Kanye to the

Saturday evening, my fearless leader Sommer was kind enough to bring me along with her to the Kanye West show at Nissan. (It goes without saying that, despite the hour of ridiculous and unnecessary traffic we waded through thanks to that venue, I'm very glad I was there Saturday and not Sunday. *) One of Sommer's good friends is the official documentarian on this tour (and then some), so he got us great seats for the show. Thanks to the aforementioned traffic, we didn't get to see any of the 3 openers -- all of whom I'd like to have (Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D. and Rihanna). But Kanye's show was amazing enough to make the drive out to the boonies worth it.

Kanye's show was just that -- a show. It was closer to a broadway production than a concert. Saying that makes it sound less awesome than it was, but it's the best description I can think of. There was a whole conceit about how Kanye was a space traveler crashed on a planet, trying to get home. There were no backup dancers or any other players on the stage -- it was a one man show. All of the songs were ordered and set up to fit in with his story line. The set was kind of incredible, as was the light show. But more impressive than all of that was the fact that Kanye was out there the entire time, by himself, absolutely killing it. He is a true performer. And the songs all sounded great! He covered material from his entire body of work (I'd forgotten how many hits he's had). "Through The Wire" was introduced hilariously with a segue from his space ship's computer (Jane): "Don't forget -- this isn't your first crash." And there was even an odd but appropriate Journey song brought into the mix. I was blown away. There were a couple of wonderfully egotistical moments that fit in perfectly with Kanye's persona and the show as a whole. If the Glow In The Dark Tour is coming to your town, I highly recommend it. Jacarl's got a more in depth review of the show up on DCist, so go take a look. I hear from Sommer's friend that there are a few elements of the show we didn't get to see -- like the animatronic robot that's in the shop right now. So if you catch the tour at a later date, you might even get to see more of a spectacle than we did.


*Although, thanks to Kriston, I'm finally getting a Radiohead education. So far we've covered The Bends, which I now love. Next up on the curriculum: Ok Computer.