FUSE TV - Kanye West Blows The Roof Off 'Yeezus' At Bonnaroo 2014

When it was announced that Kanye West would be headlining Bonnaroo 2014, the question marks and exclamation points came in equal measure. That's bad-ass! But wasn't there drama the last time he played the festival? Yeezus is the best! Yeezus makes for an incredible live show, but how's that going to work in a festival setting? He's been touring behind Yeezus a ton already! Will we hear anything new at Bonnaroo? The verdict was that Kanye would be making a triumphant return to Bonnaroo; we just had no idea how that was going to go, from the set list to the rants and raves in between songs to the landscape of his stage. And honestly? We had no idea if this was going to end with Kanye and Bonnaroo coming to blows over a major performance again.

Dramatic, elaborate, cinematic—these are all adjectives that were thrown around when it came to putting Kanye's massive production behind Yeezus into words in 2013 an 2014. (Jack White described it as "more punk, more in-your-face" than anything he'd ever seen.) As the stage isn't merely just a platform to prance on for Kanye, his live show needed a compact makeover, one that didn't require a zillion hours of construction time and lighting tests for 2014's festival season. He tested this post-Yeezus creation at the X-Games, where it was noted that the dark, angular, industrial look of Yeezus was retained and scaled down, with giant monitors and LCD displays illuminated with cascading waterfalls, passing clouds or a uniform wash of blood red. The giant Pride Rock-esque structure that took up a hefty portion of any given arena he headlined was replaced with a few rocks near the stage. Yeezus needed to think smaller and succeeded, and it did so just in time for Bonnaroo. (Vampire Weekend, who held Bonnaroo's main stage before Kanye, weren't exactly going to get all "Kwassa Kwassa" around a bunch of apocalyptic, mountainous formations in order to accommodate Yeezus' set requirements, especially when their own spread involves floor-to-ceiling floral background and a giant mirror.)