Summer Ends Music Festival went down this past weekend in Tempe, Arizona and it will go down as one of the best festivals we’ve been to all year. We managed to check out part of the Saturday festivities and all of Sunday. All of the performers we came out to see exceeded our expectations and put on great shows in 100-plus degree weather.
J. Cole
We managed to get to the festival on Saturday just in time to check out J. Cole’s headlining set in front of a very large crowd. We were hoping to get close to the stage, but that crowd was jam packed. J. Cole came out shortly after we arrived rocking an ASU jersey, which surely made the local crowd very happy. This was our third time seeing Cole this year and it was just as great as the other times we saw him perform. As he had been doing on his recent tour, Cole went through many of his 2014 Forest Hills Drive tracks. He saved the rest of his hits to close out the show.
Vic Mensa
Vic Mensa had a very early set on the last day of the festival, but he put on a very good performance. Vic ran through recent tracks that may or may not appear on Traffic, songs off of Innanetape and some covers, as we had expected. Vic’s performance of “U Mad” was a definite highlight of his set, which he would top later that night.
Pusha T
One of the acts we were most excited to see was Pusha T since we hadn’t seen him perform in quite some time. We were holding a pretty good spot in front of the East Stage, so it was good to finally see someone perform in front of our stage. Pusha ran through many of his features with GOOD Music, a majority of his My Name Is My Name album and even some old Clipse classics. He didn’t perform any new material, but we are sure that he will be releasing something soon.
Chance The Rapper
By this point of the festival, the crowd was starting to get really packed. Chance and the Social Experiment opened up his set with some Acid Rap joints, but then proceeded to ask if there were any 10 Day fans in the crowd. As soon as he found out he had some die hard fans in the crowd, he went on to perform songs like “Hey Ma” and “Brain Cells.” Best part of his set was his cover of Kanye’s “Family Business.” It will surely be a hit on his forthcoming Family Matters Tour.
Travis Scott
Travis Scott has quickly become one of the best performers in all of Hip Hop and he proved that with his Summer Ends set. Don’t believe us, check out the image above. That’s just what you can come to expect from one of his shows. Travis went through some of his older material and new tracks off of Rodeo like “Antidote.” The crowd was pretty much jumping throughout his entire set.
Kanye West
Kanye West, the man of the hour on Sunday night, hit the stage shortly after 8:30pm local time. By this point of the show, our crew separated due to the craziness throughout Travis Scott’s set. Yeezy has an endless catalog and can probably perform a variety of different sets and they would all be very dope. Kanye ran through some tracks off of all of his albums and some of the highlights were his performances of “Stronger,” “Jesus Walks,” “Don’t Like” and many more. We were hoping for some surprise appearances and we got just what we hoped for. Kanye brought out Vic Mensa early in his set for a very lit performance of “U Mad,” which topped Vic’s performance earlier that day. Ye’s second secret guest of the night was Travis Scott. They went on to give the crowd the very first performance of “Piss On Your Grave” off of Scott’s Rodeo. We will definitely be making the trip back to Tempe next year.
