Fan Review: Lupe Fiasco @ HOB Las Vegas [05/01/10]

Pic courtesy of Yvette

Nathan T. attended Lupe's show @ the House of Blues in Las Vegas, NV on Saturday and just sent his review to us...check it out after the jump!

Ok so the first thing I want to say is that LUPE FIASCO IS A FUCKING ROCK STAR!!! His swagger and energy are completely on another level from anything I’ve ever seen.

That being said for anyone who hasn’t made it to a show but has the opportunity to make it to one of these last shows absolutely do it. Definitely worth the price of admission and then a bunch more.

So after months of campaigning to bring the tour to Arizona via Twitter with no success I finally decided that I was gonna make it to this tour no matter how far I had to go. I saw Lu in the GITD in Tucson, but his set was definitely not enough.

So for the past two years I’ve been watching the shows that Lu has been doing hoping and praying that he would make a stop in the Grand Canyon State, well no such luck. So like I said I wasn’t going to miss the Steppin Laser Tour for anything.

The closest shows to me were either Vegas or LA, each being about an 8 hour drive or hour flight. Well it was easy to choose Vegas because of the fact that it was on a Saturday so that meant we didn’t have to miss work on Monday.

My girlfriend and I had planned on driving but decided that about 16 total driving hours was too much to just stay there for one night, so we flew. We left on Saturday and then came back Sunday.

Armed with our camo pants and homemade “WE ARE LASERS” shirts we set off for Vegas for what we knew would be an awesome time. But honestly awesome is an understatement. There is so much to do and see in Vegas but none of it was more spectacular then the Steppin Laser Tour, not the fight, or anything you can find on the strip.

So before the show we went and ate dinner at the House of Blues, and it turns out that if you eat there they let you bypass the line and get in the venue first. Don’t know if every House of Blues has been doing this or not but it’s a good thing to know just in case for people going to the HOB show tonight in LA.

So you would assume that because we were able to bypass the line we would be right up front, wrong. I bought balcony seats so that we wouldn’t have to worry about being stuck way back on the floor. We were gonna say fuck it and just go down on the floor anyway but we decided not to and I’m glad we didn’t.

The floor was absolutely crazy, people smoking weed, crowd surfing, and fighting. Because we got there so early we were able to get right up front next to the railing above the far right corner of the stage. The view was amazing from up there.

Ok so now on to the actual show. I had never heard of Dosage prior to this show but honestly this dude form Philly is DOPE! He really caught my attention and I look forward to hearing more from him in the future.

He got the crowd going pretty good and after doing a few songs it was time for B.o.B. Bobby started off with a freestyle to “Shook Ones” which was crazy, he did a few songs that I wasn’t familiar with but the moved into more familiar songs.

He did TI’s “Sitting On Top of the World” with Playboy Tre and then “Bet I” the crowd went crazy for “Airplanes,” “Don’t Let Me Fall,” “I’ll Be In The Sky,” and “Nothing On You.” Toward the middle of B.o.B’s set people started really pouring in.

As soon as his set was over with and the curtains closed the “Lupe!” chants started. After setting up for a while the venue got dark once again and the crowd went bananas! You could see the curtains opening through the darkness and then you hear a voice saying “3... 2... 1” and then the guitar blares through the speakers playing the beginning of “Shining Down.”

Soon after that the lights come on and we see Lupe appear on stage. From the start Lupe’s energy was just out of this world. In the words of Kanye his “swagger is Mick Jagger,” he was just all over the stage getting the crowd hyped and just spazzing out.

I can’t remember the exact ordering of the set list but I believe after doing two verses of “Shining Down” he went on to “The National Anthem.” I would sit here and try to tell which songs he did the best but it’s impossible to pick because he went hard on them all, but I will tell you which songs stood out most to me.

Obviously the new songs stuck with me, this was the first time I heard any of them because I decided not to watch any videos from previous shows because I wanted to be the first time I heard them to be in person. “State Run Radio,” and “Scream” are insane to say the least, the same goes for “Stereo Surge.”

Before performing “Beautiful Lasers” Lupe talked about how special that song was to him and to Vegas, he talked about how he was in a dark place in his life and that he came up with the song while in Vegas last year.

For the older song I really enjoyed “Go Go Gadget Flow,” “All Sabotage,” “Streets On Fire,” and “I Gotcha” to name a few. The most energy from the crowd definitely came from a few songs in particular. The first being definitely “I’m Beamin,” when the beat dropped the crowd went nuts, the same can be said for his performance of “Superstar.”

After “Superstar” it seemed like the show was over but Lupe came back out shortly and did “Switch” which was spectacular and after that he brought Trae the Truth out for a song. He went on to talk about the Mayweather fight for a little and then said that they were gonna finish up with one more song.

He took off his earpiece, shirt, chain, and armband and then “Daydreamin” beat dropped. It’s hard to say that Lu had more energy on one song more then the other but “Daydreamin” was absolutely, positively EPIC!

We fed off Lupe’s energy and he fed off of ours. The whole venue was going completely crazy throughout the whole song. And then it was done, my feet killing me, my voice shot, and my head pounding, but none of that mattered because I was riding on such a high from the excitement of the show.

One other thing worth mentioning is the chemistry and stage presence between Lupe and Eric Hammer, it was just tremendous seeing those two interacting together throughout the show.

Lupe’s energy and all that he puts into his performance is nothing less then impressive. You have to appreciate what he puts into his shows because he absolutely pours his heart and soul out. He leaves it all on the stage.

I don’t know if Lu will ever see this and take the time to read it, but just in case I want to be sure to say thanks. The show was just amazing and inspiring and from the bottom of my heart I want to thank Lupe and everyone else involved.