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Concert review: Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour was spectacular

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By Stephanie De Pasquale | Friday, June 13, 2008 1:04 PM CDT | () comments

Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour was nothing short of a visual spectacle.

The elaborate stage featured rolling hills with spot lights in them shinning towards the ceiling. Red, yellow, blue, purple and green lights turned the smoke that rolled across the stage eerie shades throughout the 90 minute set. The show Thursday evening literally glowed.

The premise for the performance was West crashed on an unknown planet while searching the universe for inspiration because the Earth had lost its creativity. West was accompanied on stage only by Jane, the spaceship.

What followed was a storyline that set the stage for West to sing crowd favorites such as “Champion,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” “Flashing Lights,” “Good Life,” “Jesus Walks,” “Gold Digger” and “Stronger.”

The more than 5,000 people who attended the Glow in the Dark Tour made for a steamy i wireless Center, which West made fun of as he said a prayer and offered to become a better person if God would get him off of the planet.

"I promise to stop spazzing out at award shows, if you could just get us some AC, I mean off this planet."

Apart from the temperature, the only downside to the concert was the 45-minute break between his set and Rihanna’s so the intricate set could be set up.

Rihanna also glowed as she showed off her dance skills in front of sharply angled stage props that lit up. She enthusiastically performed singles from throughout her career, focusing on songs from her latest album, "Good Girl Gone Bad," including "Unfaithful," "Don't Stop the Music," "Take a Bow" and "Umbrella."

Lupe Fiasco warmed the crowd up with songs from his sophomore album, "Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool" and got the crowd singing and dancing to his hit "Superstar." However, some boos came when the rapper mentioned N.E.R.D. during a diatribe thanking various members of the tour. N.E.R.D., which launched its third album "Seeing Sounds" this week, was absent from the Glow In The Dark Tour’s Quad-City stop.

Stephanie DePasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.