“It’s hard to say what went wrong. At times it felt like two solo shows attempting awkwardly to become one, with Big Boi doing the bulk of the heavy lifting – and Shutterbugg, one of his solo tracks, received one of the best receptions of the night. Andre 3000 repeatedly asked the crowd “You still here?” and “Are y’all alive?”, which suggests that perhaps he knew something wasn’t connecting. By the time Hey Ya! came around in a depressingly unceremonious finale, he appeared to have given up.”
That’s Rebecca Ferguson of the Guardian reporting that the Outkast show kinda sucked. I saw him circa “Bombs Over Baghdad” perform a terriffic set at a packed to the gills Theater Of Madison Square Garden, with Ludacris, who was also on the money, opening. And while I kinda lost interest even before they broke up, and haven’t been thrilled by either Big Boi or Andre 3000’s subsequent solo career, I’ve been more than anticipating the Governors Ball gigs later this year, But now? I dunno guy, it seems like there may be a problem.
Despite Outkast being more like two solo acts working in tandem than a group, especially towards the end, and when you’re not working well together it is worse than working separately. Or as Rebecca put it: “But perhaps people only wanted to hear an act that had been worth waiting 12 years for. That wasn’t what they got in the Coachella valley.”
