I produced the last concert OutKast did in NYC, probably the last one they’ll ever do. Someone just sent me this pic from that night at the PlayStation Theater, October 1, 2014, and it brought the memories flooding back. OutKast was on their farewell tour. They had been playing enormous festivals all summer and, at a capacity of 2100, this was, by a factor of 10 or more, the smallest venue on the tour. I think everyone in the room knew that, by the time the month ended, it would be the end of one of the all-time great live acts, a band that had annihilated every category, every radio format, every idea of what a music act could be. They were in New York; the band, after months on the road, was as tight as a crab’s ass; Andre 3000 had checked out but he wasn’t going out like a sucker. It was smashy-smashy time.
This was one of those nights when the right band in the right room in front of the right crowd can just seem to levitate right off the stage and take everybody with them. Thanks, guys. We needed that.
We don’t do this work for the reflected glory (at least I don’t). I just love the music and I love to share it. That said, every now and then people make the association of me with that magic. I’ve produced literally thousands of events, concerts, TV shows, etc. and none of them have delivered me more juice than this one. I’ll be out at night and that large slab of beef guarding the door at a club will slip me and my friends inside or someone wants to buy me a drink or just give me a pound (I have even had taxi drivers refuse to take my money because they listen to me on the radio when they’re driving, but that’s another story). I am usually too gracious to do anything other than say “Thank you” and let them know that I know that they know. The point is that audience members at this show had a transformative, perhaps mystical, experience. They were beyond words. I still am.