It was almost two hours into the performance at that point, and the crowd’s bubbling energy had crested and leveled off. “Dreams are possible,” he said, but conceded, “Every day is a struggle.” He doubled down on his insistence that art and commerce should play nice. He began one segment by saying, “Now that I have kids, my perspective has changed,” before thanking the chief executive of Nike, a company he’s had a contentious relationship with in the past, and also Adidas, his current footwear partner. West uses speeches during his shows as a way of collapsing the space between him and the audience, but given that this concert’s physical dynamism did that for him, he kept the talking to a minimum. And he spent much of the second half of the show on a larger platform - banging out a beat on an MPC for “Runaway,” speaking to the crowd and playing some brighter songs, like “Good Life” and “All of the Lights” - but stayed closer to the center of it, making him harder to see from the floor. West stopped the music because he perceived the tangle of people beneath him to be a little too rowdy. The setup wasn’t without its complications, though.
West’s live-show innovation is the latest in a year full of them Drake, Beyoncé and Rihanna have all made concerted efforts on their tours to shrink oversize spaces, a reconsideration of the top-down power dynamic of large-scale live concerts for the age of social-media intimacy and immediacy. He moved in circles and danced across the floor, using the restraint as a tool at times he sat at the edge and let his feet dangle, and at one point lay prostrate and extended his hand to the crowd, offering a benediction. West performed on a smallish square platform, tethered to the center by a rope that ran up under his coat as it tilted at various precarious angles. West from various angles, including the ceiling.įor much of the night, Mr. The platforms floated out above the crowd slowly, like an Imperial Star Destroyer soaring through space in “Star Wars.” At one end of the room was a large screen projecting blurred images from cameras filming Mr.
West delivered the entire concert from platforms that hovered about 20 feet above the arena floor and beamed light in every direction. This performance was like that scene writ large, captured in a consumable experience. West’s “Saint Pablo” tour - celebrating his February album, “The Life of Pablo” - which came to Bankers Life Fieldhouse here on Thursday night. And it provided an unexpected foreshadowing of the opening night of Mr. It was a beautiful expression of fanaticism engineered by an artist who uses frenzy as paint.
The crowd surged and surrounded him after a minute or two, the car pulled away from the throng, leaving a trail of fans chasing it up Third Avenue. The show itself didn’t happen, but at one point, a car drove past, and Mr. Well after midnight, the street was filled with hundreds of young people waiting for a chance to see their hero. INDIANAPOLIS - Back in June, Kanye West was rumored to be playing a secret concert at the New York club Webster Hall after Hot 97’s Summer Jam festival.