The Glow in the Dark Tour: Kanye, Rihanna, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco

Last night my brothers invited me to join them at the Glow in the Dark Tour in Salt Lake City. In truth, I’ve never been a major Kanye West fan, but the rest of the lineup sounded awesome, so I tagged along.

Though the doors opened an hour and a half late and the set changes were painfully long, every artist offered something awesome. I think the highlight was the band N.E.R.D., made up of Pharrell, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley. They were seriously on their A game and everything from the beats to the lyrics to the drum solos were totally impressive. I’d post video of N.E.R.D. to make you familiar with who they are, but the recordings just don’t capture how cool they were live… Their new album, Seeing Sounds, came out today, so I’ll be buying and listening shortly.

Rihanna is definitely one of those artists who was born for the stage. She knows how to work the crowd and how to keep the energy up during a performance. And of course, her voice is beautiful.

This is my favorite song of hers:

Kanye’s an energetic performer, but I honestly couldn’t get over the incredibly cheesy and over-the-top “Kanye in space” theme of his set, which also made for clumsy transitions between songs — a real buzz kill at a show. I would’ve much preferred if he forgot about the ridiculous theatrics and accompanying set and charged us $20 or $30 less. So unnecessary. Still, his rhymes are hot and his performance of “Hey Mama” really moved me…