I think it would be fair to say that most people were fairly blown away by the show Kanye West put on at Good Vibrations 2008. In fact, the whole festival seemed to be just a lead up to a production the likes of which I’ve never seen at a festival before – costume changes, effects, a fantastic stage set up, and Kanye at the top of his game as he was gearing up for the “Glow in the Dark” US tour.
It was on this acclaimed tour that local advertisers used to help promote the gig… with a slew of some of the best local and international hip hop acts thrown in to support. Indeed, it sounded too good to be true – and it was. Probably in part due to average ticket sales (half price GA tickets were on sale just days before the gig!) – but more due to the fact that Kanye probably was over the production – Sydney and the rest of Australia was greeted with a production that couldn’t even begin to do justice to either Kanye or the venue itself.
There were a couple of highlights – “Touch the Sky” was particularily impressive, as was “Homecoming”. And “American Boy” was a fantastic surprise in the encore. But a 30 minute version of “Love Lockdown,” thanks to Kanye not happy with his costume and having to start the song over time and time again as the final track proved to put a damper on it all. It was, in fact, one of the few concerts I’ve ever been to where I’ve left early. I don’t even like that song!
While most of this seems like needless complaining (fair enough, who really cares about the production… but still, tickets were sold with this as a prerequisite), it just wasn’t a great show. But it was Nas, who preceeded Kanye in his first-ever Australian performance, who saved the night, performing one of the most impressive hip-hop sets I’ve seen since K-os at the aforementioned “Good Kanye Vibes”. Not only did he make it look so effortlessly easy, the amount of material he ran through in his short time on stage was amazing. With almost 15 years of tracks under his belt though, there was only so much her could perform, and left the crowd aching for more in the process. Let’s hope he comes back before long.
As we continue going back in time, Scribe came on before Nas and did his “Scribe” thing. I’ve never been much of a fan and this remains unchanged. Although I must admit, I didn’t mind the new tracks he played. Consequence, who criminally didn’t get to collaborate on stage with Kanye (such a possibility was another sale point), came on earlier than advertised and still only performed for 10 minutes, as did Kid Cudi (who did make a brief appearance with Kanye during the set opener). While Consequence was superb, Kid Cudi didn’t do much for me… however considering they started early, it would have been nice to see some longer sets for both of them.
All in all, a bit of a disappointing night, but thanks to Nas’ well overdue appearance, it was definitely worth the attendance.
Photos by Contributor Chris Singh
