Kendrick Lamar, Surprise Killers Set End Life Is Beautiful on High Note
As Run the Jewels, the rap duo of El-P and Killer Mike, walked onstage at day three of Life Is Beautiful singing along to Queen’s “We Are the Champions,” Mike declared, “We’re gonna burn this stage to the motherf—ing ground, Las Vegas!”
That kind of set the tone for the whole of day three, which saw the festival wrap up with an explosive finale that saw a surprise set by the Killers (joining frontman Brandon Flowers for his scheduled appearance), one of EDM’s hottest acts Knife Party, and the highly anticipated headliner, Kendrick Lamar.
During its three days, Life Is Beautiful didn’t feature a lot of event-esque collaborations or surprise appearances, so it was only fitting that hometown hero Flowers upped the ante considerably by bringing out his bandmates halfway through his set on Sunday.
Following a six-song solo set that included “Can’t Deny My Love,” “Lonely Town,” and “Still Want You,” Flowers invited his Killers up for a six-song greatest-hits set, starting with “Mr. Brightside” and climaxing with an anthemic rendition of “When You Were Young.” Seeing the city’s other local heroes, along with Saturday headliners Imagine Dragons, was just the jolt of energy the crowd needed to ramp back up after two and a half days of music, food, and art.
At the same time, Run the Jewels were metaphorically delivering on their promise to burn the stage to the motherf—ing ground, starting with their namesake song. RTJ have been another fan favorite at festivals this year, and with good reason: The duo delivers nonstop energy, and they kept the massive LIB crowd pumping hands in the air almost the entire time, despite the Vegas heat still being near triple digits around 7:30 p.m.
Run the Jewels would have been a perfect segue into Lamar’s set with their energy, but keeping with the diversity that ran through the festival all weekend, before Lamar took the stage, longtime alternative favorites Weezer and Death Cab for Cutie delivered hit-laden sets that pleased their many admirers, so much so that fans crowd-surfed during “Say It Ain’t So.”
On the alternative side, Walk the Moon and the always fun St. Motel were the champions when it came to enthusiasm. The former started the party from the outset with “Jenny.” Then just to make clear how much the band intended to turn this into a celebration, frontman Nicholas Petricca brought the crowd right into the set. “We would like to get our set started off nice and fresh; can we get everyone to jump?” he asked, getting a rousing yes from the excited throngs.
The night’s headliner and festival closer, Lamar, brought energy from the start, jumping into “Money Tree” with a guest appearance by Top Dawg Entertainment mate Jay Rock. Lamar proved again and again, on songs such as “F—ing Problems,” “m.A.A.d city,” and “King Kunta,” why he has emerged as one of the top rappers in the game today. He closed out the three-day event with “Alright.”
With that, Life Is Beautiful said goodbye for another year, having delivered on all the fun and musical highlights one expects to get from a three-day party in Vegas.
photos: Getty Images
