Eminem performs at ACL Music Festival.
Eminem headlines Saturday’s Austin city festival lineup as he closed ACL Music Festival at Zilker Park Austin, Texas. Eminem, Dressed in youthful black shorts, zip-up hoodie, and cap, Eminem remains a household pop-culture commodity, and his stadium show packed sardines around the Samsung Galaxy stage. His recent collaborations with chart-toppers like Rihanna, Haley Williams, and Drake made it rain–“Forever,” specifically, came packaged with Super Bowl pyrotechnics. He showed why he’s attained such longevity in an hour, 45-minute set, cramming 31 songs into his rapid-fire set. Eminem had to cut many of his songs after a couple of verses, but there was no complaining as he fits almost all of his biggest singles into the time.
“It hasn’t been that (expletive long),” he said of returning to Austin. “It’s been like three years, but it feels like 20.”
Blending a backing band that included two drummers in with his backing tracks and hype man Mr. Porter, Eminem stayed high-energy throughout at the age of 41.
He blended 90’s favorites such as “Kill You” and “My Name Is” and oscar-winning “Lose yourself” with some of his recent radio singles, including his verse on B.O.B.’s “Airplanes, Part II” and his megahits with Rihanna, “Love The Way You Lie” and “Monster.” Going at breakneck speed during “Rap God,” he showed he has just as much showmanship at 41 as he did in his 20s. A Dreamworks animated film-level haunted house flashed during “Monster”. Some factory assembly line images were shown during “Business”.Then in a rare moment of vulnerable grace, he dedicated “Not Afraid” to “anybody in this crowd tonight that’s ever lost somebody to addiction”.
Eminem is set to drop his new shady records project “SHADY XV” which is going to be released on November 24th. Check out some of the video footage of the performance below.
