Coachella: Kendrick Lamar
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This show I attended was Kendrick Lamar’s closing set on Day Three of Coachella Weekend Two. Kendrick went on around 11:30 and I knew that I wanted to see him more than anyone that day. From what we learned from the days prior is that if a huge artist is headlining, the smart route to go is to get a spot in front of the stage at least an hour early. When I had gotten to the stage Kendrick would be performing at, there was a good amount of people there already. The stage Kendrick was performing at was the “Coachella Stage”, which was outdoor, and was the stage anyone headlining was performing at. Since we had gotten to the stage early, we decided to sit on the- very dead- grass and relax. We had been in the venue since 3pm that afternoon, and as I looked around it seemed as if everyone else had the same idea as we did. As time started to get closer and closer more people had started to accumulate.
11:30pm struck and Kendrick was on stage. For a strange reason, I hadn’t noticed how many people were actually there to watch Kendrick until I had gotten up and realized how far we were from the stage. His set was comical, for a lack of a better word. It was interesting because he had a theme to his performance. In between each song, a little comic popped up on the graphics behind him. It was karate themed, so in the background there would be short action clips of him and a mysterious ninja battling in the back. The graphics were not only of him fighting a ninja, I think his intentions were to tell a story using the graphics. What I noticed was that a lot people were trying to snapchat and record his set. I had an actual encounter with a girl who stood right next to me, trying to record his entire set. I remember watching snapchat stories the next morning of people trying to record performers while they were on stage performing. I would not go as far to say that everyone there was on their phone, but I am somewhat confident that a good amount of people were either taking pictures, recording, texting, or tweeting. What I found to be true at this show was that this generation is very involved with their phones and social media, and needing to post about where they are at all times. I will also admit that there were many people who were on drugs that weekend. I remember sitting outside that same Coachella stage around 4pm to watch Local Natives and I remember seeing a girl standing by herself while her friends were sitting on the floor. What made her stood out to me was that she was dancing awfully funny and uncoordinatedly. After looking away for a moment, I glance back over to see her doing yoga with a strange male with long hippie hair. I personally do not like using me phone while watching a performer because I know how distracted I can get with my phone, but usually I am fairly good at keeping it away at sets. I just feels as if I wouldn’t be getting the full experience. Truthfully recording the set and having it “forever”, I will most likely never watch that video again, but I will remember the moments of physically being there. I remember the happy feeling of singing “Money Trees” with thousands of strangers, and getting so excited to hear “H.U.M.B.L.E.” live. I remember walking away from his set to get ice cream from the “AFTERS” booth, thinking that his set was over, when out of no where-10 minutes later- he started singing “LOVE.”. “LOVE.” Is one of my favorite songs on his new album, so I was over the moon with his performance. I will admit that there was so many people, that I barely saw him physically, but I enjoyed his execution in his performance so much, that the fact that I could not see him did not even bother me. |