How Nice Should You Be To Your Opening Act? West And Lamar Did Not Bond

Ken And Kan

Here’s a story for y’all. I went to see John Fogerty in the 1990s at Radio City Music Hall, Whiskeytown were the opening band and Ryan Adams stopped the show to announced the band was thrown off the tour and what a pity it is when one of your heroes turns out to be an asshole.

A couple of years ago, Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus called out the Pogues for being rude and unfriendly who even spoke to them on tour. Spider told us that Patrick was being silly, that isn’t the way it works.

And now here is this story from a profile of the extremely overated Kendrick Lamar by Lizzy Goodman in the New York Times, she wrote this about the one time they met (as reported in gigwise):

“As the two men greeted each other, their respective posses fell back – except for Lamar’s videographer and his counterpart in West’s camp, both of whom acted as if this was the moment they’d been waiting for all tour. They traced a tight circle around the men, lenses open to capture every word of a conversation that lasted less than 30 seconds. The two rappers embraced, then Lamar paused, allowing West to proceed down the hallway first, before continuing to the stage to play his set. It’s tempting to imagine that tour partnerships between an established star and an up-and-comer result in lots of communal bonding… But a mentor-mentee relationship wasn’t what was expected or desired, and it certainly was not what was happening.”

Well, my first comment is obvious, I was at the gig and Kendrick got his head handed to him by West.  It should have been called. Lamar may be a lot of things but he ain’t ready for Arenas by a long shot. So my take is, what does Lamar want West to do? Tell him to come and visit when he grows up. And my second comment is, I prefer both Earl and Chance and I don’t dislike Lamar at all but there is something a little bland about him.

Finally, Patrick was wrong. If you are the warming act, shut up and warm and if you did it well (Patrick did it very well: he was hysterical that night, telling the audience, on St. Patrick’s Day, at a Pogues, to drink sensibly) perhaps the band will say thank you. In 2014, if the headliner isn’t charging you, you are one step ahead of the crowd.