JayZ & Kanye West – Rogers Arena – December 17, 2011
What do you get when two of hip-hops biggest ever artists join forces? Probably one of the biggest concert events of the year! JayZ and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne tour wrapped up in Vancouver this weekend.
Debuting on two cube-like stages at opposite ends of the floor like two duelists JayZ & Kayne were greeted with huge applause. The production value right from the first moments showed they weren’t messing around and the audience was in for a treat. Like the reigning hip-hop royals that they are, they held their subject in awe over the course of their 150minute set.
After the opening number, a huge American flag covered the stage as the duo made their way to the front of the main stage. Dropping to reveal two large screens to broadcast close ups of the pair as they got the show underway. Alternating between solo sets with duo performances to bridge the sets the artists seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the audience, perhaps buoyed by the thought of wrapping up their tour. Plowing through their hits list with: Diamonds (From Sierra Leone), Touch The Sky, All of The Lights, 99 Problems, Mo Money Mo Problems, and to rapturous applause and much singing along, Empire State of Mind.
Throughout the night their combined talents brought many moments of excitement to the crowd. Even though it was a solid 2.5 hours with no interruptions the audience nor the artists showed signs of fatigue and probably could have gone for much longer.
Yes, this was an amazing show, and you are right, it was action-packed the entire time. I was amazing at how well behaved the crowd was – everyone was completely immersed into the non-stop action.
I would have to say though that as a Canadian, I really felt like the production should have been adapted for the Canada portion of the tour – I understand that Jay-Z and Kanye are both American icons, however, toting American flags and the red-white-blue theme was very overaggressive and completely took away from the show – leaving me with the bitter thoughts that once again Americans only care about America and how great they are… blah, blah, blah…
True, the set dressing was very pro American but that is their style, they are all about their egos & where they are from: “Made In America” “Empire State Of Mind”. It was a bit forceful and propaganda feeling.
Kanye did at least reword his ‘dreams’ speech to state that “…dreams can come true just outside of America”, a tiny homage but it was at least some acknowledgment that they knew they weren’t in America.