This was started at 10:30am, let’s see what time this actually gets posted.  I’m not a journalist I’m just a chick who likes to blog when she gets a minute and loves music so yes, this is a legthly post but I feel to do this concert just for those who weren’t as fortunate to see if, to perhaps give them a great sense of visual imagery for it.  So let’s just get to it. 

Lupe was to go on at 7:30pm, at that time we were still drinking champagne and taking detours .  We missed Lupe (time management issue but we’ll see him in CT on Friday) but we managed to be in our lovely seats by N.E.R.D’s “Brain”.  Ha!  Not sure if that was intentional as they saw us girls walk in but nonetheless it was a great way to start the night.  With 2 sets of drums (that kicked the beats out of this world in the most incredible of ways) and keyboards on the stage, Chad was holding it down throughout the whole set on the tables and Pharrell and Shay working the packed house (the seats were already full by then) as if they were masters at playing the Garden.  The energy was already in high gear and the crowd was feigning off them, just waiting for their next fix.  After “Brain”, the group’s banter was about the buzz on YouTube of their new singles, which lead right into their supposed next single “Spaz”.  Even though the song is still fresh that did not let the crowd or N.E.R.D. lose any of the excitement.  Halfway through the song Lupe and Teyana Taylor (of the “Google Me” song fame) joined the boys on stage and the drums got harder, Pharrell’s vocals were no longer carrying that delicate lover boy swagger and commanded everyone to get up off their ass and by that time the crowd already knew the hook to the song “I’m here and I’m not going nowhere, you can Spaz if you want to”.

The stage was crowded by the boys and their entourage jumping around feeding off the crowd and getting us even more hyped for the first single off their new album “Seeing Sounds” (June 10) “Everyone Nose”.  The song has been getting much buzz from the controversial theme (girls doing cocaine) and the video which has resident party girl Lindsay Lohan making a cameo.  The chant starts “All the girls standing in the line for the bathroom” it was such a pleasant surprise that the crowd was all over it, even though the crowd was a melting pot (more on that later), Pharrell’s trademark smooth vocals come at the middle of the song and it gives the crowd and the stage crew a minute to relax before the chant starts up again.  By this time the crowd was in the palm of  N.E.R.D.‘s hands and so were we melting from Pharrell’s charisma.  No guy should be that damn pretty.  Then their set followed with She Wants to Move, Rockstar, Lapdance and closed with an instrumental version of The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”.  N.E.R.D. proved that they are determined to stay and I think that “Seeing Sounds” thanks to such a widespread appeal of the Glow in the Dark tour, this will only help them catapult their new CD to the masses.   

Pharrell was once asked what do you want your music to do.  He said , “I want people to party to it and I want to look at the girls boyfriends who are dancing to our music and say, “Hey mister, look at your girl, she’s shaking her ass to our music and wants to get down, all thanks me” and thus explains the girls girating all over as if they were doing it personally for Pharrell.  Ok, well maybe we kinda were.   Pharrell stayed for a while their set was taken down and worked the crowd and I thought that for a brief minute my girl had gotten was going to do some matrix style jump and ravish him.

While they were setting up for Rihanna my friend ran into an old friend who was so gracious in letting us come up to his suite and indulge in some food, drinks and a line-free bathroom.  How could we say no?  We watched the Rihanna set from the highest of places at MSG and enjoyed the company and gratis beer and watched the reigning princess of R & B go through her set of hits (she did all her top singles).  Now, I’m not a huge Rihanna fan but I’ll tell you this.  Since she came out years ago, chick has definitely stepped up her performance game and manages to look flawless. And to be the only female on a tour with such strong male acts, you must be a bad ass chick.  2 surprises were in her set.  The first was that she covered Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop-That Thing” and it was pretty damn good, the second surprise which led me and my friend to yell like screaming teenagers was that her rumored paramour or homey, lover friend,  Chris Brown (future baby daddy to all the ladies) managed to come out for “Umbrella” and their remix.  They only time they came together was at the very end for a G Rated embrace, as we were yelling “Make out, make out”.

Then it was time to refill beers, touch up the lip-gloss in the line-free bathroom and head downstairs for Kanye.  The stage was behind a curtain until the very end.  From where we were sitting we could see that it looked as if it was taking place on a moon or something and the orchestra/band was right below the stage.  The lights lowered and the crowd starts chanting “Kanye, Kanye”, you see a psychedelic screen of lights and Kanye lying in the middle of the moon-like set.  Right behind the platform where Kanye was laid out, was a smaller screen that came down and reflect all the images on the platform.  The brilliant backdrops provided a home for the story that he was unfolding.  It looked as if you were in a planetarium or those space rides at Epcot but a million times better.  The images reached beyond the stage and reflected throughout the whole Garden for all to enjoy.  We see then the relationship between him and the computerized persona Jane and he them declares his mission after his spaceship crash which was to bring creativity back to Earth.  He popped the crowds cherry with “Good Morning” and you knew right from there that you were in for a damn show.

He went through his hour and a half set like the pro and the crowd was hypnotized by him.  His set was a masterpiece the outer space layout with the lightshow that was definitely a work of art.  The beginning of the set, he ran through a lot of the “Graduation” album, “I Wonder”, “Champion” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” and old favorites like “Through the Wire”, “Heard ‘Em Say”, and “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”.  Then there was my favorite lead-in was when he played Mos Def’s slowed down solo in “Drunk and Hot Girls” and then there was no stopping the hype crowd as “Flashing Lights” came on.  At that point the show reached another level of excellence the crowd couldn’t be more into and the best half of the setlist resumed.  After a brief banter with Jane he went into “All Falls Down”, then “Gold Digger”
and one of my faves of the night “Good Life”.  He kept doing the chorus over and over again and the crowd was willing to put it out as much as was giving it.  Although I had heard that he used backing tracks at other concerts there were none last night.  He made seamless transitions in-between songs and the sound (which he personally went to check the levels before his set) was some of the best in any concerts I’ve seen.  Then came “Jesus Walks”, he again left the crowd stunned at his commitment to make us part of his experience.  He did his trademark dance and managed to knock out his best moves throughout the whole stage (word is he hired Madonna’s choreographer for the tour) and he carried it with no dancers.  He then went into the emotional rendition of “Hey Mama”, I was looking around dabbing the tears from my eyes and saw everyone in our surrounding area with tears in their eyes.  It made him real to those who though he was just this conceited genius.  He teared up for New York to see and he made the crowd “scream so loud for you” over and over again and he managed to make another incredible connection with his crowd.  After “Hey Mama” he sat in the middle of his set and hung his head low while Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” played.  Then he got up when to his spaceship computer and you could hear the Daft Punks riffs from “Stronger” and you could feel the ground underneath you shake. 

The Garden just re-ignited and as he sang “I need you right now” you truly felt it and you had no choice but to surrender again.  He closed the set with "Homecoming" and "Touch the Sky" and we were all left wanting whatever he had left for us.

The crowd was the definition of the beauty of diversity in New York.  From young school kids with their parents, to teenagers not wanting to face leaving Kanye’s world to only get picked up by their parents outside, to people passionate about the craft of his music that could hardly contain their excitement (me), to the bankers managing to loosen up their ties and cuff-links to totally making a point to dance as if was a Friday night and not a Tuesday night.  There was not a quiet moment throughout the whole time.  And I loved the feeling that we were all so different but went there to be entertained in the greatest of ways and surpassed any expectations.  I'm going back on Friday in Connecticut night to catch the show again!!  And the boy I'm going with is a huge fan all the acts so I'm so excited I could share it with him! 

Kanye dominated Madison Square Garden.  He was a superstar and deserves all of the accolade and even some that hasn’t even been established for him for this show.  Yes, there was the amazing set, story, music but they fueled his excitement and provided a catalyst to take the show to another level and solidified him as a superstar.  He carried his entire show.  All the extremities were the players that pushed him to MVP.  He performed a hip hop style of play with his songs as his soliloquies.  If you have seen Kanye perform on TV you can see his passion through his craft but to capture the magic and the honest energy he gives off is something you definitely have to experience.  And as the story was to bring creativity back to earth, he left the Garden inspired.

After such a lengthy review of the concert do you guys really want to hear about the after-party at 1Oak?
I rather make the post ridiculously long to show the passion that this show gave me.  

And as a treat here is a N.E.R.D.'s new video "Everyone Nose", which is getting heavy rotation on the Ipod speakers.


************Muchas Gracias to Director Dave for the pics***************************