The show was set to start at 7 but we wanted to get there early. It's a good thing we did. We got to our seats at 6:20 and Lupe was already a few songs into his set. We were confused why he would start so early until we found out that the City of Raleigh has a noise ordinance for outdoor concerts. They have to be over by 11pm. Lupe's set was good. He performed some of my favorite songs like Kick, Push, Superstar, Hip Hop Saved My Life, and Streets on Fire. The only thing I was disappointed about with Lupe's set was that he seemed to be going through the motions. He didn's seem to get into it as much as I expected and I can understand to some degree because he was playing to a mostly empty arena.
Next up were rap/rockers N*E*R*D. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, N*E*R*D is headed by super producers the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) and their long time friend Shay. Pharrell did a great job getting the crowd that was slowly filling in involved and excited. He even asked everyone on the lawn to come right up front and to ignore the security people in the yellow jackets. He went into the crowd himself and passed 30-40 feet from me and Zach. He also brought some fans on stage to dance with him which was hilarious. They performed some of their classic songs like Rock Star and She Wants To Move and they also performed some of their new material like Everyone Nose and Spazz. I loved their performance.
After a 20 minute intermission for a set change, R&B singer Rhianna was on next. I'm not a huge Rhianna fan but her performance was entertaining. She performed all of her major hits and I'm sure every teenage girl that was there knew every word. She had some good back-up dancers and it seemed like she's really improved her singing ability since she was first signed. My favorite part of her performance was probably Breakin' Dishes or Please Don't Stop the Music, but I also thought it was super cool when she performed the smash single Umbrella because every person in the stadium was singing along to every word.
Finally after a really long (45 minutes) intermission for another set change, Kanye took the stage. His set was set up like the surface of the moon. There were rocks all around the sides and the stage was sloped to the front. There was a huge screen behind him. The entire band (back-up singers and dj included) were out of view underneath the set. His performance followed a story line of him being crashed on a foreign planet and trying to find his way home. The lighting was OUT OF CONTROL (see picture above)!!! It was breath taking! He had amazing command over the crowd too. My favorite parts of his performance were Through the Wire, Get 'Em High, Can't Tell Me Nothin', Stronger, and Homecoming. The only glitch in the performance was near the end when he performed Touch the Sky featuring Lupe Fiasco. Kanye performed his two verses and then threw it to Lupe to finish the song and Lupe never came out. You could see Kanye looking at one of the stage managers off to the side like "what's going on?!" and then he just finished the song himself. I guess Lupe was sick or not feeling like coming out. This didn't ruin Kanye's set though. I thought the whole thing was awesome!
I really enjoyed this concert and it was definitely worth the money I spent. I'm glad I got their early enough to catch Lupe. N*E*R*D was so much fun and I was impressed with Rhianna. Kanye of course closed it out perfectly. I really thing big time artists should do more big tours like this.
On a side note, one awesome treat that Kanye, Pharrell, and Lupe hooked up their fans with is a remix that they made available online. It's a remix to the N*E*R*D song "Everyone Nose" and it features verses by Kanye, Pharrell, Lupe and Pusha T (Clipse). You can find it if you look hard enough.
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