Outside Lands Day 1: Kanye West rants like a petulant child

Photos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 8th-10th, 2014 //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival has graduated to the upper tier of festivals in its seventh year, selling out within 24 hours and packing in SF’s Golden Gate Park on Friday afternoon much earlier than past iterations. And for the first time, the Lands End main stage featured rap and electronic-oriented music, drawing a youthful crowd usually reserved for Justice or Pretty Lights at the Twin Peaks stage.

But more than imagined and expected, Friday’s headliner Kanye West showed that he behaves like a petulant child, launching into mini temper tantrums throughout the night, amidst an inspiring show the crowd was digging. His performance confirmed everything his detractors spout —- that he’s a narcissist to the point that he truly believes it’s a form of art.

Yes, I understand that this is what Kanye does. It was expected. It’s still a buzz kill, almost a tactical time killer.

“I want you to tell your kids about this night,” he said. This advice came amongst one of the four rants that cut off songs at their best moments, stopping all the natural momentum so Kanye could drop all sound and preach. It’s reminiscent of Andy Kaufman’s “challenge the audience” mentality, getting people to question why they came in the first place.

There were moments of complete crowd elation, but when the encore was over by 9:50 p.m. (10 minutes before last call), you have to ask, did he give it his all? Kanye is the ideal artist of this generation —- innovating to push the lines of contemporary pop while being completely self-absorbed.

Should Kanye give up the rants for the sake of entertainment or will you be telling your kids about it? Leave a comment with your favorite rant line, your top show of the day, a link to your photos or video.

“Imma need y’all to make a bigger circle!”