Ni**as in Paris – Jay Z and Kanye West

“Thank you for loving me when they told you not to love me”

Last night Kanye played an intimate show at the Museum of Modern Art to about a thousand lucky lucky (and paying) fans. The show was their annual Party in the Garden. Yeah Yeah Yeahs played last year.  (And Nick Zinner was there last night watching from the side.)

As the crowd came in, my friends and I played a game we affectionately called “here for Kanye or here for MoMA” and as the artsy or stuffy or cool (there were very few of these kind)  walked by, we’d shout “Kanye” or “MoMA.” It felt like a bad yuppie prom for the first few hours but when he came on stage, that all changed. Amazing, amazing show.

While I expected 5-7 songs at most, the 1.5 hour set included some of his best older hits mixed with favorite tracks off the new album: Power, All of the Lights, Jesus Walks, Gold Digger, Flashing Lights, Hell of a Life, and my favorite song of the night, Runaway – which he brought out a mixer for, to the front of the stage- and extended the “piano” intro of the 9 minute track.

Kanye came on about 11 and played past 12:30 with the encore bringing out a surprise – Jay Z,  for “Empire State of Mind” whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttt.

My favorite anthem of last year:

Kanye West- Power

And seeing this live again brought back how truly amazing this track is:

Kanye West- Jesus Walks

MSTRKRFT

There were certain bands this weekend that really confirmed “yeah, this is so worth it,” despite the mud swamps and the cold rain on Friday and again on Sunday.  Namely the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Crystal Castles, MSTRKRFT, Lykke Li and La Roux.

I’ve always felt partial to male frontmen, but this weekend really showed how f’ing amazing women leads can be.

Karen O. is an absolute rock goddess. Her on-stage antics and thrusts are exactly how I would want to rock out if I could sing.

We were FRONT ROW for Lykke Li. She kept doing this bad ass move of punching her chest, and I kept thinking “YES.”

La Roux was the reason I made myself get up to go on Sunday. Two songs that certainly stood out from her performance were “Bulletproof” and “In For the Kill.” I also felt complete after finally seeing her red-headed poof (that I admire so much), in person.

And lastly, seeing MSTRKRFT and Crystal Castles. MSTRKRFT is just ridiculous.  I only caught three songs, sadly, because we were coming back from Jay-Z, but they absolutely live up to the hype. And as for Crystal Castles, Alice Glass scared the crap out of me, and I loved every minute of it.

xx sl

Lykke Li

Katie White of The Ting Tings

Caroline Polachek of Chairlift

sl’s Top 5:

1. La Roux
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. Ra Ra Riot (already seen them, but I still can’t wait)
4. Lykke Li
5. Elbow

kc’s Top 5:

1. Jay-Z
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. Lykke Li
4. Gogol Bordello
5. Arctic Monkeys (already seen them, but excited to hear new material)

…and who I am NOT excited to see — The Honey Brothers.