MILES: I figure the best way to start is to open with a sort of base line of how we felt. So I haven’t seen Kanye since the infamous Bonnaroo ’08 performance, but I was absolutely blown away by what he brought to Lands End on Friday night. From the second that glowing pillar rose on the stage and “Black Skinhead” started I was sold. He had me along even through the most indulgent parts, and there were some absurdly indulgent things here.

CHRIS: Compared to the Yeezus Tour performance I saw last fall, this was tame. It’s Kanye West performing Kanye West music, so tame probably isn’t the right word for it — nor small, nor half-assed, nor uneventful. But in the context of Kanye, that’s how this set felt to me. There was no mountain, no creepy sex druids, and no White Jesus. He didn’t even properly rant! (Asking the crowd to form a circle pit is not a rant, and neither is the AutoTuned self-empowerment scatting that comprised the bulk of “Runaway.”) It was minor Kanye — which, again, is still Kanye. This was one of the greatest musicians of my lifetime performing some of his finest songs. I’m just spoiled, having witnessed some of his most fantastic spectacles of the past half-decade. I think I’m just ready for the next iteration of Yeezy — not just the new album that’s allegedly coming in a few months, but a whole new production design, new videos, the whole ordeal that accompanies everything Kanye has ever put his heart into. This set felt like a placeholder, like I was flipping through re-runs of last season. That said, re-runs are as good as new if you didn’t catch them the first time around. What about the show captivated you, Miles?

MILES: I was really hoping to see the big stuff I’d heard about from the Yeezus Tour. The crazy “Holy Mountain,” White Jesus, all those things that make it sound less like a rap show and more like some kind of insane Wagnerian production. Of course none of that materialized, but I thought what happened here ended up being so great for exactly that reason. The performance was so minimalistic that it fit right in with the music from Yeezus. The lighting was the definition of sparse, the side screens were completely blank for long stretches, and while I’m used to a rapper holding the mic out to the crowd, he stood in silence as the entire audience did the first few lines of “New Slaves.” He didn’t give a gesture, and you couldn’t see his face behind that diamond studded mask, but he still felt in control of the audience the whole time. I guess what it came down to for me was Kanye as a performer, because he stripped everything else away really.

CHRIS: He says his next record will be poppy, so I can’t imagine he’ll be putting on such a dark, delirious show next time around. I see these summer festival sets as a clearing of the slate. It’s almost like he’s tearing his aesthetic down so he can build it back up in the image of what’s next. What remains for the meantime is his impressive discography, which, yeah, amounted to an awesome show. How astounding that the guy who made “All Falls Down” and “Touch The Sky” is the same one who made “Mercy” and “Blood On The Leaves”? There is almost no through-line in that music except the remarkable ego and imagination of one visionary dude. As anxious as I am for the next thing, he was right to make us marvel at where he’s been before getting where he’s going.