Frank Ocean Band • Page 36

yes it is

 

I hope everyone who planned to see Frank makes the time to see our real elusive king: Jai Paul.

 

Still can’t believe Coachella was his first live performance. Music was louder than the vocals, so hoping this weekend it’s fixed for the streams.

 

Still sounded really great. I really enjoyed watching him get over his nerves on stage and finish the set smiling!

 

Can’t wait to see GQ try and post another positive spin on this.

“actually, his lack of performance in weekend two really was a powerful artistic message about blah blah blah “

 

The Rolling Stone article yesterday had me eye-rolling big time. I know what Frank's publicist sent them. They paraphrased a list of bullet points and posted it. All set up for Frank to cancel—I'm assuming with a medical clause that absolves him of fines for doing so.

 

I do not know what happened. However, there are plenty of festivals that try to secure livestream rights via really broad clauses in contracts that allow for them to do a variety of things with NIL and performance footage that require mutual creative approval. These include livestreams and set recordings for future promotional use. It's very common for artists to not agree with this use when push comes to shove, and generally they are under no obligation to agree to it. I have seen it happen dozens of times, and been on the receiving end of an artist deciding they didn't want to allow a festival to share their set at the last minute. It has happened dozens of times over the years to the Coachella livestream specifically.

So yeah, "Frank pulled the plug at the last minute" is certainly one (reductive) way to look at the livestream, and it fits the overarching narrative from last weekend of Frank Ocean the Difficult Artist. But in truth it isn't at all aligned with the business realities of how these things tend to work... yes, in my experience.

The livestream being removed before the show is a completely different situation from his personal responsibility to a paying audience. I haven't seen the videos but it sounds like he put on a sloppy performance, which is unfortunate. (It should probably also be priced into fans' choice to buy a ticket to see him at this point, which is sad.)

 

It really seems like this whole debacle is destroying Frank's "mysterious" image and revealing to the general public how pretentious and greedy he really is. I know I sound like I hate the guy in this thread but I do really love his music, but I've been sick of his bullshit for years now and this is just the cherry on top. Hilarious that he's trying to go with the injury angle when he was clearly jumping around no problem during his aux-cord "performances" of Nikes and Nights, when this cancellation is clearly because he thought he could shit out that half-assed set and still be worshipped like a god but was proven wrong

I think he has some serious making up to do now, he's getting dangerously close to Lauryn Hill territory in the eyes of the public with the reputation for never releasing music and not giving a fuck about their fans or performing live. I wouldn't be surprised if he uses it as an excuse to disappear for a year or two again though


... I promise I am a huge Frank Ocean fan

 

the paper-thin medical issue/injury excuse is truly embarrassing. I've never been a massive fan but like, bro, we saw you on stage jumping around, something I'm fairly sure you can't do with two fractures and a sprain even hopped up on adrenaline. come on.

 

Especially since performers often perform with other injuries. I’d understand if he wasn’t already at Coachella, but he’s literally there. Travel is not an issue. He just doesn’t want to perform, and his excuse is as good as the type you’d use to get out of gym class.

The issue is transparency. If he wasn’t performing due to anxiety or such I’d completely respect it. But he’s just making up a reason and not even trying to hide it?

 

i will say that separate from from the frank situation i think that while it’s cool artists like lucy and dave have gone out of their way to provide a great show in spite of injury, i think it’s a dangerous thing to always expect artists to perform through health issues

 

Yeah ignoring injuries can lead to chronic pain

 

Adrianne Lenker has also gone through tons of shows with back problems, sometimes sitting for entire sets in a chair.

 

I 100% agree with the sentiment outside of Frank, like you say. I actually don’t think artists should really be performing with serious injuries whilst they are healing. And I don’t think the audience benefits either.

 

Love his music but what a joke he is at this point.

 

Dude needs to show up and play like 10 shows at 400 cap rooms and prove he can show up/put on a show before ever being booked for a festival again

 

New Homer radio on Apple radio rn. Can’t wait for Frank’s tearful apology and acknowledging his mistakes and dropping new /s

 

God damn a 400 cap Frank Ocean show sounds insane.

 

If it’s anxiety based it’s not a bad idea. He basically needs to start doing unannounced surprise sets.

 

Absolutely tremendous writing:

https://www.theringer.com/music/202...n-coachella-festival-weekend-1-2-cancellation

 

Genuinely.

Worth noting that Jeff has been covering Frank for his entire career. Here's an interview he did with him in 2011.

 

damn, Jeff Weiss does not miss. Love this piece

 

“…There are organic garden–variety millennials, too, who have spent countless hours weeping to sexually fraught divorce music for dorm rooms, whose sense of identity was forged from the communal pain of generational dislocation, screen-damaged nostalgia, and social media self-immolation.”

How dare they pin me down with this 100% accurate description.

 

I wish I could get paid 4 million dollars to suck at my job