Kanye West Does Right by Coachella, Shows Up on Time and Rocks the Desert

When Kanye West was announced as the Sunday night headliner at this year's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., we were dubious, to say the least. In 2008, we were present for his Bonnaroo debacle -- well, kind of. At about 4AM, with the hot Tennessee dawn a little over an hour away, when the crowd started chanting "Kanye sucks" and without any clear indication of when (or if) his show would ever begin, we I left Centeroo -- the main area in festival grounds -- and retired to our tent.

West finally took the stage at about 4:30, and by all accounts, it wasn't his finest hour as a performer. The reason the superstar rapper was shifted from an earlier slot to 2:45AM was to accommodate the light show of his 'Glow in the Dark' tour. His late arrival meant he still ended up running into the sun, and by the time dawn arrived, most of the crowd (myself included) had already left, disappointed, and those who stayed were not amused.

Following the fiasco, West blamed Bonnaroo and Pearl Jam, who directly preceded him (and rocked) on the main stage. So, did he fair any better at Coachella? West, it seems, brought his A-game to the festival, delivering "a fantastic, provocative, carefully crafted spectacle," according to the Atlantic.

"As entertainment, West's set was captivating, a festival performance unlike any other, and one that often showcased the artist and the artist alone on a minimal stage," the L.A. Times raved.

While the inarguably talented West would likely be the last person to admit he learned his lesson at Bonnaroo, it's worth noting that the reviews indicate that everything, right down to his staging, was developed to avoid the failures of his 2008 festival appearance.

At Bonnaroo, West's stage was elaborate -- a mock-up of an alien, rock-strewn planet with abundant lights and video screens. The set was clearly a major reason for his nearly two-hours-late arrival, and the rapper admitted as much, blaming Pearl Jam for running over. "My production manager tried to load in for 24 hours before I went on stage but the festival wouldn't allow us to do anything until Pearl Jam left the stage. Pearl Jam ended one hour late," West wrote on his blog.

The star's late arrival caused fans to toss trash and bottles at his stage, which he claims broke one of his video screens.

Kanye West Performs 'Runaway' at Coachella

At Coachella, things were different. "This was not, in short, the kind of set one typically sees from one of the world's biggest stars," the L.A. Times writes. "West came to Coachella to work, to do away with any sideshows, and instead to get straight down to business. It was a brave statement -- a take-me-or-leave-me-type assertion with a carefully laid-out set list. This was far from playing it safe, as the Strokes had earlier done with a set that was heavy on past hits."

West brought a different sort of extravaganza to Coachella. If the stage was largely bare, he made up for it with his dancers, "of which there were easily more than 20, they were not used for show-off choreography purposes, and instead served as a Greek chorus, following the star's command, or writhing on the floor from song to song. ... They moved in fear or panic of West during the tense 'Power,' and later were seen gripping their heads in pain. By the time the set got to 'Runaway,' West found himself with a group of wayward ballerinas, seemingly caught in some sort of magnetic push and pull from the artist," according to the Times.

And when the show came to a close, West and his instrumentalists, dancers and guests Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Pusha T. assembled on stage for a bow. "It was an acknowledgment that the show was as theatrical as it was musical, and that it took a team to pull off," the Atlantic admits. "And yet West stood in the center, dressed in a red against the taupe and white of his comrades, remaining the focal point to the end."