Canadian Tuxedo Optional (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} michaelpop) wrote,@ 2008-04-22 09:09:00 |
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"God, I promise to stop talking so much shit. I promise to stop spazzing out at awards shows."
Kanye West + Rihanna + NERD + Lupe Fiasco = one of the best shows I've ever seen.
The conversation needs to stop being about Kanye's oversized ego and attention-seeking antics -- when he goes off about how great he is, just shut up, nod your head and pay attention. Genius is stubborn; genius is difficult. That's why we're paying them for the privilege to see and hear them.
In his show, [SPOILER ALERT!] when his spaceship Jane (!) says, "We need the brightest star in the universe -- we need you, Kanye," you just have to laugh, because that sort of boastfulness has become part and parcel to Kayne's schtick. Underneath all that big talk of being the greatest ever is a man who still believes he's the underdog, who has to go out night after night (and album after album) to prove his worth. It's Kanye against the world, and that's how he likes it. I have never seen a performer so driven, so fiercely focused. He knows he's not the most innately gifted, which makes him work that much harder to stay on top.
Daniel said it best when he said, "This wasn't a concert, it was a SHOW." And when you talk about shows, this should be the textbook definition. For sheer spectacle, it was just about perfect. To come up with a theme (Kanye, traveling through space, crashes onto a lonely planet and he has to, uh, sing his way back home. Oddly enough, not written and performed by Tracy Morgan) and then seamlessly work in songs from his catalog to drive the narrative, it was like what I imagine opera must be like. This wasn't 90 minutes of Kanye posturing, either. When his mother died, it humanized him. Having been so visibly fond of her, no matter what your thoughts about Kanye, you had to feel some sympathy towards him. The emotional highlight was when he launched into a reworked version of "Hey Mama" that added the lines, "Last night I saw you in my dreams, now I can't wait to go to sleep. This life, is all a dream, and my real life starts when I go to sleep. My m-m-m-m Mama", and you could see him trying to maintain his composure. Even if Kanye didn't quite get all weepy on us, some of us (ahem) in the crowd weren't quite as stoic. And after that song, in a moment of reflection when he took a seat (after performing non-stop for over an hour without a visible break for water; I was seriously concerned for his welfare at times), Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" came on. Then it was back to the mission at hand, and he closed out his set with a blazing rendition of "Stronger" (which had been teased at the very beginning of the set) and then after a quick wardrobe change (because he'd been able to power his spaceship home, you see), he finally took his well-deserved victory lap when he finished his set with Lupe on "Touch the Sky".
The whole thing was brilliant. My only mild complaint (and complaint isn't even the right word) is that for something called the "Glow in the Dark Tour", nothing really glowed in the dark! Sure there were incredible visuals, a stage that looked like the surface of the moon and pyrotechnics, but I wanted some crazy black-light shit too! Maybe he's saving that one for his next tour.
Kanye West + Rihanna + NERD + Lupe Fiasco = one of the best shows I've ever seen.
The conversation needs to stop being about Kanye's oversized ego and attention-seeking antics -- when he goes off about how great he is, just shut up, nod your head and pay attention. Genius is stubborn; genius is difficult. That's why we're paying them for the privilege to see and hear them.
In his show, [SPOILER ALERT!] when his spaceship Jane (!) says, "We need the brightest star in the universe -- we need you, Kanye," you just have to laugh, because that sort of boastfulness has become part and parcel to Kayne's schtick. Underneath all that big talk of being the greatest ever is a man who still believes he's the underdog, who has to go out night after night (and album after album) to prove his worth. It's Kanye against the world, and that's how he likes it. I have never seen a performer so driven, so fiercely focused. He knows he's not the most innately gifted, which makes him work that much harder to stay on top.
Daniel said it best when he said, "This wasn't a concert, it was a SHOW." And when you talk about shows, this should be the textbook definition. For sheer spectacle, it was just about perfect. To come up with a theme (Kanye, traveling through space, crashes onto a lonely planet and he has to, uh, sing his way back home. Oddly enough, not written and performed by Tracy Morgan) and then seamlessly work in songs from his catalog to drive the narrative, it was like what I imagine opera must be like. This wasn't 90 minutes of Kanye posturing, either. When his mother died, it humanized him. Having been so visibly fond of her, no matter what your thoughts about Kanye, you had to feel some sympathy towards him. The emotional highlight was when he launched into a reworked version of "Hey Mama" that added the lines, "Last night I saw you in my dreams, now I can't wait to go to sleep. This life, is all a dream, and my real life starts when I go to sleep. My m-m-m-m Mama", and you could see him trying to maintain his composure. Even if Kanye didn't quite get all weepy on us, some of us (ahem) in the crowd weren't quite as stoic. And after that song, in a moment of reflection when he took a seat (after performing non-stop for over an hour without a visible break for water; I was seriously concerned for his welfare at times), Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" came on. Then it was back to the mission at hand, and he closed out his set with a blazing rendition of "Stronger" (which had been teased at the very beginning of the set) and then after a quick wardrobe change (because he'd been able to power his spaceship home, you see), he finally took his well-deserved victory lap when he finished his set with Lupe on "Touch the Sky".
The whole thing was brilliant. My only mild complaint (and complaint isn't even the right word) is that for something called the "Glow in the Dark Tour", nothing really glowed in the dark! Sure there were incredible visuals, a stage that looked like the surface of the moon and pyrotechnics, but I wanted some crazy black-light shit too! Maybe he's saving that one for his next tour.
