Bonnaroo Debacle

I've always found Kanye West annoying. Just like I find the Beastie Boys annoying. Not that I'm dogging their music style or creativity- I just find them annoying as people, not artists.

That being said, when I was on Digg earlier today and saw a link titled "The Top Ten Reasons Why Kanye West Is a Douche" I had to read further. I agreed with most of the list, but what I found most interesting were the posts people had left under the "top ten." Multiple people were complaining about what happened at Bonnaroo 2008.

Now, I haven't kept up with Bonnaroo since I last attended in 2006, but this festival is by far the most personal to me. Anyone who attends this festival loves music... well, and most love drugs and the 60's... but everyone loves music. Not the kind of "love" that you see from most people at other festivals. These fans know the life history of any major rock musician, the key the song is written in, side projects, obscure recordings, the background story of why songs were written. They're intense fans. They intimidate me.

Reading what Kanye did (demanding he would be the last show of the night, refusing to start until all other artists stopped playing, making fans wait almost 2 hours to begin his set, etc) infuriated me. It's bad enough to do that at any festival, but that should never be done at Bonnaroo.

My conclusion: I have lost respect for Kanye as a person and as an artist. The Beastie Boys still annoy me.