Rap concerts are weird. Because their shows can go two ways. It's either a live band in the background playing the beats, or they play a loop of the tracks. So literally the entire show the performer has to be bringing the energy. That's the genre. But when there's a track you can't do a random song. You can't take requests. So in that sense, it's not like music the way I see it, but it's still music. Does that make sense? It's not my definition anyway.
Anyways, so the show felt just on an epic scale, but the thing is that it didn't really sound like the album at all. And that to me is always a good thing. The voices just felt more ummmph. Like they were angry, but not Eminem angry. Like they wanted to be louder than each other. And that's great. It ran through the building and made it sound awesome.
Part of the excellence of the show was that they scripted it to have an excellent balance between Jay and Ye, and both at the same time. They touched on the hits (although let's be honest, between both of them, if they played all of their popular songs it would of taken over 8 hours).
I know I've written on Kanye before, and I think he's excellent. He's annoying. He's cocky. But he is damn talented. And he's always trying to be new, better, on top of everything else. And I love it. Jay is calmer, cooler, got more swag. He's more talented lyrically, but also more reserved. He just loves life. Whereas Kanye is tortured. He wants to be perfect but his instincts pull him other directions.
Something I realized around the last MTV VMA's, there are those artists that a super popular right now, but then there are always those artists that are truly larger than life, even if they're not in the spotlight right now. Jay-Z is like that. Beyonce. Hey pregnancy blew up Twitter. Like Gaga and Rihanna are extremely popular, but Beyonce is trumps them. Britney trumps her, even though she is a blow up doll and on enough drugs that she's not really there. (I really don't listen to much from either of them, but that's one of the better examples I can think of.) It comes with time. It comes with being the best. Kanye isn't there yet. He's on the cusp. But Jay is there. Coldplay is kind of like that too. Respect your elders. Whatever you want to call it.
So anyway, these guys are at the top of their game, and it's sweet to see them tour together. Because we forget how tough touring is - we don't do it. It's probably lonely. Especially when you are a solo artist. Yeah you have your groupies and you've got your posse and you're not really alone, but you're on the road alot. Living literally in a tour bus. So for them - both friends/mentors/etc - to go together, and then perform, is awesome. You can just tell they're having fun. It makes the show that much more fun. It's annoying that they haven't varied the setlist much.
That's another thing (clearly I've got some ADHD tonight) about concerts - part of the fun is seeing something truly unique. Bringing it to Bruce, his catalog of music is so large, one night he can play Jungleland and the next play Thunder Road. He can do whatever he wants. He's the Boss. It feels special when the concert you see perform a song that's rarely played, hasn't been performed in years, whatever. It makes it feel more awesome. I have that feeling with Bruce. Again, Kanye and Jay don't have quite as extensive track list, but it would be cool to see Kanye all the sudden decide to play Chain Heavy. I dunno, it's still early in the tour, there's room for it.
I'm rambling. Show was sick. I suggest going. Go. Watch. The. Throne.
No comments:
Post a Comment