The Bonnaroo boobirds were out in full force for Kanye West this weekend.
The Grammy winner walked onto the festival stage nearly two hours past his scheduled 2:45 a.m. performance time Sunday morning and was greated by bleary-eyed fans' chorus of boos and chants of "Kanye sucks."
West was originally set to kick things off at 8:15 p.m., but because he wanted to make the most of his Glow-in-the-Dark Tour's lighting show, the hip-hopster's camp asked to push back the gig to 2:45 a.m. following Pearl Jam's show.
However, the Seattle grunge rockers' gig lasted an hour longer than planned, with Eddie Vedder and bandmates not wrapping until 1:15 a.m. Then there was an extended break while Pearl Jam's roadies disassembled the band's stage and West's crew set up his own elaborate backdrop, a glow-in-the-dark spaceship along with undulating black platform and raised video screen.
Organizers posted a message via Jumbotron that the "Can't Tell Me Nothing" rapper wouldn't be taking the stage until 3:15 a.m., then 3:30. When 4:15 a.m. rolled around and still no West, the antsy crowd began hurling glow sticks at the stage and screaming anti-West sentiments. Bonnaroo officials didn't help the matter, not informing festivalgoers why the changeover was taking so long.
West finally made his entrace at 4:30 a.m., but by then, many exhausted attendees had had enough and returned to their tents.
Apparently, they didn't miss too much.
Judging by online reviews, West's performance didn't stand out from the 150 acts performing at the four-day musical campout. In fact, it was a yawner.
"He was two hours late, cut his show short, didn't once acknowlegde the crowd that waited two hours on an already late show, not even a wave goodbye...I'm no longer a Kanye fan, huge disappointment," one fan wrote at the music blog
Stereogum.com.
"It's not the stage hands' fault; that stage was set up for well over an hour before Kanye decided to grace us with his presence," wrote another attendee on
VillageVoice.com. "The next time he holds that finger up and proclaims himself as #1, I hope someone tells him what he can do with that finger."
Per festival reports, West failed to even acknowledge his tardiness.
The bad vibes carried over to Sunday's daytime slate, when during his set pedal-steel guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph groused about West's behavior, prompting fans to reprise the "Kanye sucks" chant.
There was no immediate comment from the West camp.
Over & Out,
T.Urban
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