Kanye West is touching down in Australia this week to kickstart his postponed Yeezus tour and judging by the reports coming in for his performance at the Made In America festival over the weekend, Australian fans are in for something special.
The hip hop mouthpiece delivered a 21-song headlining set on Saturday night at the Philadelphia leg of Jay Z’s Budweiser branded music festival (before jetting to L.A. on Sunday night for the coastal Made In America), with the entire show streamed live online (which you can watch in full below).
Arriving on-stage with his diamond-encrusted mask to the tribal sounds of ‘Black Skinhead’, West spent half of the show drawing from the darker, aggressive sounds of Yeezus and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (the best album of the decade so far, donchatknow?) before diving into his earlier, more celebratory hits for the back-end of the set, including ‘Stronger’, ‘Touch The Sky’, and ‘Good Life’.
The high-concept Yeezus tour of last year – a full-scale production featuring the construction of a mountain and theatrical meetings with Jesus – has since been pared back, with West’s Made In America set predominantly using giant LED screens and casting West’s rapping visage in silhouette to get its point (and power) across.
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The rapper’s trademark rants were kept to a minimum too – though a lengthy version of ‘Runaway’ allowed West to indulge in an auto-tuned monologue where he touched being spoofed at MTV’s VMA Awards, his marriage to Kim Kardashian, and his place in music history, as Mashable details.
“What’s the main reason why they say that Kanye’s not a good guy,” West sang, “Because the only thing I do is tell the truth, and if I tell the truth, I’m not a good guy, so what they tell you the rest of the time is all lies.”
“I’ve got love for everybody in the media and all the tabloids — I know everybody is doing their job,” he told the crowd. “Before we go to the next song, I want people to realize what we do is we put our love, our heart, our pain, our struggle, our story, our lives in until 3 a.m. every night in the studio for this.”
The set finished before midnight with West giving an encore performance of ‘Blood On The Leaves’, imploring the crowd to form a circle pit and “push motherfuckers next to you” during the second rendition of the song for the evening.
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West’s energetic performance left Consequence Of Sound wondering if it was the best show of the year, noting: “All that positivity seemed to translate into an even more impressive live performance than usual;” also plugging accompanying keyboardist/guitarist Mike Dean.
Meanwhile, Noisey’s live reviewer also sung the show’s praises: “Kanye takes you to the Yeezunverise, where only complete truth and awesomeness and dopeness exist, jumping before beautiful and blinding red light.:”
Despite postponing his original visit to Australia in May to work on material for a new album, there was no new material aired during the show – but perhaps Aussie audiences will be among the first to hear some fresh cuts live. Supporting West this September for seven-date trek – and making his Australian debut – is Push T, which could mean some on-stage team-ups to deliver his verse on ‘Runaway’.
Stream the full Made In America Philadelphia set (in two parts) below, along with setlist and the Kanye West Australia Tour 2014 dates.
Setlist:
Black Skinhead
I Don’t Like (Chief Keef cover)
Mercy
Cold
Can’t Tell Me Nothing
New Slaves
Power
Blood on the Leaves
Stronger
Runaway
Run This Town (Jay Z cover)
Diamonds from Sierra Leone
Heartless
Jesus Walks
All Falls Down
Touch the Sky
All of the Lights
Good Life
Bound 2
Encore:
Blood on the Leaves (Reprise)
Kanye West Australian Tour 2014
Friday 5th September – Perth Arena
Sunday 7th September – Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Tuesday 9th September – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Wednesday 10th September – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Friday 12th September – Qantas Credit Union Arena, Sydney
Saturday 13th September – Qantas Credit Union Arena, Sydney
Monday 15th September – Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Tickets and info livenation.com.au
