And it was awesome!!

Kanye West and Jay Z rocked Baltimore and DC earlier this month with their Watch the Throne tour.  Besides music festivals like Bonnaroo, this was the largest concert I’ve been to since my very first concert seeing Nsync (LOL) back in 2001 when I was eleven years old.  I go to a lot of concerts and I’m used to most of the shows I see being general admission where for the most part I am able to determine for myself my placement in the venue and the quality of my view of the performance.  Very often I buy my concert tickets on Craigslist at the last min the day before the show even though I might have put the event on my iCal several weeks in advance.  I just always know worst case scenario I can scout tickets outside the venue right before the show so there’s no reason to buy tickets far in advance before I have any idea what my busy schedule will be like.  In this case, the Watch the Throne concert was not a general admission show and I purchased my tickets during the presale three months in advance.  Concerts of this size are generally unappealing to me and most of the artists I listen to are not big enough to fill up a large arena for a show of this magnitude anyway.  This was a truly well put on performance though.  From the song line up to the quality of Jay and Kanye’s rapping to the crazy lights and visuals… it was a top notch performance and thoroughly entertaining.

There was no opening act, which at first seemed odd but then again with two of hip hop’s biggest guys it’s hard to think of any opener that would be appropriate.  The show began with Kanye and Jay Z separated, each on their own large light up cube in the middle of the audience, rapping verses back and forth at each other across the arena.  The two then came together on the main stage performing Otis with an enormous American Flag hanging behind them.  The concert went on for two and a half hours of hip hop greatness, with smoothly flowing alternations between solo performances and tracks the duo could spit together.  Each artist performed a handful of their old classics and newer hits.  Visually the show was spectacular with fire, lasers and light effects, the two light up cubes as islands in the audience, and the giant screens on the main stage.

Kanye and Jay dropped Watch the Throne on August 8th, it being the biggest one-week digital tally ever for a rap album, breaking the US iTunes Store’s one week sales record, and debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart.  The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in September and as of November 6th had sold 1,033,000 copies.  The Watch the Throne tour began in Atlanta Halloween weekend.  Both the album and tour have received plenty of praise and positive reviews from critics.  Swag.