Saturday Afternoon Diversions: Radiohead + Fireworks = Minds Blown and Kanye Kills

By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Nov 29, 2008 10:05PM

We're getting on towards the end of the year and as we mark the things we're thankful for, one of them is Lollapalooza. Year after year it leaves us with some jaw-dropping performances that make it worth all the sweat and crowds and this year, there were several more that will enter the Lolla Hall of Fame, but we're going to focus on two for now.

While reviews of the Radiohead set seemed lukewarm (though ours was favorable), it was worth it for the following segment alone: during the performance of the songs "Everything in its Right Place" and "Fake Plastic Trees," fireworks from the Chicago Bears Family Day at Soldier Field exploded high above the stage and created one of the most memorable moments not only of this year's edition of the fest, but perhaps of any edition. While the quality of the below video isn't the best, it's still pretty good and gives you a good idea of how things looked.

While that got the fest off to a rousing start, hometown rapper Kanye West brought the house down on Sunday night. While Tankboy and the other rockers were on the other side of the park for Nine Inch Nails, myself and several other Chicagoist staffers were front and center for Kanye. And no one left disappointed. At the time, we said:

We've been apologists of sorts for Mr. West, dismissing his antics as secondary to his amazing artistic output and we hoped for an equally stunning performance. What we got, instead, was something transcendent. While his backing band was dressed in black to blend in to the background, Kanye took the stage by himself with no assistance from hypemen or collaborators and for the next ninety minutes stalked, danced, and crawled across the stage. He would sink or swim by himself, on his talents alone. In the end, he didn't swim; he flew...Barking lyrics with more ferocity than we could ever imagine, West gave it his all and even the haters would have a hard time finding fault with his performance. During a spoken interlude in "Touch the Sky," he admitted that he was striving to be "the best in the world," but also copped to not being there yet. After last night's performance, we consider him a few steps closer.

Four month and several dozen spins of Kanye's new LP later, we stand by this assessment. People can continue to criticize him for his antics, but we like to focus on the output. Kanye FTW!