Kanye West Concert Tours

Review from The Seattle Post Intelligencer
by Travis Nichols

Kanye was feeling the love -- for himself

Pop superstar Kanye West took over KeyArena on Wednesday night in what was essentially a one-man show. With his backing band tucked away mostly out of sight in a makeshift orchestra pit and no backup dancers, no guest rappers, no preening entourage, it was just Kanye Kanye Kanye all night long.

The man is known for his ego -- and in the narcissistic echo chambers of hip-hop, that's really saying something -- and Wednesday night the Kanye self got wide berth. He tried by sheer force of his own charisma to fill up KeyArena, and while the effort was impressive, in the end it was a little like watching Kobe Bryant pour in 64 points just so the Lakers could lose by two.

To add a little drama, West concocted this moonwalkeresque narrative: for the past year, traveling the universe in a spaceship named Jane, he has been "on a mission to bring creativity back to Earth." A tough job, no doubt, and one that has its perils, including crash landing on some planet or other, as West seemed to have done at the start of the show. How do we know? Well, it was all very helpfully recounted by the sexy computer voice of "Jane" while West stood center stage, awesomely backlit by video of explosions and sunsets.

The mesmerizing video was an orgy for the eyes -- all neon pink, purple and orange -- in a style best described as either Late Screensaver or Teletubby on Ecstasy.

The staging and the choreography left no doubt that West is an aesthete of the highest order. His songs revel in the textures of vocoders and Kurzweil snyths as much as the stage show reveled in fluorescent hues -- it's an opulent wonder.

The West sound is perfect for clubs or close car listening -- in those spaces you can either work out the bass tingle with movement or luxuriate in West's lyrical ability to riff endlessly off "I'd do anything for a Klondike." On stage and in a cavernous arena, though, most of the crowd stood, arms raised, doing the slack-jawed head bob. But maybe West didn't need us to do anything but marvel at his glory.

Toward the end of the show, after West had sat brooding stage left, listening to -- strange but true -- a snippet of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," he got up. Unlike "The Sopranos," apparently, he wasn't going to end on that note. West was ready to go home, but his ship needed more power! "Where will we get more power?" he asked the spaceship Jane. A guest? The band? The crowd? Nope. "We need the power of the biggest star in the universe," Jane said, "We need you, Kanye!"

Ah yes. Kanye, it turns out, just needs Kanye.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Kanye West Tour 2008 Concert Review from The Sacramento Bee
by Chris Macias

It was the universe according to Kanye West at Arco

The stage was fashioned as a lunar landscape and Kanye West was right in the middle, with celestial bodies whizzing by on video screens. The message was clear: it's Kanye's universe, and we just live in it.

At least it was for the sold-out crowd on Friday night at Arco Arena, which basically went bonkers for West's sci-fi themed show. It was the second stop on the rapper/producer's "Glow in the Dark" tour, and despite a few technical kinks, the concert was about as high-tech as hip-hop shows get. But more than just a concert with a lot of smoke machines and visual razzle dazzle, West rocked the house - and apparently the entire Milky Way as well.

Think of the "Glow in the Dark" show as rap music's own "Space Oddity" or "Rocket Man," but with a "hip-hop hooray!" sort of ending. The storyline goes something like this: West has crashed on a mysterious planet and is trying to get back home, with some help from a HAL-like computer named JANE. All the while his faith is tested by the gold diggers and visions of "Good Life" in his head. By the show-closing "Touch the Sky", he lifts off from the planet and all is right in the solar system once again.

There's virtually no room for spontaneity in this tightly scripted 90-minute concert. You don't get West saying "Wassup, Sacramento!" between songs or freestyling any rhymes. But once the show blasts off, the energy indeed goes sky high and stays there. And how could it not with "Gold Digger," "Champion" and "Through the Wire" at bionic volume levels? Arco Arena was definitely off the hook.

West could've worked the crowd even more if he wasn't so confined on stage. The craggy lunar landscaping took up most of the set design, and West performed throughout the show on a square-shaped section in the middle. That meant no running to each side of the stage to amp up the audience even more, or slapping hands with the front rows. He sometimes looked a little isolated up there, keeping some distance from the crowd and perpetually stuck in a relatively small space. Seems a little lonely in West's private Space Shuttle.

Then again, West wasn't about to be eclipsed by anyone. Forget any back-up dancers, extra hype men or even a band sharing the stage with West. His back-up musicians were instead positioned off stage like an orchestra pit. It was just West up there, stomping in his sneakers during "Jesus Walks" and bantering with a dolled-up alien before "Spaceship." ("You're the biggest star in the universe," said the alien to West).

Back on Earth, or make that during show's opening sets, the "Glow in the Dark" tour got busy with more hip-hop and R&B. Lupe Fiasco kicked the night off with spitfire rapping and turned out the loudest crowd response apart from West. The rap-rocking N%u2022 E%u2022 R%u2022 D, featuring Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo from the hit production team the Neptunes, got arms waving with its mix of heavy guitars and synthesizers. But as good as Williams is in the studio, the brains behind "Hollaback Girl" always sounds iffy as a singer.

The R&B star known as Rihanna was a little bit of a letdown. Uptempo songs like "Shut Up and Drive," "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" and her monster hit "Umbrella" were on point, but her set slumped a bit with too many ballads.

Then again, it's hard to measure up to a master of the universe like West. That's not to say his set was perfect. The synching was sometimes slippery between the live musicians and pre-recorded bits. But everyone was thankfully spared a tantrum, and West even poked fun later at his prima donna ways.

"God, if you get me off this planet I'll stop spazzing out at awards shows," said West during the introduction to "Jesus Walks." "Just help me get home."

And that's all it took to bring West back down to Earth. Mission accomplished.

SETLIST

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Tour 2008 Concert Review from The San Francisco Chronicle
by Lee Hildebrand

Kanye West at HP Pavilion: ego and aliens

Being a hip-hop superstar can be quite lonely, especially when you're trapped on a barren planet with only your mammoth ego and an occasional alien visitor for company.

Having crash-landed on the HP Pavilion stage Saturday night while on a space voyage in search of inspiration, Chicago rapper-producer Kanye West stood and paced the mock landscape in a gray sweatshirt and dark jeans for 110 minutes in front of a multiracial capacity crowd of 13,000. Meteor showers, explosions and geysers of smoke and flame filled a giant screen behind him. Fog rolled at his feet as he performed songs from his trilogy of megahit CDs: "The College Dropout," "Late Registration" and "Graduation."

The 30-year-old artist is one of hip-hop's most clever wordsmiths - as when, for instance, he rhymes "collagen" with "apolog'in'," although dropping consonants from the middle and ends of words certainly makes the process easier - yet, in San Jose, he was often drowned out by a barely visible band of musicians and background singers who played in a pit at the front of the stage. On his records, West's voice is always in the forefront, and each instrument is crisply delineated in the backing tracks. In person, however, the band became a bombastic, badly mixed symphonic mush of sweeping strings, billowing French horns and incessantly pounding timpani and tom-toms.

There were some quieter times, though, particularly during "Hey Mama," a tearjerker dedicated to his mother, Donda West, an English professor who died in November due to complications from cosmetic surgery. His gloved hand covering his eyes as he rapped, West apologized for disappointing her by not getting a college degree himself. (He did not address sentiments expressed on his 2004 disc, "The College Dropout," in which he ridiculed higher education.)

At the conclusion of "Hey Mama," he sat on the stage and drank from a canteen while the band played Journey's "Don't Stop Believing."

West was twice visited by a female alien, first in the form of a mannequin that looked like a leftover from a low-budget documentary on Roswell, N.M., then in voice only. Both times her words were nearly identical. "We need the brightest star in the universe," she said. "We need you, Kanye."

The rapper, who is as famous for his work with the likes of Jamie Foxx, Jay-Z, Keyshia Cole, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys and John Legend as he is for his own recordings, was not without a bit of self-deprecating humor, however. "God," he said at one point, "if you get me off this planet, I promise to stop spazzing out at award shows."

West, who won four Grammy Awards in February, had earlier garnered much negative publicity for his temper tantrums for failing to win best video at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2006 and for not having been selected for the opening performance at last year's MTV Video Music Awards. "Maybe my skin's not right," he complained when Britney Spears got the slot.

The concert began with a high-energy, though rather perfunctory, set by Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco, followed by N.E.R.D. (an innovative a nine-man hip-hop/rock band better known in England than in the United States) and then fast-rising pop vocalist Rihanna.

The glamorous 20-year-old singer made brilliant use of her 35 minutes onstage. Although often classified as an R&B artist, she eschews the gospel curlicues associated by most American soul singers in favor of ringing sustains, which was particularly true Saturday during the Justin Timberlake-penned ballad "Rehab." She was most effective on up-tempo numbers, including the perky "Umbrella," the international smash hit this past summer. Rihanna pranced the stage - first in a pink-and-black swimsuit-like outfit, then in equally stunning canary yellow-and-black garb - while seamlessly moving between techno, house, hard rock, R&B and reggae-spiced styles. With her strong mezzo pipes, fashion-model looks and musical variety, she now stands at the threshold of unlimited career opportunities.

SetList:

"Good Morning"
"I Wonder"
"Heard Em Say"
"Through the Wire"
"Champion"
"Get Em High"
"Diamonds from Sierra Leone"
"Can't Tell Me Nothing"
"Flashing Lights"
"Spaceship"
"All Falls Down"
"Gold Digger"
"Good Life"
"Jesus Walks"
"Hey Mama"
"Stronger"
"Homecoming"
"Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Tour 2008 Concert Review from The OC Register
by Ben Wenner

Kanye West gets lost in space at Nokia Theatre

Review: His futuristic extravaganza, static and tiresome, didn't impress half as much as the man himself - or standout turns from Rihanna and N.E.R.D.

There's little point refusing Kanye West some props for the operatic video-game spectacle of his just-begun Glow in the Dark Tour, which Monday night brought the braggart plus Barbadian sexpot Rihanna, heavier-than-ever N.E.R.D. and upstart Lupe Fiasco to Nokia Theatre for the first of two dates at the downtown L.A. venue.

Whereas last week's tremendous Hollywood Bowl debut from Mary J. Blige and Jay-Zwas traditionalism elevated to a new standard of sophistication, Kanye's grand conceit, in tandem with the progressive sounds of the undercard acts, clearly represents the future of hip-hop - although least of all because his overblown College-Dropout-in-space concept aims to do for live rap what "2001" did for science fiction. It's his his skewering, insightful rhymes and relentless, sweat-soaking energy that are pushing boundaries further out, not so much this limiting production, which impresses for the first 20 minutes or so, then quickly grows samey and static, not to mention recycled.

Surely hip-hop has never seen anything quite like this one-man would-be morality play, in which cosmos crusader Kanye - "the biggest star in the universe," we're told more than once - crash-lands on an unknown planet (let's call it Hell) with only his failing female-HAL navigator for company. What transpires once he touches down with cataclysmic force during a remixed "Heard 'Em Say" is mostly a lot of intense navel-gazing wrapped in Wagnerian excess.

He remembers an earlier "crash," the metaphor made real via "Through the Wire." He grows indignant about his predicament ("Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Spaceship"). He gets horny ("Gold Digger"). He mourns his mother's absence ("Hey Mama"). He pleads with God for salvation ("Jesus Walks") - only to learn that, go figure, his ego (now "Stronger" than ever) is what's really needed to rescue this mission and get him home.

If you can figure out how "Good Life" and "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" and "Flashing Lights" figure into that flimsy attempt at a narrative, then you're several steps ahead of me. ("Tommy" wasn't this riddled with inconsistencies.) What should keep us from mulling over what's missing, of course, is the digital dazzle of it all. Instead, I found myself picking apart Kanye's production, determining where I've seen this trick or that gimmick before.

There's nothing groundbreaking about it. Yes, his stage design is as suitable for the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as it is for Staples Center (where this 4 1/2-hour sprawl will stop on June 7) - yet Pet Shop Boys have been constructing such lavish sets for years. Yes, he's enveloped throughout the presentation by an enormous screen littered with vast HD visuals - but Roger Waters, Nine Inch Nails and, most famously, U2 have all employed something similar, and rarely did they resort to such blandly atmospheric sights as rolling clouds or superimposed fireworks in a red-sky Martian landscape. Half the time it appeared as if Kanye had landed on the cover of Radiohead's "Kid A."

I'll grant that, for all the loopholes in his story, he still has cohesion in his corner - whereas Madonna, say, does little more than string set pieces together. That said, Madge has been achieving the same sort of glorious overkill for decades, and when key moments of her performance art hit home (her crucifixion routine for "Live to Tell" on her last outing comes to mind first) they resonate deeper than a good hour of Kanye's shtick does.

It also doesn't help to have suffered a mannequin malfunction - don't ask, just know that it didn't work, and led to one of several instances when Kanye broke character to tell an engineer to make a change. Another such moment came near the end, when Kanye apparently spotted L.A. Reid and Jamie Foxx making an early exit. "Get back to your seats," he hollered. "It ain't done yet!"

Well, one can't blame them for trying. Once Kanye was summoning the strength to carry on by doing nothing more than plopping down for a breather while Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" blared, I kinda wondered why I was sticking around past midnight myself. It speaks to his now-tiresome egomania (dude, "Graduation" didn't even deserve its top Grammy nod, much less a win) that Kanye has designed a man-alone show intended to express the lonely isolationism of the mythological hero, with his expansive band hidden by the giant screen. Apparently it didn't dawn on him how quickly such an approach might grow dull.

What impresses most - what I think most people really respond to - are his fiercely related tales, his explosive presence, his developing vocals (most moving during a version of "Hey Mama" that conveyed the heartfelt compassion of Stevie Wonder). I suspect that had he ditched the lost-in-space routine and just thrown down on a bare stage, he'd have wowed fans even more. Instead, he's showing signs of becoming too far gone.

It's also disappointing that Kanye had so many potential collaborators on hand yet limited their involvement to a lone Lupe Fiasco cameo during "Touch the Sky." Frankly, I found the warm-up sets - N.E.R.D.'s volatile turn, Rihanna's eye-opening and very Pink-ified performance, Lupe's amped-up rants - far more entertaining.

N.E.R.D., the trio featuring Pharrell Williams, Shay Haley and Chad Hugo that has been expanded considerably since their last tour, came roaring out and never let up, blasting through "Brain" and "Lap Dance" and a clutch of new bits with the thunder of the Roots on a heavy-metal bender. At other appearances over the years Pharrell has seemed mellow to the point of zonked-out; here he was an attacker on the prowl, inciting the crowd to rush the aisles (though few ever did) and staring down fans with dead-eyed fury. Lupe, too, hit harder than on his own club tour recently, balancing his machine-gun flow with Blige-ish backing vocals.

Rihanna, however, was a minor revelation. I loathed her when she surfaced in 2006 with the "Tainted Love" rip-off "SOS," dismissing her as just another diva-in-training with a thin, nasal voice. But here, emboldened by winning material from her well-crafted third album ("Good Girl Gone Bad") and lacing her set with futurepunk couture and swaggering dominatrix attitude, the striking beauty proved she's no flash in the pan. She may never have pipes like Christina Aguilera or Beyoncé (though her reedy tone is growing on me), yet she's finding a synthetic style all her own, pitched somewhere between electro aggression and Justin Timberlake. If anything was an indication of pop's future here, it was the better moments of her set, not Kanye's.

SETLIST
1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

From Arizona Daily Star by Kevin W. Smith:

Kanye in Tucson part sci-fi flick, one man show; all awesome

"Is this what you've been waiting for!?" screamed Kanye West during the climax song, "Stronger," of his sold-out show at McKale Center.
Well, yes.
Not only was West's Glow in the Dark Tour show the first concert in more than a decade at McKale, the experience was one of unity for the community - as important as any sporting event that has taken place under its roof.
Tucsonans of all ages and colors came out to celebrate peacefully and enjoy some . . . (gasp!)
. . . live hip-hop.
That the last major artist permitted to perform under the UA championship banners was country star Garth Brooks in 1996 proves how far hip-hop has come, and West just kept pushing it forward Thursday night.
"You ever wonder if you'll find your dreams?" he asked during "I Wonder" off the 2007 multi-platinum album "Graduation."
If so, the journey probably looks and feels a lot like the surreal Glow in the Dark Tour. If you weren't there, you wouldn't have believed it, and because no news photographers were permitted, you'll have to use your imagination.
On top of a massive hilly surface mounted on the stage, which was backed by a video screen of drive-in movie theater proportions, West didn't come out on stage so much as wake up on it.
Spotted lying down when the lights came on, he slowly stood up, dressed in a "Mad Max"-like tan shirt, blue jeans and sneakers similar to what Marty McFly wore in "Back to the Future Part II."
Bringing himself to his feet, West performed the opening track to "Graduation," titled "Good Morning."
West's stage show was somewhere between a sci-fi flick and a one-man Broadway production set to hip-hop.
The show followed a loose narrative: roughly that West sets out into space in search of a new source of inspiration, crash-lands on an unknown planet, then has to try and find his way back to Earth.
Aside from some banter with a computer on his spaceship named "Jane," an odd appearance from a floating robot with blue hair, and another from opener Lupe Fiasco during the show's final number, "Touch The Sky," it was just West isolated on stage throughout.
There was a backing band, but the members were dressed in all black and played in front of the stage, not on it.
At times you felt like it wouldn't have killed the production to have a guest singer come out and bust the chorus to, say, "Flashing Lights," but West did a pretty good job carrying the show on his own.
Aided by video screens displaying everything from oncoming stars to the inner parts of a spaceship, shooting blue and green flames from the floor and bursts of sparks, West danced, jigged and made dramatic, crouching poses to punctuate particular lyrics.
After energetic versions of the massive hit "Gold Digger" and the feel-good anthem "Good Life," West broke into a particularly tender version of "Hey Mama," during which a sea of cell phones bobbed around McKale. West's mother, Donda West, died late last year.
You know the audience is hungry when it's filled up to the nosebleeds during the first opening act, chanting for rapper Lupe Fiasco.
The second opener, the hip-hop-rock-hybrid N.E.R.D., led by multi-talented Pharrell Williams, turned McKale into a huge dance party.
It may have taken a while to get here, but Thursday proved we can fill 8,100 or so seats if the appeal of the act is there.
Here's hoping Tucson gets to see more shows at McKale, but don't expect anything matching Glow in the Dark to come around anytime soon.

SETLIST

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Note: Rhianna was not included for this date.

Coming Soon

Kanye West Tour 2008 Concert Review from The Rocky Mountain News
by Mark Brown

West and Co. don't disappoint Denver crowd

The lack of great hip-hop tours in recent years is a crime given that the music started with no radio airplay, no media exposure and no respect. Performers had to take it straight to the street through performances. It was those electrifying live shows from the likes of Public Enemy and Ice Cube that built word-of-mouth, reputations and eventually careers.

A handful of the most influential rappers of the day, including Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z, are in a position to change all that.

West brought the new era of live hip-hop to the Pepsi Center, with three hot opening acts and a production that rivals the biggest show Britney or Madonna ever staged.

The Glow in the Dark tour isn't an unqualified success - at times it felt like too much of a good thing, and a late-running Sunday night show isn't kind to fans (West didn't take the stage until 10:40 p.m.). But three strong sets were capped off with a West performance that, while confusing at times, reached for ambitious new heights in live hip-hop.

The drawback to such an ambitious show is the technical side, with crew scrambling to strike sets as quickly as possible. Throughout much of N.E.R.D.'s ferocious set Pharrell Williams fought technical difficulties. Still, his rap/rock hybrid put on a phenomenal set, previewing material from the upcoming new album with chest-rattling bass, inventive drumming and a nearly industrial style of rap.

Brain was a particular highlight in a too-short set that had the crowd screaming for more.

Rihanna was solid, with strong versions of Rehab and Umbrella, but her set was ultimately overlong, extended with standard-issue dance sequences that added nothing to the night. In the end the singer's persona wasn't strong enough to hold an arena spotlight that long.

It's too bad West didn't allow photos because the stage set defies description.

Set in a futuristic sci-fi mode where West's spaceship crash lands, he performed in front of and on top of high-tech video screens, his band hidden beneath the stage in an orchestra pit, leaving him alone on the stage with every effect available - surround-sound special effects, meteors, fog, cameras, pyrotechnics and his own unstoppable onstage energy. Hits like Can't Tell Me Nothing, Flashing Lights and a revamped GoldDigger were huge crowd-pleasers, even if they had nothing to do with the storyline.

Detractors will look at the show as a huge West ego trip, but it's certainly one of the most fascinating hip-hop tours in recent memory.

SETLIST

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Review from The Oklahoman by George Lang

Kanye West out of this world in 'Glow in the Dark' tour

Kanye West might not be the most important force in hip-hop history, but of all the major sellers from this decade, he has done more than anyone else to drop-kick the genre into the future.

He presides over a big tent and eschews gangsta style in favor of Rodeo Drive couture, but unlike the sartorially similar Sean "Diddy" Combs, there is substance beneath West's style. And his "Glow in the Dark" tour, which stops Tuesday in Oklahoma City with guests Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco, features an elaborate science-fiction stage performance that would probably make the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne smile.

"I think it took, I'd say a half an hour between Rihanna's set and the time Kanye came on, just to get everything set up," said Tony Shanks, a former Oklahoma City resident who saw the "Glow in the Dark" tour Monday at Los Angeles' Nokia Center. "The lights just barely come up, and there's this spaceship screen behind him, and the stage is this Mars landscape."

Shanks said the premise is that West has crash-landed on a barren planet. He opens the set with "Good Morning," the opening song from his latest disc, "Graduation," and he begins a running conversation with the screen, an onboard computer called "Jane." The narrative continues, and throughout the show, West is the only performer on stage. The high-tech science-fiction theme is equal parts Flaming Lips, "Thriller"-era Michael Jackson and Daft Punk, the French electronic duo whom West sampled for his 2007 hit "Stronger."

"The floor lights up, colored flames come out of the set, and when he plays 'Flashing Lights,' these huge lit globes come down from the ceiling," Shanks said. "Even if you're not a fan, it's an extreme visual experience - super, super crazy. They dropped a lot of dough on that set. Outside of (U2's) 'Zooropa' and the Flaming Lips, I can't remember a show that felt like such an event."

Recent years have seen mainstream hip-hop become narrow and staid, reliant on tried-and-true beats and meaningless rhymes. But West campaigns for adventurousness in rap as if the Timbaland and Rick Ross parties of the hip-hop nation don't have a vote.

West's previous Oklahoma City performance, in November 2005, was a lush affair with Broadway and Las Vegas overtones, an elaborate presentation featuring a string quartet and backup musicians playing in translucent, backlit cubes. For this tour, West is still playing songs from "The College Dropout" and "Late Registration," but now the focus is entirely him - the success of the show hinges entirely on West and his computerized companion.

He's a performer who takes chances: His recent video for "Flashing Lights" shows him getting killed in slow motion by a vengeful, shovel-wielding woman in the California desert - not exactly the stuff of the non-stop hip-hop party scene. For every crowd-pleasing banger such as "Golddigger" or "The Good Life," there is an introspective look at faith ("Jesus Walks") or a love letter to his mother ("Hey Mama").

And when his lyrics get tough, West is strapped for a fight - some of the conspiracy theories expressed in "Crack Music" and "Heard 'Em Say" are the stuff of national gotcha politics. If it weren't set to a beat, West's fiery rhetoric could rule the 24-hour cable news channels in an election year.

But the "Glow in the Dark" tour is all about pure spectacle. The only buttons being pushed are the ones pushing West along his journey through the universe.

"It was all about the visuals," Shanks said. "The entire screen behind him occupies the entire width of the stage and goes from stars in outer space to a red sky on Mars. It was a very sci-fi experience."

SETLIST

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Setlist and Review from The Monitor by Miriam Ramirez

Kanye West in Austin: The Review

So what if he thinks he is the brightest star in the universe.

So what if he has an ongoing beef with the media.

Kanye West believes if everybody thinks it's right, you're doing something wrong.

"I've been on this journey for 12 months, four weeks, 30 days and 13 hours...." West said, Wednesday night as he lay in the center of an illuminated stage.

"I've explored the universe but it's lonely out here."

Three-two-one...blast off.

West's Glow in the Dark Tour made one of its three Texas stops in Austin at the Frank Erwin Center. A sea of fans filled all three levels of the venue (including the awesome nosebleed Mezzanine section where my party was at).

This year's tour centered on West's journey into outer space and subsequent crash landing. His goal: to come back home.

He and his trusty spaceship, "Jane" took fans to the outer limits of our Earthly reality for one glowing show.

An elaborate percussion ensemble set up shop in the pit alongside background singers and the rest of the musicians, leaving West on stage, in what appeared like a lunar landscape, all alone.

All eyes on him, of course.

He opened the show with "I Wonder" immediately followed by "Heard 'Em Say" (with a background vocalist taking over for Maroon 5's Adam Levine).

His show carried a dark, vigorous momentum, leaving eyes transfixed on the stage.

From this point, West took us "Through the Wire" and up a notch to "Champion."

West worked the stage like a pro, shakin' his body with a certain cool factor not many other artists I know can carry off.

For "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" thousands of hands shot into the air with the ubiquitous Rockafella symbol. This was truly a sight to see. All over the arena, bodies swayed as West sang "throw your diamonds in the sky."

The glow in the dark tour included a satisfiable amount of material from all three of West's albums: College Dropout, Late Registration and the most recent smash Graduation.

Other songs included, "Flashing Lights," "All Falls Down" and "Touch the Sky."

There were no crowd favorites. Every single song was something someone in the building wanted to hear. "Gold Digger" brought the house down; "Good Life" almost sent the place into uncontrollable frenzy and "Jesus Walks" gave us and West a little spiritual enlightenment.

The rapper promised to stop talking smack and stop spazzing out at awards shows.

While spirits rang high, West decided to gut-check the audience with his much-anticipated rendition of "Hey Mama." Oh ma' gawd.

From where I stood, fans were visibly moved (I know I cried like a baby for this one).

With the lights dimmed and only a spotlight on him, West closed his eyes through every verse. "Last night I saw you in my dreams..." he sang to his late mother Donda West, whose unexpected death left West's immediate career in question.

What truly surprised the crowd was the Journey interlude following that song.

Yes, you read right.

At the closing stanzas of "Hey Mama" the band quickly shifted gears into "Don't Stop Believin'.

With Kanye West expect the unexpected. Embrace your flaws, he says and believe in your flyness to conquer your shyness.

Such an appropriate mantra for "Stronger" now nearing the end of the show.

We didn't want the night to end. The entire production (or lack thereof) definitely topped the list of concerts I've been to.

Lupe Fiasco, NERD and Rihanna? What more does a music fan need?

Believe what you want about West. You know what, it just might be true. One thing's for certain: the man can surely entertain.

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the Dallas Morning News by Thor Christensen

Kanye West in his own orbit at Superpages.com Center

The key moment in Kanye West's show Thursday night at Superpages.com Center arrived when he crash-landed on a distant planet and met a female space alien.

"Of course we know who you are," the foxy alien told him. "You're the biggest star in the universe."

At least in his own mind he is. Mr. West has never hidden his raging ego, and during "Jesus Walks" he jokingly promised to "stop spazzing out at awards shows" - a nod to his boorish outburst after losing at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

But merely admitting a problem doesn't make it go away. As energetic and visually stunning as his one-man show was, it also felt like one long love letter to himself.

Not that fans cared. An adoring crowd of about 13,000 danced itself silly throughout the show.

Yet the concert lacked the emotion of his 2005 tour, when he meshed with a live band, complete with string section. This time, he was the sole figure onstage as he rapped over backing tapes for 80 minutes and pretended to be lost in space.

The intergalactic theme seemed hopelessly dated, considering E.L.O. and Parliament/Funkadelic were flying space ships into arenas back when Mr. West was in diapers.

At least the fog-covered moonscapes and glowing orbs were fun to look at - as was the rapper. He was a nonstop blur of jittery limbs and spastic foot work.

But he was clearly dancing with himself. Mr. West seemed aloof onstage - an all-too-typical stance for male rappers these days - and he's even gone so far as to bar the media from photographing him on this tour, lest they publish any unflattering photos. Lost in space, indeed.

The Barbados-born singer Rihanna preceded Mr. West with a 30-minute set full of choreography and costumes. She strutted onstage in tight hot pants - her back to the crowd so all could admire her derriere - and quickly changed into a form-fitting day-glo outfit.

Her voice had much less pizzazz. Rihanna's low-key singing may be better suited to clubs than 20,000-seat amphitheaters.

But what she lacked in lung power she made up for in range as she hopped from throbbing dance tunes ("Don't Stop the Music") to M.I.A.'s gangsta-flavored "Paper Planes" to her own infectious confection "Umbrella."

N*E*R*D preceded Rihanna with an equally far-ranging set. The trio expanded to a 12-piece onstage and journeyed from hyper drum duels to funk rock to a blistering remake of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army."

Band member Pharrell Williams couldn't carry a tune, but the point was moot: When a dozen guys are pogo dancing in unison, who needs vocal dexterity?

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the Houston Chronicle by Joey Guerra

Kanye West and his surreal, sci-fi odyssey
photo: Kevin Mazur: WireImage

Kanye West's hotheaded tantrums are, for most people, the stuff of TV legend. Crying foul after losses at the Grammys and the MTV Video Music Awards. Dissing George Bush during a Katrina fundraiser.

Friday night at the Woodlands Pavilion, local fans got a brief, stinging glimpse of West's superstar wrath. Two songs into his strange, sometimes exhilarating, sci-fi themed performance, a pair of huge video screens that were supposed to be following the onstage action flickered off and turned blue.

West kept performing, but he naturally snapped when he noticed the technical difficulties.

"Turn the (expletive) screen off," he yelled amid the thundering bass and samples of I Wonder. "Turn the damn screens off if they not working."

Tekkies were likely scrambling to correct the mistake, but it wasn't fast enough for West. He stormed offstage, prompting a chorus of boos, then cheers once the screens were shut down. He reappeared about 30 seconds later and jumped right back into the song. (The video was finally fixed 35 minutes into the show.)

The drama was even reported over at PerezHilton.com, and one sly fan caught it on video.

Glitches are inevitably part of life, especially for such a high-tech touring show. But that chink in West's tightly wound armor was, for him, a mini-disaster. It threatened to interrupt the flow of his 2001: A Space Odyssey-inspired storyline, a device meant to cement and glorify his superstar status. (Photographers were also not allowed inside the show.)

Glowing white spheres hovered above the immense stage, which was meticulously constructed to look like shadowy sand dunes on some unknown planet. Snippets of Stronger, West's Daft Punk-lifted hit, teased the immense crowd.

A huge video backdrop projected stars and portions of West's imaginary spaceship, which crash landed after being hit by meteors in the prerecorded intro. He was alone onstage, save for the monotone voice of "Jane," the female supercomputer manning the controls. (He interacted briefly with a fake alien, who floated across the stage and dubbed West "The biggest star in the uuu-niverse.")

No band. No dancers. No backup singers. West was the solo star of his 90-minute hip-hop vision, dressed in jeans and sneaks, topped by what looked like a bulky sweater. (He thanked the band at the end of the show, who he said was hidden backstage.)

It was an odd, fascinating dynamic that left little room for audience interaction, save for the obligatory commands to throw hands in the air or sing along. This felt like a musical revue, a sonic cred-sheet. West stomped around an inclined stage that was backed by a smaller video screen. It was equal parts interpretive dance, Vegas revue and DisneyWorld ride.

The song order, anchored by material from his terrific Graduation disc, supported his performance plotline. Heard 'Em Say played like a foot-controlled video game. Each boom of the bass/tap of West's shoes triggered a video explosion. Breakout hit Through the Wire incited a sea of hands to wave back and forth, and newer song Champion was a spectacle of smoke and lights.

Diamonds From Sierra Leone was a frenetic highlight, the crowd throwing the trademark diamonds sign into the air as West kicked and thrashed along with the "Ever, ever/Ever, ever" hook.

The booming instrumentation added excitement but made it hard to really hear some of the songs, and at times, West was almost hidden by the clouds of smoke that swirled across the stage.

None of that mattered to fans, who were in the palm of West's hand from the moment he appeared. It was a starting mix for a hip-hop show. Black, white and Asian folks milled amid the seats, many sporting neon shirts, backpacks and cheapie versions of West's signature shutter shades (a la the Stronger video).

For all the rapture through the aisles, West at times seemed joyless. He rarely smiled and tore through each song like an angry pitbull. The self-indulgent, sci-fi framework sometimes became tedious and, at times, highlighted West's wooden acting skills. (His exchanges with "Jane" were obviously scripted.)

He was most engaging when the music simply moved him. Dancing straight-up freestyle during the seductive glow of Flashing Lights and the soulful samples of All Falls Down. And he gave Houston a shout-out during the processed vocals of Good Life.

The dirty beats of Gold Digger were accompanied by a scantily clad video vixen. West let the crowd take over mid-song so he could take a long swig of something.

"It's too hot," he said. "Y'all got to say these words."

The ominous gospel chant of Jesus Walks came with a promise "to stop spazzing out at award shows. And my own shows." Unlikely, perhaps, but the tune proved a standout and gave the show a much-needed emotional focal point. It segued directly into Oh Mama, the heartfelt tribute to West's late mother that was a highlight of February's Grammys. He then sat sidestage for a riff on Journey's Don't Stop Believin' another reminder of mama. It was an oddly effective, touching interlude.

Finally, after a false start, West's spaceship was ready to return to Earth. And only his starpower, supercomputer Jane decided, could save the day.

With that, he launched into the high-energy house strains of Stronger before ending with the triumphant one-two punch of Homecoming, his gorgeous new single featuring Coldplay's Chris Martin; and Touch the Sky, which boasted a brief appearance by opener Lupe Fiasco -- the only person deemed worthy enough to party with the hip-hop headliner.

Another pair of openers offered more standard, less surreal, half-hour sets. The Pharrell Williams-fronted N.E.R.D. blasted through several songs that boasted hip-hop beats and rock 'n' roll hearts. Williams asked for a moment of prayer for fellow N.E.R.D. Chad Hugo, who was absent because of "some unfortunate news."

The live band made some intriguing noise, but much of it was drowned out, at least in the beginning, by overpumped bass and a pair of drum sets. And a few stray members/friends/hangers-on did little more than swagger across the stage to the music.

"Put yo hands up, don't be embarrassed!" Hugo commanded. He also asked if anyone in the venue -- including those on the lawn -- liked to mosh.

With that, a flurry of fans raced toward the front, and Williams handpicked a select few to join him onstage. Security guards looked ready to pounce or pass out. Several people huddled near the stage, bobbing and throwing their hands in the air.

UGK member Bun B popped onstage, as did Rihanna's (maybe) boyfriend Chris Brown. By the end of the set, the N.E.R.D. party was in full swing.

Rihanna herself offered a lively mix that featured a terrific band, a quartet of dancers and an illuminated "R" that hung just above her set. She emerged from behind it in a garish, neon dominatrix outfit for a nonstop pop parade that include should-be-a-single Breakin' Dishes, Break it Off, the hip-shaking Pon de Replay and -- in an inspired move -- MIA's controversial Paper Planes, complete with gunshot effects.

Despite her brief stage time, Ri-Ri managed a quick change into neon-accented, black parachute pants and a chained biker cap. She was the only act who held fast, at least in some way, to the tour's Glow in the Dark moniker.

Pivotal hit SOS could have used more pop sizzle, and the melodic Hate That I Love You also fell a bit flat without duet partner Ne-Yo. Dark ballad Unfaithful proved a better showcase for her still-maturing vocals.

Dancers wielded light sabers (really meant to work as overgrown glowsticks) during Don't Stop the Music, a club thumper disguised as a pop hit. The churning groove -- and ingenious sample of Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' -- brought the mood to a fever pitch.

But it was, of course, the ubiquitous Umbrella that sent the biggest charge through the crowd.

"I remember the first time I heard it. I fell in love with it instantly," Rihanna said. "That eh-eh-eh ..."

It was all fans needed to launch into the repetitive, ridiculously catchy refrain. No spaceship needed.

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the Atlanta Journal Constitution by Sonia Murray

Kanye West Lands In Duluth
photo: Atlanta Journal Constitution

Hip-hop phenom Kanye West finally brought his live show to his Atlanta fans Sunday night, and while his Glow In The Dark tour may feel a little past his latest CD's expiration date, his concert was something light years from now.

Whatever epoch his visually arresting stage show was set in, apparently it was not a time when anyone other West (above) needed to be on the Arena at Gwinnett Center stage - as his incredible band was set just underneath him in an orchestra pit, and in all black. Apparently it was also not a time where any other recording artists should make an appearance with him - as the only person who joined West was opener, rapper Lupe Fiasco on one of the closing tunes, "Touch The Sky". And apparently it was not a place much on typical audience banter either - as the only time West seemed to kind of acknowledge where he was was during "Good Life", when he changed the chorus to "The good life - it feel[s] like A-Town/it feel[s] like A-Town/it feel[s] like A-Town!"

The capacity crowd, however, had no problem acknowledging West, as it remained on its feet almost the entire concert as the 10-time Grammy winner gave what felt like a breathless, almost athletic 90-minute performance. And again, it was just him in a kind of urban, universal soldier get-up; his spectacular, crashed-space-ship stage outfitted with everything from movie-like lighting, white and yellow flame blasts to an unnecessary (and unfortunate) near-naked plastic woman; and a three-CD catalog made up of some of the biggest hits ("Stronger," "Gold Digger", "Through The Wire") of the past four years.

The first highlight may have come a mere half an hour in, when he went into the chorus of the DJ Toomp-produced "Can't Tell Me Nothing", the house lights came up, and seemingly everyone in the arena was singing "Naaaaa/Naaa/Na-na/ Wait til I get my money right!"

And even with the lights lowered it was hard not to spot the numerous music (Chris Brown, Bow Wow, Musiq, Scar), music industry (Quincy Jones, Jermaine Dupri, Chaka Zulu, Shakir Stewart, Phillana Williams, Catherine Brewton, DJs Nabs and Doc, Rico Brooks, Ricardo Spicer, Keinon "Sleep" Johnson, Ron Hurd), TV (Kenny Burns, Ryan Glover) and sports (Jamal Anderson) stars in attendance.

The dynamic West more than made up for the lack of energy in Rihanna's 30 minute-plus set, which the widely diverse audience mostly stood and watched like it was a fashion show. (And to her credit, the singer - in fishnet stockings and a tight, black, short, leather one-piece with hot pink piping - was certainly fashionable).

Perhaps Rihanna was just worn out from the N.E.R.D. show that preceded hers, where producer/recording artist/singer/pin-up Pharrell Williams' ensemble surged through their lesser-known singles with the kinetic energy of a punk band.

And where West was clearly "the biggest star in [this] universe" - as that unfortunate plastic woman "told" him during the show- Rihanna, the eye candy, and N.E.R.D. the electric current, timely opener Fiasco was hip-hop at its best, and most basic: Just him, a DJ, and something thoughtful to say.

Were you in the capacity crowd last night? How would you rate the show? Do you think he and Rihanna should have toured when their latest CDs were hotter, or did Glow in the Dark feel timely to you?

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the Tampa Tribune by Curtis Ross

Spaceman West Steers For The Stars

So there's this spaceship, right? And it's hurtling through the galaxy in search of inspiration because earth is out of creativity, or so the voice-over tells us.

Anyway, it crashes, the spaceship does, right there on the stage of the Ford Amphitheatre and who should emerge from the smoldering wreckage but, "the brightest star in the galaxy" - there's that voice-over again - Kanye West!

Well who else? He's established that he believes himself to be the greatest thing to hit the universe, so why not play it up?

Indeed, it would take an ego the size of, well, West's to perform a full-length live set with absolutely no-one else on the stage save for yourself (and a cameo by opening act Lupe Fiasco near set's end).

But it takes something for stronger than hubris to do that and make it an entertaining, even memorable, show.

It helps, of course, that West had three album's worth of hip hop's strongest pop music from which to draw.

West sequenced the set list to tell the story of his crash landing and eventual rescue from an unknown planet. When his talking spaceship reminded him that "this isn't your first crash," it cued "Through the Wire," the story of the car accident that temporarily derailed West's career. A prayer for rescue - in which West promises God that he'll "stop spazzing out at awards shows" - preceded "Jesus Walks." When West discovered that he and he alone could - naturally - could power his broken spaceship, the vocoder intro to "Stronger" pulsed from the speakers.

What saves West's ego from being insufferable is that it's combined with a sense of humor and also with genuine emotion, displayed most openly on "Hey Mama," a song written before the death of his mother last year. Afterward, West sat on the side of the stage as his band, hidden away beneath the stage, played Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'."

West makes no bones about the fact that he thinks a lot of himself, and on nights like Monday, it's hard to disagree with him.

Lupe Fiasco took the stage at 6:15 p.m. with a blistering sunset threatening the retinas of the early crowd. His no-frills set - a black backdrop, a DJ and some contributions from a pair of vocalists and a second MC - didn't detract from the strength of numbers such as "Go Go Gadget Flow," "Superstar" and "Hip Hop Saved My Life," although some over-singing robbed "Paris, Tokyo" of its lazy sensuality.

N.E.R.D. positively burned through its set, bringing audience members on stage to dance, and building anticipation for the group's third album, out June 10. The group's rock and hip hop hybrid gets the balance right in a way the nu-metal crowd never could.

In contrast, Rihanna seemed subdued by comparison during her 35-minute set. The set ended, not surprisingly, with her biggest hit, "Umbrella," featuring her dancers twirling the titular objects. An earlier song may have overshadowed West's concept with Rihanna's dancers swinging light sabers.

The crowd was reported at about 9,500.

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the Miami Herald by Michael Hamersly

Kanye pokes fun at rap brat rep

Although Kanye West was clearly the headliner Tuesday night in his Glow in the Dark Tour at downtown Miami's AmericanAirlines Arena, the three other acts on the bill got plenty of love from the enthusiastic sold-out crowd.

Lupe Fiasco, who rocked the urban-prep look by popping up the collar of his red Polo, got everyone moving in unison with his hits Superstar and the cinematic, trip-hop-flavored Daydreamin', on which singer Nikki Jean filled in for Jill Scott's vocals.

N.E.R.D., featuring Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes, fused funk, rock and hip-hop with rowdy hits Brain and Rock Star. Williams, who now lives in Miami, gave his new city a shout-out, while dissing Tampa, which recently hosted the tour: ``Let me tell you something -- Tampa could never, ever touch Miami!''

New R&B-pop princess Rihanna crammed all her hits into a lively half-hour set, including Breakin' Dishes, Break It Off, Pon de Replay, SOS and Unfaithful. At times, though, her voice was either drowned out by the over-saturated drums or too weak in the lower registers to fill the room. But no worries: The crowd hopped up and down for Don't Stop the Music, during which dancers spun three-foot-long, neon-green glowsticks, and nearly outsang Rihanna on her ubiquitous hit Umbrella.

Before West came out, super producer Timbaland caused a stir by standing up and waving from the sound-mixing area when his song The Way I Are was blasted over the sound system.

But the night was all about West. With his band below the stage shrouded in darkness, he opened the show with Good Morning, the kick-off track from his latest album Graduation, while lying on his back in front of scenes from a distant planet -- stars, smoke, craggy rocks, meteorites, explosions -- a theme that would carry the night.

Though Kanye's focus was naturally on Graduation, he performed favorites from 2004's The College Dropout including Through the Wire and All Falls Down. He even poked fun at his notoriously confrontational side during Jesus Walks, saying in a skit: ``God, if you can just get me off this planet, I promise to stop talking so much s---. I promise to stop spazzing out at awards shows. I just wanna go home.''

West also tapped 2005's Late Registration with the tracks Heard 'Em Say, Diamonds From Sierra Leone (during which most of the crowd made diamond shapes with their hands) and Gold Digger. And the poignant moment of the night was when West egged on the crowd to scream during Hey Mama, his musical love letter to his mother, who died last November after complications from a surgical procedure.

Material from Graduation included a spirited version of Can't Tell Me Nothing, with the crowd rapping along to the lyrics ''I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny/And what do I do? Act more stupidly. Bought more jewelry, more Louis V/My mama couldn't get through to me''; the synth-heavy house music stomper Flashing Lights; and the buoyant hit Good Life. West predictably ended with his hit Stronger, which heavily samples French DJ duo Daft Punk's delirious dance anthem Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

But the night might be summed up best by a sample on West's song Champion, from Steely Dan's now obscure Kid Charlemagne: ``Do you realize that you are a champion in their eyes?''

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the Charlotte Observer by Courtney Devores

Kanye West's 'Glow in the Dark' tour>

Since its debut in Seattle last month, Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" tour has been called magnificent and thrilling (Seattle Times).

One reviewer said the futuristic production "raises the bar for arena tours" (Los Angeles Times).

Yet the outspoken rapper's profanity-laden online response to a favorable if not glowing B+ review in last week's Entertainment Weekly is another example of the attitude, among other factors, that kept 2008's hottest hip-hop tour from selling out Time Warner Cable Arena Thursday night.

Despite your opinion of his controversies, West's power as a performer, producer, and writer is undeniable. Not one to just throw a band together and hit the road, West created a science fiction/hip-hop epic where he alone was the star. Few performers could pull off such a one-man show, but West ripped through 18 songs in little over an hour. The show may not have sold out, but the fans that were there got their money's worth. With the balcony blacked out, there were few bad seats in the house.

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco kicked the night off with an energetic set that climaxed with his hit "Superstar," featuring a mohawked Matthew Santos on guest vocals. Fiasco's set was simple compared to the other more lavish performances. But he is such an active and charismatic performer he easily engaged the crowd. The sound, marked by chest-thumping bass, was certainly the loudest, but still clearest I've heard from the floor of the arena.

N.E.R.D., led by producer/performer Pharrell Williams, brought an unpredictable rock 'n' roll kick to the show. The full band included Williams' N.E.R.D. partners Chad Hugo and Shay Haley and two drummers. A high energy mix of hip-hop, punk, and dance, Williams packed the stage with 15 audience members for a wild dance spectacle that included the biggest surprise guest of the night -- Rihanna's beau, Chris Brown. The audience could see someone's moves were far more electrifying than any of the other guests. It became apparent who those moves belonged to when Williams thanked Brown at the end of the song. Four more lucky ladies got to groove on stage next to (and hug) Williams and Shay as the band closed their set.

The lone lady on the bill, Rihanna, made her entrance wearing a black and pink leather short unitard and boots that played up her "Good Girl Gone Bad" S&M fashion and the "Glow in the Dark" theme of the show. Still relegated to the same front portion of the stage as the other openers, she made the most of it with a small team of dancers. She sassily ran through "Breakin' Dishes," "S.O.S.," "Unfaithful," and "Don't Stop the Music" before capping her set with her monster hit "Umbrella." Fans around the arena waved opened umbrellas as they sang along. She sang her "I'll be here forever" line with such conviction that it sounded like a declaration about her pop music career.

West's first appearance, lying on his back on the ramp of his crashed spaceship (a series of large screens depicting the ship and his surroundings), was met with the first true deafening crowd screams of the night. The rocky stage was built to look like the surface of another planet, where West and his ship Jane were stranded.

With a band hidden in front of the stage, he was alone on the stage with no hypeman or dancers to take the pressure off. He not only rapped, but sang -- bouncing from foot to foot for the opener of "Good Morning" followed by "I Wonder." He ran through "Heard 'Em Say," "Through the Wire," and "Diamonds From Sierra Leone," barely stopping to converse with "Jane." But it was the confrontational "Can't Tell Me Nothing," which had fans pumping their arms and singing.

West paced the show brilliantly, building to a windfall of crowd pleasers in "Gold Digger," "Good Life" and "Jesus Walks." Abandoned by his powered-down spaceship before the latter he promised God that he'd "stop spazzing out at awards shows" if God would get him home. With drops of sweat dripping from his goatee he began "Hey Mama," the touching tribute to his mother who died in 2007.

The spirit of the show crescendoed as it followed West's "quest for home" storyline. After a surprising portion of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" (which was also the only time he sat down during the show), he "repaired" his ship and rallied himself and the crowd with "Stronger," which built still to the finale of "Touch the Sky."

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the Raleigh News & Observer by David Menconi

Kanye West dazzles at Walnut Creek

Kanye West is the perfect pop star for our instant-gratification era.
It's not just that he wants the world, it's that he wants it RIGHT NOW. He's like a ballplayer who declares he's ready for the Hall of Fame before halftime of his first game. But the thing is, the opening stretch of West's career has been pretty spectacular -- and never more so than with his "Glow in the Dark Tour," which played Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek on Friday night.

Never one to make it easy on himself, West loaded up the bill with three choice opening acts. Well, two choice acts, anyway. Opener Lupe Fiasco showed off his typically slick flow, but the early start time (6:15 p.m.), bright evening daylight and late-arriving crowd made for a low-energy set. Only his closing number, "Superstar," got the crowd going.

No such problems with second act N*E*R*D, superstar producer Pharrell Williams' band. Employing two drummers, crushing bass and slam-bang guitar, N*E*R*D came across as George Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars turned up to 11. It was a wickedly fun half-hour, especially when he brought a bunch of women from the crowd onstage to dance at the end.

Here's what I can tell you about penultimate act Rhianna: She's cut like an aerobics instructor; she has all the onstage presence of a grape; and whoever does her live sound is either deaf or loves bass, because it was the worst sound mix I've ever heard (seriously). The lower-end shock waves completely swallowed up her voice, which might have been putting on a vocal display worthy of Pavarotti for all anyone could hear. There was no telling, because Aretha Franklin herself could not have cut through this much aural sludge.

Finally, the lights went down and the headline act began. Calling West's performance a mere "concert" seems somehow inadequate, even though he was the only person visible during his 90-minute set (his band played from beneath the stage). It was more like a dramatic multimedia recital, stitching songs from West's three albums into a conceptual science-fiction pastiche. While it might not have held together narratively, it was dazzling to watch.

Whatever futuristic alienation Radiohead put down over in Charlotte Friday night could not have held a candle to this. The story began with West's spaceship (named "Jane") crash-landing on an uncharted planet. Marooned in space, he began a dark journey through the soul in which only West himself -- "the brightest star in the universe" -- was capable of providing his own redemption.

Narcissistic? Vainglorious? Laughably pompous? Yes, yes and yes. But also pretty amazing. Lights, shadows, flames, smoke, fog and video screens of exploding stars and colors were craftily deployed, creating a series of alien environments for West to traverse as he held forth.

At one point, West pined for female companionship. So his spaceship Jane came to his rescue, morphing into a slinky "Star Trek"-style vixen on a video screen -- the perfect backdrop for "Gold Digger," the best song of the set. He hit most of the other high points from his three albums, particularly "Jesus Walks," "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Flashing Lights."

But less than any of his songs, West himself was the star of his own drama. He seems like he's onto himself, which doesn't mean he can help it. At the point in the storyline where he started praying to the almighty, he sent up this shout-out: "God, if you get me off this planet, I promise to change my ways. I promise to stop talking [expletive]. And I promise to stop spazzing out at awards shows."

Eventually, West just might turn out to be as good as he thinks he is. He's not there yet, but I don't think I'd bet against him.

Setlist:
1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the The Virginian-Pilot by Malcolm Venable

N.E.R.D., Kanye: a review of last night's show

In Kanye West's world, there is just him. He is not only the star, but the ship and the galaxy too and we are fortunate to simply marvel and bask.

This is the underlying message of his Glow in the Dark Tour, the show he presented at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater Sunday. The show also featured rapper Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna and N.E.R.D., the rock group comprised of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley of Virginia Beach.

Previous reviews from media outlets have hyped the show to the hilt, with rave gushing about art direction, breadth and scope and the idea that West has irrevocably set higher standards for hip hop shows and concerts in general.

Perhaps they showed a different show.

West's show begins with him falling onto some planet he does not know or recognize. We know this because he communicates with his ship, Jane, through the course of the program. West, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt with a harness over it and brilliant high-top sneakers, reveals something to the effect that he's on a mission-one that involves him restoring creativity to Earth.

He is epic, really, and as he opened the show with "Good Morning" from his latest album, it is clear that West is certainly a gift to hip hop and music in general.

During his set, he danced rapped with an intensity and passion that practically unseen at rap concerts today. His jerking and sweating and steam rising off his head is visual proof that he goes somewhere we do not understand and are truthfully lucky to bear witness to.

The set, however, did not live up to what were probably unfair expectations. West's stage consisted of a rocky, wavy terrain surface with a large screen behind him. Center in the plateau was another screen adjustable in height. That was it. No hype men, no dancers, no singers, not even-contrary to at least literal interpretations of the tour's name-anything glowing in the dark.

It was all Kanye, all the time. If you or your loved ones are one in the army of super excited Kanye fans wearing printed hoodies and fancy sneakers, this was right up your alley. Casual Kanye listeners, however, might have found this a touch boring at points and slightly melodramatic. And those on the furthest end of the spectrum, those not sold on the idea that Kanye is the light and the way, would no doubt have liked to change places with him and themselves be flung to outer space.

The surprising irony of the show, despite the lack of glow in the dark things, was that Kanye is such a mesmerizing performer he does not really need Bruckheimer fire and explosions; one wishes there was a way to merge his musical and visual vision into something more subtle. But then, this is Kanye West, and subtlety has proven not to be a defining trait.

Also un-subtle was the rock group No One Ever Really Dies, who put on a lively, inspired set. Of this group Pharrell is the obvious star, but he somehow never overshadowed either his group's music or other members. They came out to an apparently new song from their forthcoming album "Seeing Sounds" and, through the rain, performed a song that might be described as a mixture of gangsta rap and heavy metal. "Are you ADHD?" they screamed during the chorus. The rain stopped.

N.E.R.D. tore through their oeuvre, doing songs including "Brain," "Lapdance," and another new thrash-rap song called "Spaz." Chris Brown, the singer from Tappahannock who is rumored to be dating another singer on the tour, Rihanna, surprised everyone with an appearance and some high energy dance moves.

"I don't need to say nothing corny," said Pharrell, with Shay playing the energetic rapper and Chad playing the super-cool keyboard player, "Y'all know where we're from. You know we're from here. We eat at 7-11. We know the big booty girls hang out at Military Circle Mall, and we know there's a lot of talent here in the 7 Cities. Thank you for inspiring this song," he said, before they played, "Rock Star."

They played "Everyone Nose" and did a rendition of "The Beeper Song" with their friend, Norfolk rapper Fam-Lay, and invited girls on stage to dance for "She Wants to Move."

As they finished their set, Pharrell, who is perhaps by now aware of his own iconography, formed his hands into the "two up, two down" - a gesture symbolizing Virginia. Everyone followed along and the instant they left the stage, the heavy rain came down again.

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the The New York Daily News by Jim Farber
photo: Winter/Getty

Kanye West's wrong direction

For years now, critics have snickered that Kanye West lives in his own world.

His latest tour seems hellbent on proving them right.

At Tuesday night's Madison Square Garden stop on his national "Glow in the Dark" tour, West rapped and roamed around an otherwise empty stage, assuring that all focus would land entirely on himself.

The vast staging mimicked a lunar landscape in a world far away, underscoring "Glow's" intergalactic theme, which served the star's ego as well. At one point in the night's "Lost in Space" scenario, West met a female space alien who, naturally, recognized him.

"You're the biggest star in the universe," she exclaimed.

Perhaps he is, because on this tour West is getting away with an order - no pictures taken by the press - that has been decreed by just one other musician, Bob Dylan.

The comparison may not flatter West as an artist, but on his own level, he deserves his kudos and hits. As emphasized by the repertoire in his 90-minute show, his songs are full of originality and hook appeal. Unfortunately, last night's bizarre presentation of them took away from their zest rather than adding to it.

By appearing as a solitary figure on a blank expanse - with his band banished to a place literally beneath him - West seemed remote, static and even lonely. Your average production of "Waiting for Godot" sees more action than this. Couple that with the dark lighting and heavy use of fog, and fans had little more to behold than a shadowy blur, relieved only by repetitive videos of explosions to simulate drama.

That's a shame because, as a rapper, West delivered his material with deftness and force. He worked his way around the staccato gospel chorus of "Jesus Walks" with amazing grace and took daring liberties with the beat in "Champion," adding cool a cappella breaks. His music ably ran the gamut from the soul of "All Falls Down" to the lounge R&B of "Gold Digger" to the synth-pop of "Stronger."

Next time West may want to take a cue from one of his three opening acts - Lupe Fiasco - who came out all the stronger for letting two singers sometimes upstage him. A little humility goes a long way.

Setlist:

1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Kanye West Glow in The Dark Tour 2008 Review from the The Boston Herald by Chris Faraone


West Glows with his friends

Kanye West is insanely vain. But if he was half the megalomaniac he makes himself out to be, the self-proclaimed "biggest star in the universe'' wouldn't have invited marquee acts Lupe Fiasco and N.E.R.D. to illuminate his Glow in the Dark tour.

Before the headliner's propspaceship landed on the Tweeter Center stage, ticket holders got more than two hours of assorted Billboard bangers. As West likely planned, the pre-show got blood flowing, but was hardly enough to exhaust devotees.

Lupe Fiasco's set was fully loaded, with Chicago's most fashion-able Muslim dashing through major hits, including "Kick, Push" and less-commercial blasts such as "Hip-Hop Saved My Life."

N.E.R.D. exploded unannounced. For a half-hour, the new age rock-hoppers brought raucous spontaneity, something that their tourmates avoided. As the sun ducked behind the amphitheater, N.E.R.D. front-man Pharrell Williams unwound the frenetic new "Spaz," smacked some cymbals and invited the bustiest groupie he could find to grind on stage.

While the first two acts complemented West's mission, teen hottie Rihanna served no artistic purpose. Dressed for a gothic wedding with Catwoman undergarments, she smiled through "Work It Up Boy," "Pon de Replay," "Umbrella" and a rash of other cuts that sounded as manufactured live as they do on radio.

For his turn, Kanye delivered the most visually magnificent show in hip-hop history, complete with the galaxy's grandest LED display and cotton candy-colored pyrotechnics. His theme - that he's lost in outer space - provided more of a framework forhits than an actual storyline. (Think Mama Mia with some stank on it.)

Performing from atop of hisspaceship, West essentially kicked an extended version of the set he brought to the TD BankNorth Garden last October, but with harder, better, faster, stronger sounds, concepts and aesthetics highlighting his trite lyrics and sample-heavy production on tracks ranging from the obligatory "Jesus Walks" to "Good Life."

West might not really be the biggest star in the universe, but there is a difference between him and his opening acts, as well as between him and the underground artists whose ideas he borrows and manicures for mainstream rap fans. For some reason, he's the one who gets to tour America with an infinitely dimensional luminescent backdrop while 20,000 heads worship his every last line.

Setlist:
1. "Good Morning"
2. "I Wonder"
3. "Heard 'Em Say"
4. "Through the Wire"
5. "Champion"
6. "Get 'Em High"7. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
8. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
9. "Flashing Lights"
10. "Spaceship"
11. "All Falls Down"
12. "Gold Digger"
13. "Good Life"
14. "Jesus Walks"
15. "Hey Mama"
16. Cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
17. "Stronger"
18. "Homecoming"
19. "Touch the Sky"

Review from The Philadelphia Inquirer
by Dan DeLuca

Kanye West descends from the firmament

Great pop stars force their audiences to share their obsessions. For Kanye West, that means making people care about Kanye West as much as Kanye West does.
That might seem like an impossible task for an artist as deeply preoccupied with his own tribulations as the famously self-involved Chicago rapper and producer. But on Saturday at the Susquehanna Bank Center (the Camden amphitheater formerly known as the Tweeter), West pretty much accomplished his mission with his Glow in the Dark tour, which featured a stellar undercard of Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco.

While performing a highly energetic hour-and-a-half set of hits, West also largely succeeded in remaking the pop concert spectacle in, naturally, his own image. Rather than appear on stage with a band, or a DJ, or a posse of sycophants, West cast himself as the sole star in an intergalactic hip-hop-era, a space traveler stranded alone on a stage designed to look like a barren planet in a far-off solar system.

Other than a visitation by a buoyant bunch of Japanese anime shooting stars, who arrived to tell him what he already knows - "You are the brightest star in the universe" - West was all by his lonesome, accompanied only by his 2001: A Space Odyssey-style talking spaceship, Jane. A man alone with his GPS system, trying to get home to Earth which, without him, has "lost all creativity."

A high - and highly goofy - concept to be sure, but one that allowed West to string together a winning array of self-obsessing, soul-searching songs such as "Jesus Walks," "Diamonds From Sierra Leone," and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" from his higher-ed-themed album trilogy, The College Dropout (2004), Late Registration (2005), and Graduation (2007).

Dripping with sweat and wearing an outfit that seemed more appropriate for a cricket match than space travel, West wasn't entirely unassisted.

A full-size band played in a pit below the stage, reshuffling beats and aiding a fiercely focused West as he breathed fresh life into tunes such as the ebullient Michael Jackson-sampling "Good Life," and "Heard 'Em Say" in which he showed that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is not the only Chicagoan with a bully pulpit rapping that "the government administers AIDS."

Like many an ambitious auteur before him, West is a critic's darling who motivates himself by imagining a world full of "haters" out to get him.

In his closing remarks, he complained of being made to "seem like such a monster in the press," and freestyled for his people: "This is my struggle, my struggle / My hustle, my hustle / 'Cause I was you, I was you." Maybe before he strapped rocket launchers onto his boots and took off into space like a Nietzschean hip-hop superman, that is.

Fellow Chi-town rapper Fiasco opened the show with a stripped-down approach. "Daydreamin' " was an appropriately lively finale, but it was the only song I caught. The Susquehanna has a new name, but the same old traffic snafus.

N.E.R.D., fronted by Pharrell Williams, followed. It's a hip-hop rock-band sideline for the R&B/hip-hop producer of the Neptunes (which includes his partner, Chad Hugo, and rapper Shay). The band numbered a dozen strong, with two drummers and two lead guitarists. The songs, some from the album Seeing Sounds, due next month, expressed uncomplicated ideas such as "spaz if you want to" with propulsive beat-savvy riff-rock that made remaining motionless highly difficult.

Rihanna followed with an impressively professional set of pop-diva moves, albeit one whose black-leather naughtiness was dressed up in Madonna hand-me-downs. She was not shy about filling out her show with snippets of others' hits, including M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" and Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" before unifying the Kanye crowd under her own "Umbrella."

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Weekender
by Michael Lello

REVIEW: West, Rihanna 'Glow In The Dark'

Hip-hop superstar Kanye West has created something so epic, so massive, that it dwarfs even his equally larger-than-life ego.

It's called the "Glow In The Dark Tour," and it's an impressive spectacle of video screens, elaborate staging, lights, fire and sound that played to 9,000 fans at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain Sunday night, the first show in this year's concert series.

Joined on the bill by pop/R&B princess Rihanna, rock/rap hybrid N.E.R.D. and rapper Lupe Fiasco, the "Glow In The Dark Tour" is an ambitious, entertaining show that brings together some of the genre's bigger acts, and all of them delivered to varying degrees of success Sunday.

West, 29, was the only person on stage during his one-and-a-half-hour set, which told the story of his spaceship crashing on an unknown planet. An unseen band played behind the stage, and the only person he interacted with all night was "Jane," the voice of the spaceship. The stage resembled the barren landscape of a foreign planet, and behind it were two massive digital video screens.

The theme of isolation is a fitting one for West's show, considering he has taken on a me-against-the-world attitude in his career. But despite a visually stunning experience and some passionately delivered songs - especially "Gold Digger," "Jesus Walks" and "Stronger" - West's decision to be the lone focal point on stage was not always successful. With no other performers in sight, it sometimes came off as karaoke night on the Starship Enterprise.

Early highlights of West's set were "Heard 'Em Say" from 2005's "Late Registration" album and the lively "Champion" from "Graduation," released last year. "Spaceship," from 2004's "The College Dropout," was poignant and rapped with energy and emotion, West telling the tale of unfair, racially motivated treatment in the workplace; West's lyrics more often than not go beyond the girls, drugs, violence and materialism common in rap and hip-hop, and he deserves credit for that.

The aforementioned "Gold Digger," complete with piped-in Jamie Foxx vocals, the boastful "Good Life," "Jesus Walks," "Hey Mama" - a tribute to West's mother written before her death - and the set-closing "Stronger" brought the momentum to a peak before encores of "Homecoming" and "Touch The Sky."

The only criticism of Rihanna, the Barbados-born singer, was that she only performed for 35 minutes. She took the stage in a red, space-age jacket, black tights and black boots, opening with "Breakin' Dishes." Rihanna, 20, was joined by dancers clad in black latex, a pair of background singers, a drummer and a guitar player. "Break It Off" rode an '80s dance groove, and Rihanna's soulful voice shone during a snippet of Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)."

Rihanna's performance Sunday night was sensual and confident, and unlike many of her contemporaries - studio creations that do not translate well live - she has the talent and charisma to engage a concert audience.

After changing into a black ruffled skirt and hood, Rihanna delivered a rocking "SOS" before cooling things down with the slow jam "Hate That I Love You." "Don't Stop The Music" raised the energy level again with a thumping club feel, and Rihanna closed the set with a slightly reworked and fun rendition of "Umbrella," her biggest hit.

The most musically adventurous performers of the night were N.E.R.D., led by producer/rapper Pharrell Williams. Essentially a rock act with hip-hop flavor - a six-piece band with four rappers - N.E.R.D.'s upbeat set included "She Wants To Move" as well as a track from a new album due June 10.

Hip-hop is a genre that sells billions of records but still struggles to find its identity as a live medium, often disappointing on stage; if the rock world's equivalents of West and Rihanna played together, it would be in a stadium, not an amphitheater like Toyota Pavilion. However, "The Glow In The Dark Tour," despite sometimes not reaching its own lofty expectations, is a step in the right direction because it dares to the raise the bar to such levels.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Montreal Gazette
by T'Cha Dunlevy

'Biggest star in the universe' glows
Kanye West. Rises late but he delivered the goods

Well, it was worth the wait. Rap superstar Kanye West made his long overdue Montreal debut last night before 13,600 ecstatic fans at the Bell Centre. And if three albums and four years weren't long enough, he took the stage 45 minutes late, at 10:45 p.m. - a time when most bands are into their encore. But he delivered the goods.

His elaborate Glow in the Dark tour turned out to be every bit the audio-visual spectacle he envisioned. Call it 2008: A Space Odyssey. The high-concept performance posited him as a lone, stranded astronaut - a futuristic persona, and setting, for an artist who fancies himself the future of pop music.

He opened the show on his back, lying on what could best be described as the keyboard of an oversized laptop, amid a sand-dune landscape. We learn that "Earth has lost all creativity," and this is a "State of Emergency."

*West to the rescue. He began with the tender Good Mornin', off his new album Graduation. Along with the next two - I Wonder and Heard 'Em Say - it set a striking scene. Images on the screens behind showed spaceship hallways and later, stars, explosions and intergalactic horizons.

As things progressed, the drama increased. He was livid on Diamonds of Sierra Leone, and rabid on Can't Tell Me Nothin'. The crowd chanted along as he shouted, "Wait 'til I get my money."

Neon colours abounded during the clubby Flashing Lights, West striking a pensive pose, then swinging and dancing menacingly (to the crowd's delight) as a starlit spacescape floated by on the screens, and smoke billowing over the dunes behind him.

Throughout, he was was the only visible human (his live band relegated to a pit in front of the stage). But while much has been made of how this setup is a reflection of his oversized ego, the bottom line is it worked.

This was a fantastical, far-out concert, conceived by a mind who has made it his mission to stand above the status quo.

As deadline called, and this critic eyed the exit, West looked back at the screen, wondering if his identity was known. "Of course we know who you are," came the robotic reply. "You're the biggest star in the universe." With last night's concert, West proved where there's a will (and/or an oversized ego), there's a way.

Caribbean R&B-pop princess Rihanna brought her growing arsenal of hits and video tricks to the stage as one of several top-shelf openers. She's not the greatest dancer, or the most animated performer, but she's got style, catchy songs, and she can sing. Her set wasn't that exciting, but it was effective.

N.E.R.D., the side-project of hip-hop super-producers the Neptunes, found leader Pharrell Williams bounding about the stage, shouting, rapping, singing, and inciting the crowd to go nuts to his band's riotous punk-electro-funk barrage.

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco led off at precisely 7:30 p.m., and was admirably animated, breaking a sweat to get the party started.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Toronto Sun
by Jason MacNeil

West meets North
Kanye delivers on chilly Toronto night

When cocksure hip-hop artist Kanye West wanted to bring his version of cool to Toronto, he probably got more than he bargained for last night at Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre.

Granted, West's headlining set and his stellar supporting acts such as Rihanna and N.E.R.D. has made this current Glow In The Dark North American tour one of the hottest this year.

The only problem was that same sonic heat was in tough against Mother Nature, resulting in a cold, chilly and damp experience for the sold-out crowd.

Nonetheless, West made the most of his roughly hour-long set which kicked off with Good Morning from last year's Graduation album before diving headlong into I Wonder.

Perhaps the rapper's show overall was more of a space oddity than anything else. Pretending he had been dropped on some planet and with a trusty Knight Rider-esque assistant named Jane as a helping voice, West sauntered along the large stage that came complete with craters, smoke and a huge video screen showing galaxies and stars.

But despite the chill in the air, and the fact West took to the stage approximately an hour later than scheduled, fans got their money's worth with the mid-tempo groove of Heard 'Em Say from 2005's Late Registration or the ensuing Through the Wire which had him working up a healthy sweat.

Perhaps if there was one problem with the show, it might have been just how quickly West tore through the material. It was as if he was barely coming up for air during Champion which had him briefly flexing his muscles and the snippet of Get Em High that was basically a chance for him to bust some moves.

Basically stuck on his "planet," and not uttering a word to the audience, West continued with his set that occasionally contained some hokey theatre trying to keep the theme of "the biggest star in the universe" being lost and needing to get back home.

Following Diamonds From Sierra Leone, West once again figuratively pounded his chest during Can't Tell Me Nothing as he laid down briefly on his slanted dance floor. Yet fans didn't seem to mind the obvious self-confidence West possesses judging by their reactions to the fine Gold Digger, Jesus Walks and the electro-tinged Flashing Lights.

And fortunately when Kanye nailed Flashing Lights, he wisely didn't bring out the scantily clad gal to bludgeon him to death with a shovel which is what happens in the video for the retro-sounding, electro-pop ditty.

Not to be outdone despite given only half the time, Rihanna brought the show up a notch with a string of hit singles like Breakin' Dishes and the infectious Don't Stop the Music. But even these paled compared to the mega-popular Umbrella and Take a Bow.

Rihanna's set was also notable for its retro design, complete with '80s effects and a red space age top she wore that came complete with Madonna-like conical breasts.

Earlier in the evening, N*E*R*D successfully warmed the crowd up with an energetic half-hour slot featuring songs from Fly or Die and the forthcoming Seeing Sounds. Spaz and Everyone Nose were the highlights.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Detroit News
by Adam Graham

Kanye West wows sold-out Palace

Kanye West doesn't need to be told how good he is, but we're going to go ahead and talk about it anyway.

The Chicago rapper's Glow in the Dark tour -- the most artistically ambitious hip-hop tour ever mounted, by several thousand light years -- dropped by the Palace of Auburn Hills Thursday, and wowed the sold-out crowd of 16,062.

West's virtuoso performance bordered on superhuman -- the man didn't even take a swig of water until an hour into the 90-minute set -- as he commanded the massive stage all by his lonesome. There were no hype men sharing lyrical duty, no breaks between songs, and only one costume change, which occurred near the end of the show. Otherwise, it was just West on stage -- the band was situated at the foot of the stage, orchestra-pit style -- proving throughout his maniacally energetic, awe-inspiring 20-song set he's not only hip-hop's best live performer, but one of the elite live talents in all of music today.

The sci-fi themed show unfolded like "2008: A Kanye Oddyssey." Here's the concept: West is cruising through the cosmos, searching for "a new source of inspiration" -- at this point, he's clearly transcended our galaxy -- when he crashes on a faraway planet. He is looking to find his way back home, presumably to Earth but more specifically to Chicago (where he plays Friday and Saturday).

Throughout the show, he communicates only with his spaceship, which is named Jane and who is programmed (likely by West himself) to say things like "you're the biggest star in the universe!" Songs from West's three albums -- "College Dropout," "Late Registration" and last year's "Graduation" -- are weaved throughout the narrative, with some fitting the interstellar theme better than others ("Spaceship" works better than, say, "All Falls Down").

The concept was a little hokey at times, but was appropriate for West's bigger-than-life, out-of-this-world ambitions. With an enormous screen projecting images of shooting stars and floating asteroids behind him, West stalked the stage -- laid out like the rocky, smoke-filled surface of another planet -- with authority and conviction, throwing his entire body into his every word.

The music -- heavy on deep, pounding drums -- was reinvented to fit the mood of the show, which was more solemn than celebratory. Any rapper can ask the crowd to wave their hands in the air or play games to see which side of the crowd is the loudest, but West didn't pander to the crowd and was more concerned with putting on a spectacle. He didn't address the audience until late in the evening, when he went on a rant about how the media harps on him for his ego ("yeah, I'm cocky, so what? Yeah, I got an ego, so what?" he asked) -- a seemingly petty rant considering the broader themes of the performance (power of will, strength in determination, importance of dreams, etc.).

West rolled through his many hits, groping a digital bikini babe during "Gold Digger" and asking for God's help to get off the strange planet prior to "Jesus Walks." "Hey Mama" was an emotional high, though one of the odder moments came when West sat on stage and mouthed the words as Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" played (perhaps he was holding on to hope that he'd be rescued?).

During "Stronger," West rapped on an elevated platform made to look like a spaceship taking flight. Soon he was back on Earth, meaning, we guess, the power of his words were what brought him back home. "Homecoming" and "Touch the Sky" closed the evening.

One gripe: For a tour called Glow in the Dark, we expected more things to, well, glow in the dark. West's Grammy performance had us prepared for a neon extravaganza, but outside of the Swooshes on West's Nikes, nothing on stage actually glowed. What gives?

But West deserves all kinds of credit for taking live hip-hop and sending it to another stratosphere. Conceptually groundbreaking and masterfully delivered, West's Glow in the Dark tour is one for the history books.

Three acts opened for West, and the best of the bunch was N*E*R*D, the rock outfit fronted by the Neptunes' Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. They brought club energy to the arena -- at one point, there was two dozen people on stage -- and powered through their chorus-heavy material, while Williams radiated the mad charisma of a ska frontman.

"Umbrella" hitmaker Rihanna was eye candy in beyond skin tight pants, but didn't leave much of an impression. Lupe Fiasco, on the other hand, showed real chops, especially on "Daydreamin'" and while rapping rapid fire over French electronic duo Justice's "Let There be Light."

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Chicago Tribune
by Greg Kot

Kanye West takes a one-man trip to dark side of the moon

Even as concertgoers exited the first of two shows Friday at the United Center, Kanye West still wasn't through with them. Ushers handed out a booklet of self-help West-isms, just in case the fans didn't get enough Kanye in the first 90 minutes.

That would've been hard to fathom.

The "Glow in the Dark" tour was all Kanye all the time: a man on stage, alone with his fabricated spaceship and the disembodied voice of "Jane," his co-pilot. His band was tucked in the shadows of the orchestra pit below the stage, while West embarked on a lost-in-space journey that suggested a one-man play as much as it did a concert. It retooled songs from West's three multimillion-selling albums, which trace a young man's path to adulthood, and turned them into dramatic opportunities.

West rapped, sang and danced himself into a sweat-soaked frenzy, the veins popping from his neck, his arms flailing. He even did a few push-ups. The songwriter-producer portrayed himself as hip-hop's answer to Jean-Paul Sartre: an existentialist whose narrative was abetted by cosmic video and smoke machines, and salted with references to Samuel Beckett, Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" and David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

It certainly was like no hip-hop show ever staged. Instead of roaming posses of guest MCs and hangers-on, and wave-your-hands-in-the-air audience participation gambits, West opted for stylized solo theatricality and an almost eerie intensity. He never cracked a smile, but there was no questioning his commitment to the material. His voice was by turns defiant ("Can't Tell Me Nothin' "), resilient ("Through the Wire"), prayerful ("Jesus Walks"), consumed by unrequited lust ("Gold Digger") and celebratory ("Touch the Sky").

Out in space, boys really miss their mothers, and West was no exception. "Hey Mama," in tribute to educator Donda West, who died last year, was re-energized with fresh verses, and was unquestionably the emotional centerpiece of the concert. But the rapper didn't take any moment for granted, as demonstrated by the agile dance steps that topped off "Flashing Lights" or the defiant screams that punctuated "Stronger."

The only letdown was the tepid "Homecoming" as the first encore, an anticlimax after the emotional potency of "Jesus Walks," "Hey Mama" and "Stronger." Otherwise, this was first-tier arena-rap. If West's self-help booklet was more evidence of an ego run amok, the concert was egomania reconfigured as a flawed but fascinating psychodrama.

West's opening acts also brought not just music, but personality -- an essential ingredient when serenading a sold-out basketball stadium.

Rihanna didn't play the R&B diva so much as a new-wave siren; with her thigh-high boots and a red vinyl jacket, she could've passed for Prince. Her hits, particularly "SOS" and "Don't Stop the Music," delivered sleek electro-groove thrills.

Lupe Fiasco's cerebral, rapid-fire rhymes dovetailed with a series of engaging sing-along hooks proferred by vocalists Nikki Jean, Sarah Green and Matthew Santos. N.E.R.D. placed mega-producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo in a world rife with heavy-metal riffs and dueling drum solos, and turned it into a rap-rock celebration, with a bevy of dancers from the audience joining the band on stage.

One disappointment: With Fiasco, Williams and West in the house, a reprise of their brilliant 2007 Internet collaboration "Us Placers" would've seemed tailor-made. No such luck. It wasn't a night for collaborations, but solo flights into inner space.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Winnipeg Sun
by DAVID SCHMEICHEL

Kanye touches sky
Rap's enfant terrible can cross 'outer space' off to-do list

Hip-hop innovator Kanye West -- the very definition of a Type A personality -- has already risen to the top of the music biz, the fashion world, and that rarified realm reserved for folks who can turn their own names into marketable commodities.

Well, after crash-landing his Glow in the Dark Tour onto the MTS Centre stage last night, rap's reigning enfant terrible can now cross "outer space" off his to-do list of conquests.

The Glow in the Dark show, a flashy sci-fi space odyssey characterized by trippy visuals, an elaborately rendered sloping stage setup, and a concept that casts West as a Wagner-esque hero trying to find his way back home, should be enough to silence those critics who claim he lacks the talent to back up all that bluster and braggadocio.

It also proves his commitment to helping position hip-hop as a bonafide art form -- one whose proponents aren't afraid to break free of genre limitations, touching the sky and whatever lies beyond in their quest to challenge both audiences and themselves.

We all know Kanye is his own biggest fan, so it wasn't surprising to find him alone onstage for most of his set, retro-fitting hits like Through the Wire, Flashing Lights, Stronger, and yes, Touch the Sky to match the narrative of an astronaut stranded on a strange planet.

With a live orchestra to accompany him, and a computerized pal named Jane to spar with, West opted to forego much audience interaction, turning the show into even more of a performance piece than his concert here last fall.

But while West's set may have been strictly a one-man operation, the rest of the tour's lineup relied more heavily on strength in numbers.

Up-and-comer Lupe Fiasco, saddled with the unenviable 7 p.m. slot, at first faced a vast expanse of empty seats. But the Chicago native, who sets himself apart from his hip-hop brethren by abstaining from drink, drugs and even dirty words, quickly transcended a sparse stage and minimal accompaniment, wringing emotional highs from tracks like Streets on Fire, Superstar and Day Dreamin', while deftly weaving his rhymes with the harmonies provided by male and female singers flanking him onstage.

Rap-rock outfit N.E.R.D. -- aka production duo The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), plus friend Shay Haley -- spun their funky iconoclasm into a similarly engaging spectacle.

Armed with two drummers, two guitarists, and a small cadre of hype men, the N.E.R.D. crew made short work of club bangers like Brain, Rock Star, Spaz and She Wants to Move, eventually inviting a bevy of babes onstage to bust out some sexy dance moves with them.

And speaking of which, let's not forget about Rihanna, the Barbados-born R&B beauty whose polished dance-pop served as the warm-up for West's space-age soliloquies. Clad in a gathered black bustle-skirt (which she quickly tore off to reveal a leather catsuit and stilettos), Rihanna gave her sultry pipes a workout on truncated versions of SOS, Pon de Replay, Unfaithful and Don't Stop the Music.

And just when it seemed she was going to give the half-assed treatment to her biggest hit Umbrella, an influx of soaring synths shifted the song into high gear, while helping launch West's entire Glow in the Dark extravaganza straight into the stratosphere.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Saskatoon Star Phoenix
by Stephanie Classen

West, ego entertain Saskatoon

The biggest question Tuesday night when Kanye West took the stage at Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon was whether the event could live up to his infamous ego. On a stage big enough to match his larger-than-life personality, he answered very loudly. The rapper delivered a visual spectacle that made the hype seem warranted.

The show, part of his Glow in the Dark tour, had West crashing into a mysterious planet -- an elaborately sloped stage with giant screens -- with no one to talk to but his spaceship, Jane. Instead of shouting "How are you doing Saskatoon?" like so many acts do, West ignored audience interaction and instead turned the concert into a kind of performance piece. He performed songs including Heard 'em Say, Through the Wire, Diamonds From Sierra Leone, All Falls Down and the infinitely crowd-pleasing Gold Digger.

The trippy, otherworldly onstage environment featured an expansive starry sky, blue and red flames and rolling smoke that looked like clouds. West confidently took the massive stage alone, knowing the crowd would eat up his every word. But he also had the humour to make fun of his well-known arrogance. (A group of shooting stars in the Glow in the Dark galaxy say, "Of course, we know who you are. You're the biggest star in the universe." It's purely tongue-in-cheek . . . or is it?) Later, before performing Jesus Walks, he promises to "stop spazzing out at awards shows." His ego, whether it is real or manufactured, is something fans had no problem validating with their enthusiasm.

West's smart, savvy lyrics eschew hip-hop stereotypes. There is no denying his talent and the seriousness with which he takes his music. Though entertaining, the show lost something without an effort on West's part to step out of the script and talk to fans directly.

West made sure to include a tribute to his mother, who died last year, with the emotional tribute Hey Mama. But even when not talking about a lost loved one, West oozes passion. He might have an ego, or maybe it's just that he practises his craft with a kind of perfectionism not understood by just anyone.

One of the show's highlights was West's performance of his recent smash hit Stronger, which uses a brilliant sample from Daft Punk. West clearly wants his fans to be entertained and takes great pride in every cheer and hand in the air. Cocky or not, West's Glow in the Dark tour delivered more than just a hip-hop show; it was an intergalactic journey through a complicated man's complicated mind.

West shared his show with three acts that can hardly be called openers. Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D. and Rihanna would have drawn big crowds without the allure of the headliner. Fiasco (born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco) started off the Glow in the Dark evening. Despite his bedazzled, red leather ensemble and dark sunglasses, the 25-year-old rapper from Chicago gave the impression success isn't something he takes for granted. In his hit song, Superstar, he raps, "I want to believe the hype/but it's too untrue," and goes on to make fun of the trappings of fame rather than exalting them. Fiasco was backed by three talented singers: Nikki Jean, Sarah Green and Matthew Santos, whose voice could easily be mistaken for Adam Levine of Maroon 5. Fiasco's short and sweet set was infused with tons of energy, passion and just the right amount of swagger.

N.E.R.D., made up of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley, played for the wall-to-wall crowd next. The trio, backed by a full band, packed the sliver of stage not taken up by West's equipment with people eager to dance and, as their song demands, spaz. Joining them at one point was a man who looked suspiciously like rumoured Rihanna beau, and fellow pop star, Chris Brown, crumped and flipped on stage. The set, peppered with their hits -- including Lapdance, Rock Star and their latest, Everybody Nose -- showed off their alternative, funk, hip-hop style and obvious sense of fun with entertaining results. Williams, who has produced songs for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Britney Spears, stole the show with his dance moves and interaction with the audience.

While the setup between acts made the show drag a bit, diehard fans seemed happy to use the time to mingle, use the washroom and buy pairs of West's now-ubiquitous white plastic glasses.

Barbados-born beauty Rihanna was the last act to precede West. Dressed in an outfit that can only be described as high-fashion-dominatrix-superhero, she launched into the song Breakin' Dishes. Flanked by four futuristically dressed backup dancers and two singers, she proved that the voice you hear on the radio is the same one she brings to the live environment. She pleased the audience with plenty of hits from her short career, including Pon de Replay, SOS, Don't Stop the Music, Umbrella and Take a Bow. While her voice sounds beautiful, the manicured and choreographed set seemed a bit out of place amid the other opening acts.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Edmonton Sun
by Mike Ross

Stars were aligned!

This whole Kanye West "biggest ego in show business" thing is all very amusing - but I wonder if it's just a prank that got out of hand.
He played the role of trash-talk king - perhaps as a parody of the ego-ridden rap scene - with the goods to back it up, started to believe his own press and now he's saddled with a Frankensteinian big head of his own creation. Just guessing here.

Still, we've enjoyed his sour grapes over awards-show slights, his hilariously over-the-top quotes and more recently a diatribe against Entertainment Weekly for awarding a "B-plus" to his Glow in the Dark tour, which pulled into a soldout Rexall Place last night with a flash of ultra-modern production to rival a Broadway musical.

The gist of the rant was that there is no middle ground: A live concert is either good or bad, that despite naming his last three albums College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation, he doesn't like being graded like a term paper and could the EW reviewer kindly buzz off, using a different word than "buzz."

No ordinary rap show

Well. How perfectly sensible of him. Indeed, why split hairs? If his galactially self-centred show last night must either get five SUNS or zero, you have to go with the max. Makes it easy.

Let's go into detail: This was no ordinary rap show, It was a one-man space opera built loosely around Kanye's innovative rhymes over his three major records, featuring the star as a marooned space adventurer crash-landed on an alien planet with only his shipboard computer Jane to talk to.

I kid you not. With a live band stuffed into an orchestra pit, Kanye took the entire spotlight to himself, rapping and singing and sweating up a storm while cavorting around an amazing set that really did look like the surface of an alien planet - with huge video screens, giant dry ice generator, fire volcanos and even fake alien mountains. Somebody's going to win awards for this one.

It's hard to imagine how songs like Gold Digger and Champion fit into such an elaborate space opera concept - you're stranded and the first thing you do is start singing songs?! - but they did. Everything did. Drama was amped up, comedy fit in here and there, and a plot line of sorts ran throughout, though as an actor, West is no William Shatner.

Still, pulling off an arena show entirely on his own strengths is either incredibly brave or incredibly crazy or both, but rest assured, no one else in the rap genre is doing anything near what this guy is doing - on record or on stage.

Now, would an insecure guy with a giant ego pack his tour with some of the stongest openers on the hip-hop scene? More evidence he's pulling our leg.

You need at least one R&B diva on a tour like this, and Rihanna sure fit the bill. Wavering between seeming like the African-American Avril Lavigne and a pixie Beyonce, the Barbados-born singer hit all the expected bases of modern commercial R&B: songs about getting burned by a guy (I Hate That I Love You), dance songs about dancing (Don't Stop the Music) and silly love songs that somehow become massive hits (Umbrella) - which is why she was here to begin with.

Standard stufff

It was very standard stuff, very predictable, lots of style, little substance, sexy and exciting in the moment, but doomed to the oblivion of mediocrity. We'll see in 10 years or so if anyone remembers who she is.

Bonus visuals included costume changes - at least two in a set that couldn't have been more than 30 minutes -- and dancers dressed like cat people. Hiss!

Our second act of the evening, N.E.R.D. - which stands for Nothing Ever Really Dies - was a noisy rock-rap hybrid that focused on two major issues: Sex and partying, not necessarily in that order. In contrast to the headliner's austere set, N.E.R.D.'s stage was packed with people: drummers, break-dancers, a parade of female volunteers and various freaky people who just looked cool but had no clearly defined role. The whole thing came off like a giant block party. Points to noted producer Pharrell Williams for being a first-rate MC who knew the right buttons to push.

Up first, one Lupe Fiasco delivered a short set that featured space-age beats, hard-hitting "clean" rhymes and a pair of singing sidekicks to give it all some hook potential. Sample lyric: "If you are what you say you are, a superstar, then have no fear, the crowd is here."

Sounds like good advice for Kanye.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Calgary Herald
by Nick Lewis

'Dome digs Kanye's gold
Hot 'hip-hopera' backs up rapper's pre-tour hype


Kanye West played to a sold-out crowd
of 12,000 at the Saddledome on Friday night

On his first ever visit to Calgary, Chicago rapper/producer Kanye West rocked the Casbah with a deadly live show that delivered on a lot of the bloated pre-tour promises he had made.

Love him or hate him, the shutter-shaded MC could well be the hottest in the game, with 10 Grammy Awards and another 14 nominations after just three studio albums. And while he has a way to go to be one of the world's best live acts, he did bring one of the best live rap shows Calgary has seen yet.

Since our photographers were not allowed inside the Saddledome, we decided to break down Kanye's 90-minute set in a chronological, song-by-song order, to try to give you an idea of what transpired. Unfortunately, because Kanye hit the stage 45 minutes late, you'll have to read the entire review online at the On The Scene blog on Calgaryherald.com.

- Good Morning -- The show begins with a series of rumbling noises, as our hero in this sci-fi hip-hopera has left earth to find new inspiration on his spaceship, Jane, and has then crash-landed on some foreign planet. He gets up and breaks into this opening tune from his third album, Graduation, standing alone on stage on a giant laptop.

- I Wonder -- I wonder how many of the 12,000 in attendance would say, "I don't like rap, but I like Kanye." I've heard that lots tonight.

- Heard 'Em Say -- Kanye's so preppy fabulous, he doesn't care what you think of Maroon 5. Or the strength of the storyline in this hip-hopera, which is clearly quite weak. At least the music is solid.

- Through the Wire -- Written while his jaws were wired shut after a car accident, Jane introduces this by telling him, "Mr. West, remember, this is not your first crash." It seems the setlist tonight will be dictated by the loose narrative, unfortunately.

- Champion -- The set changes. Smoke effects cover the stage in a blanket, as a red Martian sky glows on a giant background behind Kanye.

- Get 'Em High -- I hadn't realized until now that there's a full band underneath the stage, playing music live. They're quite well hidden by the set.

- Diamonds from Sierra Leone -- Kanye touches his index fingers and thumbs in a diamond sign, rapping "Throw your diamonds in the sky if you feel the vibe." Half the crowd soon follows suit.

- Can't Tell Me Nothing -- It's at this point I realize Kanye has said nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to the crowd. His only vocal interaction has been with Jane, and it's not quite David Mamet material.

- Flashing Lights -- An awesome version of an awesome song, Kanye begins prowling the stage as space effects glow behind him.

- Spaceship -- "Do you know who I am?" Kanye asks Jane. "Of course. You're the biggest star in the universe," she says without irony. Why, Kanye, why? Why must you make it so hard to appreciate you?

- All Falls Down -- Easily the best song of the night thus far, it's evident most fans know the words.

- Gold Digger -- After relaying to Jane the full extent of his, er, sexual loneliness, she materializes as a booty shaking vixen on a giant screen, likely as an excuse to break into his biggest hit.

- Good Life -- As video fireworks explode behind him, Kanye breaks into a solid version of this tune. Unfortunately, this came at press time, with still some show to go. For a complete review, go to calgaryherald.com

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Vancouver Sun
by Elaine Corden

Close encounters of the hip-hop kind
Rapper West's sci-fi-styled set leads powerhouse marathon at GM Place


In terms of powerhouse hip-hop lineups, it doesn't really get any better than Kanye West's Glow In The Dark Tour, a four-act marathon that rolled through GM Place Monday night.

Featuring not only the current hip-hop It boy West, the evening also offered performances from Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D. and leggy chanteuse Rihanna. It was sold out and packed to the rafters with glittering, bedazzled twentysomethings and teenagers. Truly for fans of blockbuster rap and soul, the night was like Christmas come early.

While Fiasco, N.E.R.D and Rihanna could and have headlined shows on their own, there was no mistaking the night was all about Kanye. Performing on small, scaled-down stages before West's epic show, the opening acts seemed to demur a little to West, knowing perhaps that the rapper's legendary ego is part of what fans come to see.

Rapper Kanye West brought his Glow in the Dark Tour Both N.E.R.D. and Rihanna leaned more to the side of rock than hip-hop, with full bands and anthemic song choices. N.E.R.D, for their part, delivered a frenetic, energetic set that hit a snag only when a young lady amongst a group of girls called to dance on stage fell into the orchestra pit (she hopped out unharmed carrying on to gyrate another few bars.) Rihanna, on the other hand, appears to be cultivating an S&M, new-wave sound that suggests the sample of Soft Cell in her hit S.O.S. was no accidental run in. Appearing onstage bedecked in a skin-tight black leather bustier, elbow-length black gloves and a tear-away grey taffeta, the soul singer sang and moved like one who didn't give a toss about the conventions of the soul genre. Indeed, a protracted, club-beat driven medley paid tribute to other ladies of soul who have walked their own path, including Lauryn Hill and M.I.A. By the time she got to her monster hit Umbrella at the end of an all-too-brief set, she'd added healthy nods to Prince and Michael Jackson and, finally, set her own path, all without missing a note.

By the time West hit the stage, more than half an hour late, the audience was champing at the bit. The lights were turned low for the Glow In The Dark portion of the evening, and West appeared lying alone, sans hype-man, centred on a stage seemingly inspired by '70s sci-fi movies.

From the word go, it was clear the audience was in for a full-fledged performance, even if the orchestra and backing vocals were tucked away from sight. Kanye's rhymes seemed more like acts of a play than songs. An elegant soliloquy, if a tad bizarre, the show seemed to loosely follow West's life, set in space, with a disembodied 2001-like computer voice acting as Virgil to Kanye's Dante.

Kicking off with the Elton-John sampling Good Morning, West, alone, poured his whole heart into the show, not content to dish out standard hip-hop fare. It was fully operatic in its scope, evoking such epic concepts as David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Pink Floyd's The Wall. Indeed , by the third song, Heard 'Em Say, West had already proved why he has the right to headline over his successful peers: adventurous, passionate, and completely fluent in the language of music, West is a true artist at the top of his game.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Oregonian
by Luciana Lopez

Review: Kanye West at the Rose Garden

What can one say about Kanye West that hasn't already been said? And said, probably, by him?

The facts: West's Glow in the Dark tour came to the Rose Garden Tuesday night, bringing not only West but also fellow rapper Lupe Fiasco, rockers N.E.R.D. and pop princess Rihanna. The show was a long one, stretching to almost five hours, though West, unsurprisingly, got the lion's share of the evening.

His conceit -- er, make that, his show's conceit -- centered on Kanye West as a lone cosmonaut, navigating the stars to find a new source of inspiration for a creativity-depleted Earth. He performed his songs in that framework, tying each, however loosely, to the overall narrative. From a crash landing on an alien world, through contact with extra-terrestrials and eventual return home, West stood alone on the stage, framed with a stage setup both elegant and utilitarian in its spareness.

The crowd leaned young (here's hoping no surprise quizzes in Portland high schools tomorrow, yes?) and drank West's performance in, yelling lyrics, singing and generally giving him a hero's welcome -- though these days, maybe the phrase would be better put "an Obama's welcome." Whatever the phrase, the audience was his.

He stayed mostly on script throughout the show, though he indulged himself toward the end in a rant against, well, music critics, people who "scrutinize" art. His argument seemed to be that he poured his heart into the show; therefore, he should be above criticism. He's been through pain, loss and devastation, so that gives him a genuineness others lack.

That's what happened.

The harder questions to answer, of course, are what did any of it mean; what does West mean (if anything); and, hey, weren't there three other acts on the bill?

West's closing rant was both self-righteous and self-defeating. He railed against reviewers neglecting to talk about what truly happened at a show -- the crowd singing "Good Life" with him for 10 minutes, he said, though the song certainly didn't last that long Tuesday -- and reviewers focusing on his supposed ego. What's wrong with having some self-esteem, he asked?

Nothing, of course. But there's a lot odd about being so defensive, and even more odd with defending one's self-esteem so vigorously that way. If Kanye feels so good about himself, really, what does the opinion of one lowly music critic in Portland, Oregon -- a medium-sized city, far removed from the hub of the pop and hip-hop music worlds, with at best a limited influence -- matter? Kanye, why on earth would you care about why I think, and care enough to close your show with such a rant? I'm pretty sure your millions of dollars will console you for my paltry slings and arrows.

West is an entertainer, and an excellent one. His show had a visionary quality; all pop stars play roles as themselves, so West playing a role as a pop star playing a role as himself the astronaut had, in fact, a certain sophistication to it. It takes the conviction of either the brilliant or the brilliantly deluded to hold a stage to himself for more than an hour; he is a magnetic performer. And as he put it, he did pour his heart into the show. He was covered in sweat by its end, and his rendition of "Hey Mama," written for his deceased mother, was the show's highlight, a deeply-felt tribute in which the music, for once, took absolute center stage.

(As a side note: West's come in for criticism over the past year for mourning his mother in public. Seriously? Back off, people. This is the man's mother. It would be far stranger, far more disquieting and inappropriate, if he brushed off her passing. If he needs to work it out through performance, maybe that's just his way.)

But he's not going to change your life; he's going to change his own life, over and over, and then tell you about it, in detail. His vision is relentlessly focused inward, his music rooted always in his own experience and his interpretations thereof. That's not a bad thing in and of itself; plenty of artists have used their own lives as their ultimate medium of expression. But in West's case, it gives his show, in the end, a certain distance. He's not looking inward to find some final communion with the outside, some core of humanity essentially common to us all. This is not a show about the audience, about a community, about a populated universe. It's about a world of one, and we are invited only so that we may admire it.

West has apparently gotten his wish, too, because only here, jammed at the bottom of the review, are mentions of the other performers. There's a talent to that, as well, to getting what you want.

One unfortunate consequence of having such a packed lineup is that the three acts before West each got only about 30-40 minutes to play. That gave Rihanna's set, in particular, a truncated feel. She's had 10 number one hits in the United States, as she reminded us, but she only had time for eight songs total.

And the stage sets themselves felt cramped, since the back portion of the stage was closed off for Kanye's set. That hurt Rihanna the most, as her dancers had little room to strut their stuff. N.E.R.D., with their frenetic bouncing energy, and Lupe Fiasco, who showed a keen sense of command on stage suffered less for this.

Fiasco was actually one of the night's highlights. He was crisp and rhythmically interesting, with enough sense to change moods and tempos throughout his opening set. The audience was reluctant, at first, to go along with him. Let's face it: No one paid for and $80 ticket to see him. But he wrested much of the crowd's attention onto himself, especially toward the end of his set.

N.E.R.D. fared more poorly, in large part because they sounded so muddied throughout the night. It didn't help, either, that their songs were all in similar tempos, and all felt, well, kinda the same. And Pharrell Williams' voice was lacking, to be charitable.

RIhanna's set, next to West's, was the most interesting, and, like West, not always for her music. She's a tremendously limited singer. On uptempo songs, she leaned heavily on her backup singers. On slower numbers, though she sounded far better, she never achieved a clear tone, the kind of voice that truly transmits both joy and aching pain. What she does have -- in excess! -- is such a star quality, a charisma and magnetism on stage, that her fame is easily understood mere seconds after seeing her. Beauty is part of it, but not all of it. She's an average dancer, though it's possible she'd have done better without her stiletto-heeled boots. Her voice is passable. But she has a glow, a command of the stage, the draws the eye instantly.

She made some... unexpected... sartorial choices over the night. Her female dancers look clad in some kind of latex or plastic jumpsuits, and Rihanna herself mostly wore black, with aforesaid painful-looking boots.It was an image at odds with her music, which leans toward the sunny and wholesome. One line in "Pon de Replay" goes: "Let the bass from the speakers/run through your sneakers." Alas, no kicks on her that night. And maybe it was because of her footwear that she, ironically, danced so little to "Don't Stop the Music," which is about not stopping the music and just dancing and dancing.

But it wasn't Rihanna's night. Nor was it N.E.R.D.'s. Nor Lupe Fiasco's. It was Kanye's night and, if his stage show is right, it's his universe. We're just here, apparently, to bask in his glory... all except for the critics, of course.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The The Hollywood Reporter

by Gary Jackson

Concert Review: Kanye West
Bottom Line: A spectacular stage set and show derailed by a titanic ego iceberg.

Kanye West brought his Glow in the Dark spectacle in support of his "Graduation" album back to Los Angeles with a clear intention of making damn sure that he is the best.

Problem is, his shtick, his well-publicized raison d'etre, seems to only convince himself that he is the best. Worse, his rants later in the concert came off more as the neglected granny in a corner who complains that her oatmeal isn't warm enough. That's too bad, because the show was quite satisfying.

A unique and innovative setting finds West stranded on a barren planet after a crash landing, his only companion a faceless computer voice known simply as Jane, a direct borrow from "2001: A Space Odyssey."
West opened with "Good Morning," a dazed and confused look on his face as he ponders his predicament. As Jane assesses a status that sinks from bad to worse in several vignettes, West rolled through his impressive repertoire ("Through the Wire," "Diamonds From Sierra Leone") and recent fare ("I Wonder," "Good Life," "Can't Tell Me Nothing").

The setting paints a picture of utter aloneness, as his orchestra and background vocalist were ensconced beneath the set, invisible except from the sides of the stage. The astronaut devolves mentally from the solitude as he moans about a lack of female companionship. "Gold Digger" followed, with images of inflated doll faces on globes hovering over the stage and a gold-sprayed female writhing on three screens.

Just before "Jesus Walks," the computer attempts a blast off from the planet but fails, so West promises "to stop spazzing out at award shows," inciting a few ripples of laughter.

Ironically, West's intention to keep the spotlight solely on himself caused a neglect of any imagery of his late mother during "Hey Mama." A quick snapshot would have been a nice touch.

"Stronger" flowed into "Touch the Sky," where he was, finally, joined by fellow rapper Lupe Fiasco, who opened the evening, followed by N.E.R.D. and Rihanna. West closed with a rant on the media's misrepresenting his "high self-esteem" as braggadocio. He compared himself to John Lennon, Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna and Elvis Presley, boasting "You in the presence of greatness!" Such rants come off as more than a little irritating. If West can manage to release at least 10 great albums, then there may be a basis for respect. However, respect must be bestowed, not commanded.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Arizona Republic
by Ed Masley

Kanye soars to new heights

Kanye West never technically glowed in the dark when the Glow in the Dark tour hit Glendale on Sunday, his 31st birthday, with Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna and N.E.R.D. But that certainly didn't detract from the aura of spectacle surrounding West's dramatic, high-concept space opera, a one-man show that started with the rapper on a journey through the stars.

He made his first appearance as a disembodied voice, setting the stage with "It's lonely out here. My only companion is my spaceship, Jane."

At least he scored a talking spaceship - one that eventually offered her sexual services, but only after crashing on an unknown planet.

By the time we caught a glimpse of West, the star was lying on the stage, post-crash, with Jane encouraging him to "Wake up, Mr. West," at which point he stood up and shook off the crash to greet the crowd with an oddly triumphant Good Morning.

From that point out, the narrative interspersed his greatest hits with a storyline based on him beating the odds and getting back to Earth in one piece.

At times, the logic didn't hold up - when Gold Digger followed Jane's well-meaning offer of "Maybe I can help you out in that department" in response to him talking about how much he needed sex, for instance.

But it had to make more sense than leaving that one off the set list. Others songs - Spaceship, for instance -- were natural fits, while Through The Wire, the breakthrough hit inspired by a real-life car crash, was ingeniously set up by Jane saying "Mr. West remember. This is not your first crash."

If a few transitions seemed a little forced, the fact that any act could take the highlights of three awe-inspiring albums and string them together with even a hint of cohesion in a concept concert, all after the fact, is a stunning accomplishment, made all the more impressive by West's actual performance.

It wasn't his rapping so much as his total command of the stage that kept the show from getting lost in space, with a live band fleshing out the songs from an orchestra pit below the stage. It all kept coming back to West, who turned in amazing, impassioned performances of any number of his most inspired tracks, from Good Morning to an uplifting Heard 'Em Say, a defiant Champion, Can't Tell Me Nothing, The Good Life (where onscreen fireworks gave way to actual fireworks) and a heartfelt Jesus Walks.

After an even more touching than usual version of Hey Mama, he sat on stage and let the band take over on a surprisingly faithful rendition of Don't Stop Believing by Journey, after which his spaceship pumped him up to save the day by telling him "You can't stop now . . . . We need the brightest star in the universe. We need you, Kanye." West responded with his most intense performance of the evening, Stronger, as the spaceship lifted off the floor. A triumphant rendition of Homecoming followed, after which opener Lupe Fiasco returned to share the spotlight on a rousing Touch the Sky.

He could have ended on that note of triumph, but instead went on to rail against his persecution in the media, when truthfully, he rates among the most acclaimed performers of his generation in the media though he's so convinced its out to do him wrong. His first two albums topped the year-end critics poll at Village Voice, a national survey of hundreds of critics, and here's one more review insisting you won't see a more intriguing pop performance in 2008.

The night started off strong with a fiery opening set by Fiasco, who had the crowd right where he wanted them, shouting along on a call and response, by the chorus of Hip Hop Saved My Life. From there, the many highlights of Fiasco's set included a dramatic Little Weapon, a trip down memory lane with his first single, Kick, Push, more call and response on a spirited race through Go Go Gadget Flow and the loungey Paris, Tokyo. He saved the best for last, though, ratcheting up the intensity meter on Daydreamin, with Sarah Green, one of three guest singers, wailing on the final chorus.

N.E.R.D. followed with a P-Funk-worthy blast of party funk, kicking it in with the heavy funkadelic groove of a song from their upcoming album whose chorus had them shouting "Are you ADHD?"

With two drummers pushing the groove, they made their way through such crowd-pleasing highlights as Brain and Rock Star, taking it up a notch with Lapdance before ending their set with a stage full of gyrating females from the audience for a rousing rendition of Everyone Nose.

Rihanna didn't need that kind of outside help in the sexy department. Flanked by two women in fencing masks and shiny latex suits, she opened strong with a sexy Breakin' Dishes, rocking a black formal dress with a hood. She lost the dress to match her dancers grind for grind in knee-high go go boots and a black latex bodysuit, complete with what appeared to be a chest protector, on the dancehall-flavored Pon De Replay. Other highlights of Rihanna's set ranged from the Soft Cell groove of SOS to the emotional piano ballad, Take A Bow, and naturally, Umbrella, which she wisely saved for last.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Salt lake Tribune
by David Burger

Sound problems mar otherwise galvanizing Kanye West show

At the end of Kanye West's concert Monday, E Center employees were handing out free copies of West's book, Thank You and You're Welcome.
It's good they weren't handing out audio books to listen to on the way home. No one would have been able to hear it because of the ringing in our ears.
West's "Glow in the Dark Tour," with Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco, was ultimately disappointing. While the stage shows and obvious energy of the performers - especially West - were a treat for the eyes, the entire show was whince-enducingly loud, while the sound coming from the stage was garbled and sludgy.
The E Center normally has no problem with acoustics and is one of the best venues to hear live music in the area. But either the arena wasn't prepared to handle the deep bass and rhythmic beats of a hip-hop show, or the performers and their sound engineers were oblivious during the soundcheck that audience members wouldn't be able to decipher a single word coming out of West's mouth. (I blame the latter, judging from the E Center's history of good-sounding shows.)
It was a shame that one of the most lyrically gifted and catchy rappers was overwhelmed by a deafening wall of sound.
West's stage show was impressive, especially because he was the only person on the stage for the entire show - no band, no backup

singers in sight. It takes incredible charisma and stage presence to avoid becoming a bore, but the way he prowled the stage, hunched over and concentrating on the emotions of the songs, was mesmerizing.
It was a high-concept show, with huge, vividly colored screens behind him and a detailed stage design that told a story about West being marooned on a deserted planet and desperate to return home in a spaceship. Between songs, he would plead with the spaceship's female version of HAL from "2001" to take him home. Subsequent entreaties to God segued nicely into the song "Jesus Walks," and anguish over loneliness segued (not as coherently) into "Golddigger."
Before the show began, it seemed as if Rihanna, an R & B songstress, would be the odd woman out in a night of rap. But she provided the musical highlight of the evening: a rousing version of "Umbrella" that closed her half-hour set, reminding the crowd what a well-crafted song it is. Because her set wasn't overloaded with bass and instrumentation, her sound came across as the best of the night.
The other openers, rapper Lupe Fiasco and funk-rap band N.E.R.D., suffered from the same problems that West encountered. As for their highlights, Fiasco was aided by the presence of folk singer Matthew Santos, who joined him on four songs, including the chart-topping "Superstar," and N.E.R.D. was impressive for having two drummers bring a tribal beat to their show.
But in end, you have to ask yourself a question West asks in the book that was handed out:
"Sometimes when I see a bad performance and people still clap ... I wonder if they're clapping because they liked what they saw or because they're happy it's over?"

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Review from The Minneapolis Star Tribune
by John Bream

Kanye West more than glowed - he blazed

The Grammy winner's Glow in the Dark Tour topped every other hip-hop show at Target Center.

Get a scissors and cut out this story. (Print a copy if you're reading it on the Internet.) Then take the article into a room, turn off the lights and the review will glow in the dark. Trust me, it will.

Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour that visited Target Center on Wednesday was the best arena hip-hop show ever. Forget those memories of Jay-Z, Eminem, Nelly or -- if you're old enough -- M.C. Hammer.

Kanye performed with the kind of urgency and intensity summoned for someone's last performance. He was as vein-poppingly passionate as Bruce Springsteen, as dramatically over the top as Bono, as powerfully graceful as Savion Glover and as gloriously sweaty and hard-working as James Brown.

The 31-year-old Grammy-winning superstar's show was really more like an extravagant one-man hip-hop opera than an arena concert. In sort of a collision of Close Encounters and Wizard of Oz, he took 9,998 fans on an intergalactic journey into the center of his hyper-creative mind. His spacecraft crash-landed on an unknown planet and his only companion was the spaceship's computerized voice, Jane. He tries to get home to Chicago.

OK, the story line is a little hokey and egomaniacal, but Kanye's performance made up for it. With his band in the orchestra pit, and surrounded by stunning visuals, he tore through songs from his three hit albums, especially the current "Graduation." The peppy "Champion," buoyed by a Steely Dan hook, was gripping and triumphant as Kanye combed the stage with a dancer-like strut. "Good Life" was roof-raisingly uplifting.

Old favorites sparkled, too, including the energetic "Gold Digger," the dramatically sanctified "Jesus Walks" and the personal and vulnerable "Hey Mama," in honor of his mother, who died unexpectedly in November.

Kanye stepped out of the narrative only once, chiding a concertgoer for tossing a glow stick onstage.

Befitting the ambition of Kanye's Glow in the Dark Tour, he enlisted three powerhouse opening acts. N.E.R.D. rocked the house with its amped-up rap-rock. Sounding like Parliament-Funkadelic on steroids, this oversized ensemble galvanized Target Center with the rumbling funk of "Brain" and the bouncy, celebrative "Everybody Nose."

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco was almost as impressive, with his creative and versatile combination of beats, rhymes and sounds. Minneapolis vocalist Matthew Santos joined him for four songs, including the smash hit "Superstar."

But Rihanna, the best known opener, was a disappointment. The popular 20-year-old hitmaker failed to light up the stage with her voice or personality. Looking hot isn't enough. (By the by, her famous bob is gone, replaced by a Beatles-like bowl cut.)

Fade to black.

Setlist:

Good Morning
I Wonder
Heard 'Em Say
Through the Wire
Champion
Get 'Em High
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Flashing Lights
Spaceship
All Falls Down
Gold Digger
Good Life
Jesus Walks
Hey, Mama
Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, sung by backup singer)
Stronger
Homecoming
Touch the Sky

Openers: Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco