Glow in the Dark Wrap-Up

Kanye, Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe made a much anticipated stop at MSG last Tuesday on the Glow in the Dark Tour. I got to MSG about 15 mins late and was pissed because little did I know that Lupe would be opening up. So I caught the second half of Lupe, and he brought the raucous. The crowd was anything but full at the time, but he was runnin around stage maintaining crisp lyricism. He killed it on Daydreamin, but you could tell the crowd was waitin for Superstar. He seemed too good for an opening act.

NERD followed with a better than expected performance. My expectations were low for a rock-hiphop performance, but NERD (mostly Pharrell) managed to get the orchestra seats jumpin.

After what felt like hours for a bizarre stage setup, RiRi was next lookin as fly as ever. I didn’t think she had to cover Nelly Furtado and Lauryn Hill, but she was impressive. Once she started Umbrella, you could sense that some guest was gonna show up and smart money was on Jay-Z. The crowd was pleasantly surprised that beau Chris Brown came out for ‘Cinderella’. Was kinda wishin he would show off some of his moves, instead he gave RiRi a hug and peaced.

Finally it was Kanye’s turn. Some sorta spaceship like stage, Kanye dead center all by himself – which turned out to be something of a theme. I mean, with all of kanye’s connections and this being his only trip to MSG, you would think there would be all sortsa guest appearances, but no. Not one other person came on stage with Kanye, not a backup dancer, nobody playin an instrument, nada. Ego-centric, and I’m not the only one who felt that way. That being said, he was ridiculous. He Killed it. The cheesy spaceship theme linked some songs together, but the concert coulda really used some crowd interaction rather than Kanye talking to the wack spaceship. We get it, you’re creative and brilliant, but c'mon, give the fans a lil love. Best performances of the night included: Through the Wire, Hey Mama, and Jesus Walks. Actually the encore may have been the best performance, only cause it was a nice change of pace to see another face on the stage, namely Lupe for ‘Touch the Sky’. I mean, if he didn’t come out (which I hear he didn’t at other shows) it woulda been kinda insulting. Let’s be fair, 90 mins straight of Kanye was impressive. There aren’t many, if any, performers who can hold down a stage like that all by himself.