is new?

not true. he went on at 4:30 am. kanye was originally scheduled to be on at 8pm on a side stage. his ego was too big for the stage. he made them change his show to the large stage. 230am was the only time.

at 3am it was announced through the festival people, 'kanye will not be going on till 4:30.' anyone in the crowd with any brains could see the people loading stuff on stage. they were nowhere near loaded by the time 315 rolled around. at 315 they announced kanye would be on at 330 (knowing it was a lie). Then at 330, they changed text on the big screens to "kanye west, next".

once he got on stage. he never mentioned where he was. he was scheduled for 90 minutes, he didnt even finish 60. while on stage, he was reading lines back and forth with his computerized assistant 'jane'. some of the worst acting i have ever heard, btw. the crowd was booing and laughing at how stupid the show was. (who ever wrote the dialog between kanye and jane should be fired, shot, then drowned)

people were throwing glow sticks on the stage and at kanye through the show. it broke his 'trillion dollar' screen in one corner. and hit him.

the best part? this is a glow in the dark show. by the time he was done, it was light out. his final song led to him laying back down on the stage like he was going back to sleep. then the lights turned off and the show was over. BUT! since it wasn't dark... he was just laying on stage. he stood up and walked down a ladder. the worst-most-embarassing dismount ever. what an idiot.

also, i guess his crew got into a fist fight with the pearl jam crew.'

i know i spelled things wrong. i'm tired and in a hotel room. it's been a long weekend. someone had to post some true things about this event. please re-tell this story. i hope kanye becomes less famous than foxy brown.

I was there watching Kanye. I have to tell you that whatever the stage setup -- it wasn't worth it. The only part I got was him talking to that voice. I know the stage was slanted but I never understood why he couldn't have done the whole show on a flat stage. I LOVE his music and stayed through the whole thing and had a great time. BUT it was all pre-recorded. There was no interaction with the audience. What made the other acts so great was their musicianship and connecting with the audience. Too bad an artist as talented as Kanye didn't realize that's what the Bonnaroo experience is about.

"kanye was originally scheduled to be on at 8pm on a side stage. his ego was too big for the stage. he made them change his show to the large stage. 230am was the only time."

This is 100% true.

"I wasn't upset about the change of scheduling but the delay sent all of my anger towards Bonnaroo."

The Bonnaroo organizers do not deserve any of your anger. The blame for this debacle lies squarely with Kanye's ego. As he was being brought to his originally scheduled stage (the second, and smaller, outdoor stage) he saw the larger main stage, and thought that was where he was playing. When he next saw the smaller stage he REFUSED to perform there. The "request for a late night show" was whitewash. Bonnaroo deserves praise for making a show happen at all. Remember this: the production people who spent all night setting up and then taking down his equipment should have been getting their rest. Kanye doesn't give a rat's tukus about them, about the audience, about anyone but himself. Talent is not a substitute for class.

We got bored waiting for Kanye's ego to be airlifted in and went to see Chali 2na from J5, and who ended up being backed by Galactic. The man put on a hell of a show and gave mad love to Bonnaroo and the fans.

We definitely made the right choice.

I may not be his biggest fan but I really enjoy a lot of Kanye's music. I had been looking forward to his show since the line up was announced and was even more psyched after hearing his tour's great reviews. Wow was I disappointed!

The whole thing was just cheesy. At least shine some lights into the crowd! Instead we had to listen to his darkest songs the first half of the short show, rather than songs that make you want to get up and dance, the ones that people who don't know him well might have recognized. In between all this he never addressed the crowd- who missed other great artists to wait for his show- not even to thank us. The biggest insult, I think, was the song where he boasted about how great he is. Please, Kanye, you couldn't even get ME to dance- and that says A LOT! Oh, and his computer, Jane, the mega-sized gold painted woman that danced behind him during 'Gold Digger' was completely innappropriate for an audience filled with hippies.

Everything about his show was wrong- and I'm not counting the delays. If you make your audience wait, apologize. Then play your heart out! Phil Lesh, in his sixties, rocked harder and got more people on their feet than Kanye could keep on the field! Shame on you Kanye, you could've redeemed yourself and gained a few more fans but apparently you are too good for us. Do us all a favor and stay home next year.

As a fan, I waited, and I regret doing so. Show was not only late, it was terrible and unimaginative. His mom would turn in her grave.

The stage set up may have caused a delay, but only because Kanye refused the original stage and time slot he was given. There's a damn good reason they don't schedule that many acts on the main stage in one day/night. All of this (well, except for the mediocre performance) could have been avoided if he had gone along with the original plan. (The first time slot was 8 pm, which would have been after dark. The only reason for the move was Kanye demanding to be on the main stage. They obviously couldn't announce that it was due to his inflated ego.) The logistics of a huge festival like Bonnaroo are not conducive to last-minute changes like that, there's just no way around it.

Why the hell you'd ask another band at a *music festival* to stop playing early (especially Phil Lesh!) just so you could be the only performer is beyond me. If you don't want competition, either play your own arena/club show or be so damn good that everyone there comes to see you. Kanye Suckfest was nothing but a demanding, unappreciative diva by all accounts and Bonnaroo would have been better off without him. I hope other festival bookers are taking note.

Does anyone know what prompted the canceling of Israel Vibrations on the main stage the next day? We were guessing that Kanye's crap wasn't off the stage yet, but never heard for sure.

i was working on the crew to set everything up, so i got to see a lot of this first hand. kanye definitely wasn't just sitting back there pissed off that pearl jam got off late. the tour manager (some guy in a pink hat, white tank top, and plaid shorts) pulled topless girls with their chests painted out of the crowd and took them to his bus. also, he was told that he could not have that much stuff on stage, but he refused to listen. as we moved it, it was actually cracking the stage...14,000 pounds. oh, and kanye left immediately in his bus, while we had to take apart that retarded moon thing until 8 a.m. kanye can suck it.

Before I start, I want to say that as of June 13th, I was a huge Kanye fan. Even planned on seeing him twice this summer.

We were at Bonnaroo this weekend and I've been there all but 1 year since 2002. Never before has anything been as big of a pain in the a$$. Kanye first complained and had his show changed because he didn't want to go up against Jack Johnson OR be put on the 2nd stage. Kanye West? On the 2nd stage? Are these people crazy? How could they disrespect him like that? Whatever, suck it up, quit acting like a baby. It would have been plenty dark if he would have gone on at his original time. Then he complained about the next time they gave him because he was going to be going up against Lupe Fiasco and Talib Kwali. But then EVERYONE wouldn't have been at his show. So, then they moved his time again. Along with changing his time they also had to move the time of the shows in a completely different tent on the complete other side of the festival (The Coup, Lupe, Talib and Chali Tuna) so that their shows would be over in time for your royal majesty to have the crowd all to himself. Well, having to be ready half an hour early screwed with the other artists, shortened The Coup's show by 20 minutes and pissed off most all of the people that were at the festival. How good can your light show be when the sun is coming up any way? I didn't get to bed until half of his show was over (not because I was watching that self-centered prick) and the sun was up. He cost himself a lot of fans since there were over 90,000 people at the festival. I know he lost 1.

This is a comment to every one that booed Kanye and are saying that he sucks. You are a buch of faggot-ass pussies that do not understand shit about hip-hop. How dare you say that Kanye was terrible and booed him and saying that he sucks. So what if his performance was delayed. Big deal, stop your bitching. You better respect Kanye for all the hard work he has put into his music. He's one of the best right now in hip-hop. Whoever still says that Kanye sucks is a faggot-ass pussy who doesn't know shit and is an ignorant fucker. What do you have to say about that, you haters?

Mike C you are right. Everyone needs to give Kanye West a break, he does put so much work into his music. Its really difficult to use other musicians material and then put in a few uninspired, unimaginative, and sometimes unbelievably stupid lyrics. Very few people could do it. Kanye West is not an artist. He is a talentless hack with a huge ego and nothing else.

I waited for Kanye because I thought he was someone for the least of these among us. I loved the way he Called out Dubya Bush for his inaction post Katrina. NOW....I am calling out Kanye. Me and my friends were there to see him...Kanye West Hates the entire lower middle class.. Black, White, latino and Asian he hates us all....Suck on it...Kanye....We now spell it CONYE!

MIKE C!??? You are as classy as Kanye! Nice language, Dude- I'm sure you're a real hip-hop wannabe gansta. I wasn't even at Bonnaroo but every time I have seen KW at any event or award show he has behaved like a pompous creep with no regard or respect for anyone else in his industry- hip-hop or otherwise. FYI- HE JUST ISN'T THAT TALENTED! And to make people wait around to satisfy his self-serving agenda and outrageous ego is just ridiculous. It's all those fans that shelled out hundreds of bucks to see their favorite artists that got ripped off. Those would be the same fans that pay for Kanye's bling-bling, luxurious lifestyle, and trailer where he was having a good old party waiting for his stage to be set up because his prima donna attitude prevented him from sucking it up and playing on his original stage. So, Mike C, good thing you're still Kanye's biggest fan. By the way, get a dictionary and learn how to speak without using profanity (you may need to look that up) and homophobic slurs and maybe people might respect your opinion. Otherwise, you come off looking like just another ignorant low-life that gives hip-hop and rap a bad name. And Bonnaroo, or no Bonnaroo, Kanye West continues to show that he cares nothing about anyone but himself.

I saw the glow in the dark tour, in CT...NERD was awesome, Rihanna was BANGING!!

Kayne West suck'd ASS!!! lol.. His set was too loud and VERY PRETENTIOUS. I am now, no longer a KW fan

HAHAHAHA!!! I saw the show in LA and it was fabulous! Thats very sad that you pathetic ass people didnt get the full show. If i was him i would said "fuck all yall whiney people" too. Nobody is perfect and him comin on stage late was not his fault. At least yall got some of the show cuz he could have simply just not performed. I find it amazing that half the people commenting about him know nothing about hip hop. Kanye still making millions regardless of how negative yall feel about him. I met him in person and he is a very stand up guy. And when he performs he puts his all into it. Im sorry yall didnt get to see the full Kanye and his great performance. But dont talk shit about him just becuz shit didnt go yall way. Plus who gives a shit about a little town in PA. I sure dont. And im sure he dont either. He made sure all his performances in LA was good and trust everybody had a blast even the people who didnt kno songs from his first CD. So suck it up and shut up. Life moves on.

Twiggy, learn to english.
Also, how does Kanye put more into his "music" than any other performer?

um, yeah, OK. For all of the haterade being poured on Mr. West, he's STILL the only Bonnaroo performer I've heard about all weekend. No Pearl Jam, no Metallica, just "Kanye Sucks!"

That tells me that Mr West pwned Bonnaroo. Ha ha! Eff you, you effing whiny-ass hippies! And take that Phil Lesh with you!

it really sucks for all you haters cuz after all of your complaining.. kanye's STILL DOIN IT. still makin music, still makin millions and is one of the best out without a doubt. i got to see him in CT and he did his thing. so too bad for you cuz i dont see you gettin signed to The Roc and kickin it with Jay-Z THE BEST OUT!! period.

YOU NEVER GET TOO BIG TO FORGET ABOUT YOUR FANS!

PERIOD!

If you dumb fucks aint heard....

Kanye was late because one of the band members that performed before him had a heart attack and he was backstage trying to make sure the poor guy was gonna be okay. They didnt tell the audience because they didnt want people to freak out.

How yall feel now? Lets see...Selfish? maybe Ignorant? hmm or better yet Stupid?

twiggy - that is not true at all. you are an idiot. i was backstage with eddie vedder after the show. no one had any medical issues. i also know the person in charge of bonnaroo, nothing was wrong with anything besides kanye. this wasn't one of his shows. this was a show for the people. my morning jacket did a 4 hour set starting at midnight (on a side stage). metalica did a 3 hour set. chris rock did more time than kanye. he didnt have any music or stupid stage. he talked into a mic. and 4 times more people watched chris rock than kanye.

comedians at the tour talked about kanye on stage the next day. they had huge applause to even mention the words 'fuck kanye'

also, dont believe anything you read in any papers or mags about this. those are controlled by kanye's publicity team. only believe the stuff you hear from the people who were there.

pearl jam was the headliner that night. not kanye. they could have done anything they wanted. the amount of people in the crowd should prove that. pearl jam had at least 3 times more people watching them.

Dude, Kanye West was a huge disappointment. He did about 6 songs and left. I was there mainly to see him and was really put off. He had no energy - his eyes were closed during most of his performances. And he said nothing to the crowd. After all the drama of setting up that stage - he cut it short bcuz the sun came up. Sorry but the space theme was so cheesy and corny. He can do better. He owes us an apology. No one is too big for that even if he feels he had a good reason.

I think that you should put some manner of disclaimer. Something on the order of:

1) Pearl Jam is an awful band and douchey lead-singer Eddie Vedder was pretty clearly hammered throughout their set.

2) Metallica and it's fans are really awful people in general, and their racism-tinged taunts about Kanye were kind of hilarious in all their impotent glory.

3) Bonnaroo organisers are pretty desperate to appeal to every single possible demographic without any thought that crowds of drunk metal fans might spazz out at black performers.

4) Kanye clearly opened at dawn on purpose. His first song was "Good Morning" for a reason, you sops. For better or worse, the show was a unified concept, with the rapper forced into a place he didn't belong (the dusty fields of Bonnaroo described as a barren planet) and finishing his set with a song whose lyrics include "Y'all are lucky I'm even here" and "There's a thousand of you but only one me." Kanye was making an intentional joke about stardom and pop music.

and 5) THE POOR BOY HAS LOST HIS FUCKING MIND. When "Golddigger" started, I thought he was literally going to start fucking the screen. Insane, overblown, sci-fi inside jokes about the music business as performance is exactly what created punk music when done by prog-rockers.

Honestly how many of you have ever been on a stage and performed in front of thousands of people?
I have... It is not as easy as you all might think it is, then you throw in a crowd that is being disrespectful and you want leave as soon as you can..

I am not trying to defend Kanye I just want you all to understand how it feels from a performers side.

very interesting reading all of the comments. I am a fan of Kanye but I wasn't there. I would say though that whoever put him on the second stage to start with should take some of the blame. Also, at some point the people organizing this thing have to take some of the blame.
Look at these two facts.
1. They considered Kanye a second-tier performer.
2. They let him dictate the running order.
At some point someone should have said, "we're awfully sorry if you choose not to perform but we have to look at the big picture".

I understand that everybody is entitled to their own opinion but bringing Kanye West deceased mother in this is just wrong (LYNN EDWARDS). I have been to a few of his shows and ive met him in person and he really does truely care about his fans. Everytime I seen him he performed with so much passion and energy. Have you guys ever thought maybe he is still mourning over his mom? She was like his best friend. And his engagement just ended. He's not superman everything cant be perfect and he cant make everybody happy. I have a lot of respect for this man. Because even with all thats going on in his life he is still traveling the world to make his fans happy. If my mom died I wouldnt know what to do. And for you people that went to Bonnaroo and had the nerve to expect to get an apology from him after you guys disrespected his stage set up are just ridiculous and need a wake up call. You give respect to recieve it. But regardless if you guys hate him and will never be a "fan" again he will still make millions. He's one of the few good rappers still around. But obviously you guys werent true fans anyway because it should never be this easy to turn on someone.

ill just quote some of the artwork i saw on the walls around centeroo.

"fuck kanye"

I was among the disgruntled, booing fans at Kanye's show. I have never been more disappointed by a live performance. Had he come out and performed a kickass show, I would have been thrilled. But he came out and sang karaoke style to prerecorded tracks. I have never been more insulted as a music fan. His ego couldn't even stand to share the stage with a DJ. Give me a break. Someone should have told him Bonnarooers actually have taste. Anyone at the show who did not boo his ass needs to reevaluate their standards.

Twiggy is a fucking turd. A lot of us were backstage for the Pearl Jam set and nothing happened back there. No heart attack, no faints, no nothing. You must be tripping on acid or just too high. Or maybe you just thought of your father and wished it was him who had that heart attack.

Regardless, I waited until 0345 that morning. The rumors and the excuses: Pearl Jam took too long to remove thier set. False. Any great production team can dismantle a stage in under an hour. However, wouldn't Kanye's set be partially set-up behind PJ's? Duh! Kanye's hairdresser was not available. Possibly true - but what fucking hair does he have? Kanye's and Pearl Jam's stage crews ready to throw down? Very likely. However, if Kanye's stage crew couldn't set-up in time, that would still make him an hour late. One - Hour.

Even Prince at Coachella acknowledged the crowd for being an hour some late. But he played for nearly 2 hours (well past the curfew) including covers of Radiohead's Creep and Sarah McClaughlin's (SP) Angel.

Wow. Prince has more class than Kanye!

-What do you call a black groundhog?

Kanye West. He was poking his head outside his bus window periodically like a groundhog.

I do production at Bonnaroo, and have for the last three years. I just got out of there and flew home this morning only to see that this guy is blaming our crew (some of the best hands in the country) for his performance issues. Kuntye is by far the biggest diva we have ever had to deal with at Bonnaroo. Ever. Seven semis? Are you kidding me? It's not like he needed to build the damn stage; we already did that. We're talking backline and monstrous, heavy set pieces here, folks. I mean, he had more crap than Pearl Jam and Metallica put together. And from what I heard, he spent half the damn weekend trying to slink out of his contract. And we accomodated him in every way we could. That B stage (Which Stage) was good enough for Willie Nelson, Cypress HIll, the Flaming Lips... but not good enough for Kanye, apparently. That's OK. We want people to be comfortable. But you know what pissed us stagehands off the most? The disrespect he showed his band. We had to build a wing off the back of the stage so he could shove his band in there, far from the fans' eyes and appreciation. I guess there just wasn't enough room on that stage for his ego and his musicians. And that's not in keeping with the collaborative spirit of our festival, where Jimmy Page has jumped on stage with Ben Harper, Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty, etc, etc etc. Hell, we even had Jimi Hendrix's wah wah pedal making the rounds this year with some of our most junior acts on our smallest stages... in the spirit of collaboration. And Kanye hides his band? What kind of crap is that? RUDE. WRONG. UNBELIEVABLE. The blacklight thing was cool. Fine. It was cool. But gear doesn't make a musician. Willie Nelson could've played main stage with a single par can and a sock over his peculiars, and he'd have rocked it out harder than you did. I don't care if you have every light, bell and whistle in the industry; if you don't respect your band, your crew, your fans? You're doomed. No man is an island. And these stagehands that you treated like shit on your meteoric rise to fame? They're the same stagehands that are going to be humping your damn gear when you're washed up playing a Prudential Real Estate convention or casino down the road. And that day is coming, Kanye... keep acting like that, and I promise you that day is coming.
Thank you, Bonnaroovians, for your support. You're what it's all about... not Kanye. See you next year.

Ashley... on behalf of the road dogs, rogues and pirates that make it happen.

Ashley, quick question: Why were there so many bad, bad, bad sound problems this year?

Every single band I saw had some major issue: Battles mics were fucked up, MIA was having problems with bass, Broken Social Scene - the only ones with the balls to actually say something - were provided an out of tune keyboard and not enough amps.

Was this the result of a shitty crew or just the result of a good crew doing a shitty job?

I was there. Waiting and waiting.
I'm not sure it was totally Kanye's fault, but he didn't help matters. Pearl Jam ran late, so the crew had to pull down all the Pearl Jam stuff before Kanye's stuff could even come off the trucks. My wife and I watched the trucks from the VIP hill, it was a lot of stuff. But even if Pearl Jam had finished on time, Kayne still would have been an hour late. This means either the organizers didn't find out how long Pearl Jam takes to strike their set, or Kanye didn't know how long it takes to set up his.

My main problem is he is very weak live. Last year the Roots killed it! Black Thought can actually perform live. Kanye came off weak either too low or yelling and clipping. I hold him about a half notch above Diddy performance wise and a full notch lyrically.

Also the sound mix across the entire festival was really bad this year. The Bass guitar was cranked up way to high during the second half of Battles and all of Vampire Weekend. The What Stage PA was phasing in and out really bad.

I'M sorry that KanYe was sooo late for his show..i have waited 2hrs for a show to begin so I know the feeling... but don’t let one show spoil your thoughts of Ye.. he is one of the greatest out there now.. and sometimes life happens... if he didn’t say sorry i'm sure he was .. sorry and truly embarrassed.. KanYe is human and we all make mistakes... You learn from em and move on