Kanye West's Glow In The Dark Tour on 5/23, 5/24, and 6/9

Better late than never, right? I’m trying to be more diligent in terms of at least writing something about each show I see, because I don’t want to look up at the end of 2008 and realize that I’ve seen dozens of shows and only written about a few of them. And with this tour, especially: I flew to Chicago to see it twice at the United Center and then saw it a third time in SLC at the E-Center, and spent close to 100 dollars on two of those tickets. I feel a little like I’ve committed something of myself to this tour, and I don’t want to let it pass by without jotting something down to look back on.

<>Everything about Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark tour is over-the-top: from Lupe Fiasco performing with the intensity of a top biller, not a first opener; to N.E.R.D. wylin’ out with twenty people on the stage; to Rihanna’s singers, dancers, and set pieces; and then of course the main man himself, explicitly setting himself up as the biggest star in the universe.

Lupe, N.E.R.D. and Rihanna collectively acted as a great advertisement for the idea of a music industry built around touring and performing, rather than record sales. These artists are all damn good performers, but each one is great in a different way—they all stood out from each other and performed with very distinctive styles. It’s one of the few tours I’ve seen with this many openers that didn’t waste a second on mediocrity, where each musician put as much into their performance as the main act did.

Kanye West put the same effort and skill into performing as the others did, but he took it a step further and pulled the audience into his own narrative. I expected going into the shows that the high cost of the tickets would have to go somewhere, and I wasn’t disappointed: he used huge video screens, a constructed stage, voice-overs and other special effects to pull off this story of Kanye as a space explorer who’s crash-landed on a foreign planet and is just trying to get home. Usually, I don’t have much patience for flashy effects at concerts and elaborate stages mostly bore me, but I do think Kanye chose effects and theatrics that made sense with his music—they always added to the songs instead of trying to be their own thing and detracting. And the big story of struggle, homesickness and eventual triumph mirrored themes that Kanye has used in most songs he’s written.

While the effects certainly helped, the narrative would have flopped and come off as corny if it weren’t for the weight he gave his own words. Say what you want about Kanye and his arrogance, but his big head has never resulted in him producing half-assed material, and this tour is no exception. Kanye held the whole stage by himself, up until Touch The Sky when Lupe joined him, and he was riveting the whole time. He didn’t just rap, he danced and jumped and yelled and used the whole area. Every song was a bigger deal and a bigger climax than the last, and even during the slow, somber ‘Mama,’ he didn’t truly let up, instead demanding the audience scream and clap for his mother at the height of the song. When space-explorer-Kanye is at his most discouraged and doesn’t believe he can go on, the back-up singers and band launch earnestly into ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ and in the audience you have no idea if you’re singing along ironically or not, but you’re swept up in it either way.

Beyond the glitz and the hype and the weird sunglasses, the Glow In The Dark tour is one of the best showcases of sheer talent and skill I’ve seen this year, or even ever. I’m honestly thrilled that I was able to see it three times, not just because I obviously enjoyed it, but because I want to support a venture with as much musical integrity as this as much as I can. I want them to succeed so that maybe we’ll see more tours like it.