Photo: Robyn Beck/Getty Images
G.O.O.D. Music showcase feat. Kanye West, John Legend, Mos Def, Pusha T, Big Sean, Prince Cyni, Mr. Hudson, Kid Cudi
Seaholm Power Plant/Vevo Power Station SXSW, Austin, TX
March 20, 2011
Aural Highlight: The final improvised duet between an auto-tuned West and Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon during the outro to “Lost in the World.”
Obligatory Viral Moment: During his guest appearance in the first encore, Jay-Z forgot the words to his verse on “Swagger Like Us,” leading him to instead take a solo turn on “Public Service Announcement.”
Visual Highlight: The emergence of the full marching band that accompanied West during “All of the Lights.”
Best Show Ever Index: 78% (78 out of 100 attendees would say this was the best show ever.)
They could have sold tickets for a fortune but in the spirit of SXSW, entry to Vevo’s G.O.O.D. Music showcase was free — just impossibly hard to obtain. The lineup was epic, a Last Waltz-style bill boasting every artist under Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music umbrella. While announced guest Common didn’t end up making an appearance, guest spots by Jay-Z and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon more than covered for him. In short, you had a good handful of the most popular rappers alive, a decommissioned power plant as the venue and a snaking line of hopefuls dying to get in. For those who did, it was one hell of a night to remember.
Performances by the undercard acts were fairly pedestrian, but the script flipped awfully quick when West took over. Leading off with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘s first two tracks, West brought it on “Dark Fantasy” and was joined by Cudi on “Gorgeous,” before calling out Pusha T and John Legend for the G.O.O.D. Fridays single “Christian Dior Denim Flow.” Legend stayed onstage for the next several songs — Fantasy‘s “Blame Game” and Legend’s own “Ordinary People” — while Kanye prepped one of several costume changes. Emerging from offstage in a red tailored suit to tear through “Power,” it was hard not to recall a boast West made on his VH1 Storytellers appearance: “I am so disappointed that I will never see me perform!”
The night was an exercise in building to ever-ascending heights, with climax after climax. Emotionally, the show seemed to peak during “Runaway.” Sonically, things got more interesting afterwards when he brought out a full marching band for “All of the Lights”; on a pure star-power tip, the emergence of Jay-Z for “H.A.M.,” the first single off of Kanye and Jigga’s forthcoming Watch the Throne collaboration, was untouchable; and when it came to capturing sonic experimentation and, arguably, emotion, bringing out Justin Vernon to sing — and improvise the ending to — Fantasy‘s closer, “Lost in the World,” was hard to beat.
West is free to do whatever the hell he wants and on Saturday night, there were about 2,000 fans who didn’t mind.
