Andre 3000, left, and Big Boi of hip hop group Outkast perform behind a screen during their headlining set on the first day of the 2014 Coachella Music and Arts Festival on Friday, April 11, 2014, in Indio, Calif. (AP Photo)
Andre 3000 and Big Boi reunited as OutKast for the first time in a long time Friday night at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
It’s the first of dozens of dates the Atlanta hip-hop duo has booked.
Now, the world was watching OutKast at Coachella on YouTube and the world of Coachella was watching it in person. There are wildly different reviews out there about the set.
Here’s what I can tell you about how it went down. (I curated what other folks were saying about the show further down).
-Everyone with the Coachella app got an alert early in the day that OutKast was going to go on earlier than scheduled. The new start time was 11:05 p.m., 25 minutes ahead of the announced 11:30 p.m. time.
-Colleague Luke Ramseth and I met up and staked out a spot about 20 minutes before the new start time. The field was filling up and we were about 2/3 of the way back. More and more people kept coming in. It was a very full field.
-The new start time passes and no OutKast. We were far back so I couldn’t see what was going on. They ended up on stage just after the original 11:30 p.m. start time and gave a blistering performance of “Bombs Over Baghdad” that brought energy and liveliness to the set. People were excited, they were into it.
-The set goes on and that excitement starts to fizzle. At one point Big Boi addresses why they’re walking around a table in a circle–it’s how they used to write rhymes at his aunt’s house, walking around a kitchen table.
-The horn section is the most lively addition to the set and brightens the songs throughout. People around us in the back were dancing hard and singing along for the next three songs or so, but then the set list starts to fizzle a little bit. Some people start leaving, not unusual for a headliner set and anyone who has sat in the parking lots of Coachella for 2.5 hours after a day of music. (2008, Prince, I think it was 5 a.m. when I finally got back to the hotel), but it seems like it’s a steadier stream than usual.
-Enter special guest Janelle Monae and her hit “Tightrope.” She was like James Brown up there. Monae performed at Coachella in 2013. The horn section is still awesome. This gives the set an adrenaline shot. She tells the crowd they are witnessing history. At some point we find out Prince is in the audience.
-The set starts to fizzle again. It feels like there’s a disconnect with the audience. More people start leaving. It reminded me a little bit of The Cure back in 2009. After Paul McCartney played a record-breaking 3 hour set on Friday night, The Killers shot off fireworks on Saturday night and then The Cure wrapped the show. I was in for about 10 songs and they weren’t playing anything I was dying to hear and it was more of a mellow-paced set. I think the same thing happened tonight. It wasn’t that the music was lousy–it wasn’t. It was just an odd set list.
Here’s what Setlist.FM has listed as the playlist.
It’s just like when you created that perfect mixtape for someone special. You want to kick it off high, but also have a build. I think the set started out at that high level, but then dipped low. Monae brought it up slightly, but instead of building to a crescendo, it just dipped and flattened out again. “Ghetto Musick” should have been a high point below Monae, but it seemed a little flat, like Big Boi wasn’t into it. We left out during “Behold a Lady,” a few songs after Monae.
I also think part of it is that there wasn’t the flash of Paul McCartney’s pyrotechnics or a Kanye West crane and dozens of ballet dancers. When there’s a hyped performance, much like OutKast’s reunion was, I think there’s a higher expectation for that pizzazz and being trapped in a box like mimes probably wasn’t it (It didn’t come across on the video screens well for those in the back.)
That being said, I am interested in seeing what Outkast does next week, because I think a simple set list restructure could give more boost to this set.