Allison Quan August 26th, 2016 - 4:34 PM
Last night, Hip Hops notorious artist Kanye West took the stage in Indianapolis to kick off his 39 date Saint Pablo tour. West has always been known for making sure he takes his performances to the next level and he has definitely outdone himself this time. Instead of a regular large central stage that everyone crowds around, the stage was definitely on a higher level. The star came out on a small platform that suspended 15 feet up in the air over the audience that constantly moved around the Bankers Life Fieldhouse basketball stadium in Indianapolis. Above the stage hung an array of lights beaming down that spanned the entire length of the stadium. Dense fog swirled all around the crowd and lights creating just the right ambiance for Mr. West.
West came out rapping his most recent single “Father Stretch My Hands,” in a light denim jacket, black leather pants, and Yeezy’s on his feet he took the crowd on a two hour long journey through his world. Next, West busted out with “Famous” followed by a couple high profile features “Pop Style” by Drake and “That Part” by Schoolboy Q. He followed the next songs “Facts,” “All Day” and the Cruel Summer hits “Mercy” and “I Don’t Like.” Yeezy brought it back to his Hip Hop freshmen years with classics like “Niggas in Paris,” “Jesus Walks” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”
As a bonus West’s faithful collaborator Mike Dean was on hand taking care of instrumentals along with his cousin the singer Tony Williams and Caroline Shaw. They were left in the shadows of the South end of the arena with bright lights centered on West to keep the crowd’s attention. His unique dance moves and his flow combined with his larger than life personality left your eyes centered on him.
The premise for the show was that “The whole concept of this is to go anywhere you want.” The audience was able to freely roam the entire floor of the arena. Usual the nose bleeds are the worst seats to have at normal events, but for Yeezy they were the best seats in that arena because you were able to see the show as a whole. Of course it would not be Yeezy with out extended monologues giving motivational sentiments like “Dreams are possible.”
Of course with all great success of the stage there are malfunctions that can occur. At the end of the show during the last notes of “Fade”, the lift that was designed to carry him over the 30’ by 30’ projection screen malfunctioned forcing him to land the stage to the ground and depart through the floor arena. It was an anticlimactic way to end such an elaborate and larger than life performance, definitely not fit for Yeezy. The purpose for West’s tour is to take his show to the next level and allow the audience to see something they’ve never seen before and he definitely showed us what Yeezy is capable of.
Saint Pablo Tour Setlist
“Father Stretch My Hands”
“Famous”
“Pop Style”
“THat Part”
“Facts”
“All Day”
“Mercy”
“I Don’t Like (Remix)”
“Black Skinhead”
“Power”
“Wolves”
“Feedback”
“Freestyle 4”
“I Miss the Old Kanye”
“Can’t Tell Me Nothing”
“FML”
“Blood on the Leaves”
“Jesus Walks”
“Amazing”
“Runaway”
“Devil in a New Dress”
“All Falls Down”
“Flashing Lights”
“All of the Lights”
“Good Life”
“Niggas in Paris”
“30 Hours”
“Highlights”
“Real Friends”
“Only One”
“Ultra Light Beam” Interlude
“Fade”
For information on his Saint Pablo Tour follow the link:
