Kanye West, Jay-Z, John Legend and more party late into the night for SXSW diversion

(G.O.O.D.)AUSTIN, Texas — A rare, full “super moon” shone over the Texas capital Saturday night, but only one music star was big enough to eclipse not only that but nearly all of the annual South by Southwest music conference and festival: Kanye West.

Announced via a cryptic online video weeks before SXSW (with the audience enticed via a Twitter/texting RSVP, which the sponsoring company admitted failed terribly, with hundreds turned away) West hogged the spotlight on the festival’s final night and set up shop in an unusual venue, a decommissioned downtown power plant. By early Saturday morning, fans were already lined up for the midnight show; at showtime, a mob of ticketless fans mashed the barricades outside, hoping to get in. The venue’s capacity is just over 2,000; the event guest list received more than 10,000 requests in its first hour.

From 1 to 4 a.m., West trotted much of the roster of his G.O.O.D. record label across the stage, including Mos Def (who was surprisingly basic and dull), Pusha T (his “Fear of God” mixtape is due Monday) and Kid Cudi (a crowd favorite and a snappy dancer). Most blended in, one after the next, except the arresting Cyhi Da Prince (whose crazy-fast rhymes were paired with the masked Mad Violinist for “Sideways”) and the aberrant Mr. Hudson (a bleach-blond white singer who sounds like Midge Ure and covered Alphaville’s “Forever Young”). The concert was filmed for an online broadcast scheduled for April 22 — Good Friday.

West himself slipped on stage without pomp and launched a set that swung between brilliant and boring.

Fiery as he is — and certainly was in hot flashes during “Gorgeous” and “Hell of a Life” — the concert benefited most when he added extra theater, such as the cymbal-flipping marching band that joined him (a la “Tusk”) during “All of the Lights,” John Legend leavening the mood with elegant piano playing (first during “Christian Dior Denim Flow” and “Blame Game,” then for his own “Ordinary People”) and the big-guns set of the night — Jay-Z showing up for six of the set’s 19 songs. When Jay-Z is on stage, Kanye actually looks humbled, standing there with not much to do while Hova roared through “Big Pimpin’.” Alas, no announcement of a release date for or even the status of the pair’s teased collaboration album, “Watch the Throne.”

Ultimately, though, this concert merely crashed the party. Assembled and promoted by an online video service, not the festival itself, West’s parade of salesmanship only managed to draw a crowd away from aspiring bands that came to SXSW, one of the few opportunities they have to possibly be heard without the ruckus of Kanye-sized competition.

Kanye & Co.’s set list Sunday morning: “Dark Fantasy,” “Gorgeous,” “Hell of a Life,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” “Christian Dior Denim Flow” (with John Legend), “Blame Game” (with John Legend), “Ordinary People” (John Legend), “Power,” “Say You Will,” “Runaway,” “All of the Lights” (with marching band), “H.A.M.” (with Jay-Z), “Monster” (with Jay-Z), “Swagga Like Us”(with Jay-Z, but cut short when Kanye laughed and confessed, “I forgot that thing”), “PSA” (Jay-Z), “So Appalled”(with Jay-Z), “Big Pimpin’” (Jay-Z), “Lost in the World” (with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon), “Good Life” (with the G.O.O.D. crew).