Lupe Fiasco played at the Kent State University yesterday...
below there's a review of the show.
Winslow, a local Kent band that was said to have won the KSU battle of bands in 2006 and some other battle of bands in 2007, as well as coverage on MTVU or something opened the show. They were O.A.R.-like but more jazzy. The band, itself sounded good and worked pretty well together but the lead singer had a terrible voice and did not fit well at all with the band I thought. They covered a Michael Jackson classic (which I can't remember but it actually wasn't a terribly cliche one to cover) and murdered it. The crowd wasn't in to them at all and every one just wanted Lupe Fiasco.
This was my third time seeing Lupe Fiasco and it was great. He has a very good backing band and he was just as good. The love renditions of most of the songs sound different than they do on the record due to the backing band but it is a nice and welcomed, good change. Lupe gets really in to the show, moves around, jumps, dances and has a great time on stage. They only played the first two verses of Sunshine and segued in to I Gotcha and only did the first verses of Dumb It Down which was kind of a disappointment.
At this point of the show Lupe talked to the crowd about his next album, lupEND and how he's going out on that but said to keep an eye on the blogs, websites and MySpaces because on October 31 there will be a big announcement which everyone will be "shocked" about and then he went in and performed what felt like an improve/freestyle of a new song, which could be great.
The classic rendition at the end of Paris, Tokyo was awesome like always. Then
Uncle Chucc performed his "own" song which I figured was titled My Angel
(it's actually called "Angels" and you can hear it here) and he had quite a good voice. Before Daydreamin' Lupe talked to the crowd for a really long time about voting ("A vote for Obama is a vote for the future!" "A vote for McCain is a vote for the past!" "But voting for who yourself think you should is the best vote!") and he went on about how everyone needs to wake up, live their lives to the fullest, realize what is going on in the world, and to pretty much just wake to everything and they ended up stretching the song out really long and making it a lot more heavier, passionate, and effective (even though it always is) live and was a great closer even if it was a bit long.
Setlist:
Kick, Push
Hip Hop Saved My Life
Sunshine
I Gotcha
Go Go Gadget Flow
Dumb It Down
Freestyle/New Song Improv
Hi-Definition
Paris, Tokyo
Angels - Uncle Chucc
Superstar
Daydreamin'
He played for around an hour and fifteen minutes and I was left wanting more. The setlist was good but it wasn't as if he played stuff he doesn't normally play but that did not effect how good the set was. They also did have some good light work and the crowd was definitely in to it the whole set. If you like hip-hop and/or respect a good live show, go see Lupe Fiasco.
