Kanye West
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
December 5th 2008

Halfway into his massive two hour plus show at a heaving Rod Laver arena on Friday night, Kanye West cracked the shits.

During a long winded freestyle to the crowd about his respect for Melbourne's art and fashion scenes, and so wanting to put on a good show, he suddenly said "What the fuck? Someone just threw a penny at me!". The freestyle then turned into West telling the offending character to "eat shit and die". Over and over again. This, the biggest rapper star in the world falling for playground lyrics.

It was a lowlight in an otherwise awesome, adrenalised and positive show. But despite the outburst Kanye was here to deliver an inclusive message and this he did in spades. Even the cheap seats were dancing. If anything the outburst highlighted the reason why so many people love the man. Emotions and honesty are never far below the surface; petulant, positive or otherwise. This, in the age of PR abiding "rockers" and indie musicians talking about "brand recognition" and "regions", is heartening and somewhat transluscent. It makes you like him.

Billed as the infamous Glow in the Dark tour, West admitted in one of his many chats to the crowd that it was a mistake on behalf of the promoters to say so. It didn't matter. The light show was epilepsy-inducingly amazing and if there were any misgivings about hip-hop translating into a large arena then West did his best to dispel the notion. With a 9 piece band raised across the back of the stage, the star had a good 30 feet clear across to work with. Back-lit by a constantly pulsing array of LED screens, smoke and yeah, flashing lights, he looked like Bono, pirouetting, prowling and shouting out to the back seats. Grinning all the while.

Opening with a storming 'Paranoid' from new album 808s and Heartbreak, Kanye managed to squeeze in a hefty portion of new cuts amongst older hits. The show kicked up a notch with 'Flashing Lights' and continued until 'Touch the Sky', a highlight. This prompted another long talk about staying positive and slightly bizarrely, being number one, along with "Beyonce, Jay Z, Lil' Wayne, Coldplay...MGMT". Ok sure.

'Jesus Walks' and 'Harder, Better' made up the first encore, before the the freshly clad rapper returned for the second. If there were any doubts as to his supremely tight band actually, y'know, being "live," West silenced them with his regular "playing" of them. He would ask mid-track for an instrument to drop out or for the band as a whole to die down while he freestyled. In a long winded "Amazing" when he motioned for it to drop to just drums - yet the synth kept playing - he hilariously stopped dead to say "Dude! Stop the keys!". It was a revealing touch of humanity amongst the glitzy arena spectacle. One that over a massive two hour plus running time, only added to the suggestion of Kanye West being the emotional genius he says he is.

(Pic: Kristy Lee)