By Guest Contributor: Alon
On April 16, accompanied by some friends, I embarked on a four-hour drive to Seattle, to see one of my favorite musicians, Kanye West, live in concert. For West, along with lyrical hip hop up and comer Lupe Fiasco, Caribbean pop diva Rihanna and rock-rap powergroup N.E.R.D., April 16 marked the first of over 40 dates in the highly-anticipated Glow in the Dark Tour.
As fans entered Key Arena, they were showered with complimentary glow in the dark headbands and a variety of merchandise for sale, from “Stronger Glasses” to t-shirts. After a half-hour or so, all the lights in the arena suddenly blacked out and a voice greeted the audience. The voice belonged to Grammy-winning MC Lupe Fiasco, who was the opening act on the tour. Fiasco and his FNF label-mates, dressed in all red, went on to deliver a simple and clean set, mirroring Fiasco’s pure, lyric-driven musical style. Lupe performed various mainstream singles, such as Superstar, Kick, Push and Hip Hop Saved my Life, but also made sure to incorporate lesser-known songs into his routine, including my personal favorites Daydreamin’ and Streets on Fire.
After a brief intermission, Pharrel’s rock-rap power-group N.E.R.D took to the stage. N.E.R.D’s performance, in contrast to Lupe’s simplistic one, incorporated everything from smoke effects to a large L.E.D screen, which made for one “trippy” backdrop. The group literally shook the arena, bringing every fan in the stadium to their feet and turning what was a hip-hop concert a few minutes prior, into an all out rock show. In fact, N.E.R.D rocked out so hard, that by the end of their set, lead singer Pharrel had lost his voice!
After another brief intermission, Caribbean diva Rihanna took to the stage. Rihanna, dressed in hot pink, took the concert in yet another direction, incorporating backup dancers, props, costume changes and flashing lights into her performance. As the lights flashed, the dancers danced and the fans screamed, Rihanna performed all of her biggest hits, including Pon de Replay, Don’t Stop the Music and fan favorite Umbrella, which brought everyone in the stadium to their feet once again.
As Rihanna’s set came to a close, the crowd was left with the longest intermission yet. As we waited impatiently, we watched as the stage was completely dismantled and transformed into something which looked like it flew in from outer space. Little did we know, that lights, metal objects, smoke machines, projectors, firework starters and a giant L.E.D backdrop were all being installed right in front of our eyes, to make way for the night’s headliner Kanye West. As fans impatiently began to chant “Kanye…Kanye” repeatedly, while doing “the wave”, suddenly the lights went out and a remix of Stronger began to surface out of the dark.
Though prior to this point, I was already thoroughly impressed with the concert, Kanye’s set took the Glow in the Dark Tour out of this world…literally. The rapper’s 2+ hour solo performance, featured a theatrical storyline, which involved West attempting to fix his spaceship and return back to earth, after completing his journey to find and bring back creativity. Every song performed by West was somehow incorporated into this storyline and placed in a strategic order to achieve a specific effect, with the L.E.D backdrop and stage tilting, flashing and serving as a beautiful centerpiece for some of the coolest graphics, patterns, images and 3D holograms I’ve ever seen. Though most songs came from West’s latest release Graduation, every album was covered in the set and in addition, every song was remixed specifically for the concert, with various sounds, instruments and effects added in to perpetuate the space theme of the concert. You could also tell that Kanye was giving it his all, as throughout the performance, the rapper was sweating bullets and almost collapsing out of fatigue. However, West went on for 2+ hours with no breaks, to deliver perhaps the greatest live rap performance I have ever seen in my life.
While I came into the show expecting a few good performances, The Glow in the Dark Tour completely surpassed my expectations. Not only did the concert provide me with some great live music, but it also showed me that theater, technology and a wide variety of musical genres could all be integrated into one tour, to create something truly spectacular.
It’s been two years since pop megastar Rihanna last toured, and now she’s back with a sparkling new album and fresh set of headline tour dates. Her latest album – titled Anti – is still pending release, following rumours of an exclusive release through streaming service Tidal . The new tour and album will mark Rihanna’s first headlining excursion since 2012’s Unapologetic and the Diamonds World Tour.
