When I got the text saying that I was going to go review the Kanye show, I had no choice but to jump in excitement. I’ve been a Kanye fan since the beginning, and although I lost touch with his music in the past couple years, I’ve never stopped being a fan.
Upon showing up the Bell Center, the crowds were restless; snap chatting and taking pictures of themselves screaming out “Kanye! Kanye! Kanye!”. I could tell this show was going to be nothing less than amazing, even if it was only by the fans attending.
As the show commences, ‘Father Stretch Your Hands Pt.1’ starts to play and the crowd of course goes crazy. People are singing to the person next to them with one hand in the air and the other on their heart; but still no appearance of Kanye. The stadium is dark, smoke fills the air, when all of a sudden a small stage floating amongst the crowd starts to light up… And low and behold Kanye is standing on it belting out his lyrics. As he hovers around the crowd, a light underneath the stage features those who have ground floor tickets thrashing themselves into eachother just to get a glimpse of the artist. Kanye kindly reminds them that there are ladies down there and that they need to be respectful gentleman. Touché Kanye!
As ‘Pt.2’ fades out “I Made That Bitch Famous!” Is screamed into the mic, which gets everyone in an uproar; as it is probably the most known song from his new album. The song ‘Famous’ is in regards to when Taylor Swift was accepting her 2009 VMA award, when Kanye jumped on stage claiming that Beyoncé’s video was better; and BOOM just like that a hit song was made.
He adds in a couple of collaborated cover songs from his close friends Jay-Z, Drake and ScHoolboy Q, which made the show so much more lively; as nobody would have anticipated these crowd favourites to be added to the set list. Kanye is always one to keep us on our feet.
He starts to add in some of his older songs such as ‘Gold Digger’ , ‘Heartless’ , ‘Stronger’ and ‘Runaway’ (which was treated like an anthem among the crowd), And as is customary for Kanye to be all about Kanye; He starts up with his titled song ‘I Love Kanye’ which gets true fans all over the stadium to start rapping along with him in all of his glory.
The lights fade and an eerie silence comes over the crowd as ‘Wolves’ begins to play. For once in the ENTIRE show people start to sit down in their seats to actually watch Kanye intently as he sits down on his flying saucer of a stage, completely entranced by his voice. It was quite something beautiful to witness.
The final song begins to play (Ultralight Beam) as the stage starts to lean forward, making it look like E.T. coming out of his spaceship with just a couple of lights beaming out of the front.
It goes dark and his stage starts to drop into the crowd, he climbs off the stage, waves to the fans and disappears into the darkness. The lights come on and the crowd starts to disperse as they continue to sing their favourite songs from the show as they exit.
Kanye proved that he definitely does better on his own, ruling the Bell Center for the night without any opening acts. I will definitely be making it to his next tour here in Montreal 100%.
Set list:
Father Stretch my Hands Pt.1
Pt.2
Famous
Pop Style (Drake cover)
THat Part (ScHoolboy Q cover)
Facts
Mercy
I Don’t Like (Chief Keef cover)
All Day
Black Skinhead
Niggas in Paris (Jay-Z & Kanye West cover)
Can’t Tell Me Nothing
Power
Blood on the Leaves
Freestyle 4
Jesus Walks
Amazing
Flashing Lights
Highlights
Feedback
Wolves
Heartless
Runaway
Only One
30 Hours
I Love Kanye
Waves
Gold Digger
Touch The Sky
All of the Lights
Good Life
Stronger
Fade
Ultralight Beam
Review – Brittany Salmaso
Photo by Rodrigo Ferrari
