Kanye’s Saint Pablo Tour blesses audiences with god-like performance
Kanye West graced Austin with his presence last Wednesday at the Frank Erwin Center for his “Saint Pablo Tour.” Despite the atrocious organization and planning of the entering and ticketing process, Yeezy did not disappoint.
Anyone who has ever seen Kanye in concert, especially on the “Yeezus Tour” had high expectations for this performance. The Yeezus tour featured naked dancers, giant mountains on stage and even an appearance from Jesus himself!
Yet the Saint Pablo Tour was a completely different experience. It had an extremely minimalist theme. There were no dancers, no extras and no stage props. It was just Kanye and his floating stage.
What? A floating stage? Yes, a floating stage.
Kanye has made quite sensational proclamations in the past about his relationship to divine figures. “I am a God,” Kanye said. To represent this, he literally floats above the crowd, above all of us mortals down below him.
Roughly the size of a boxing ring, the stage was suspended from the ceiling and moved across the floor. General admission concert goers were constantly moving back and forth to keep close to Kanye. Between songs the stage would tilt forward, lower or raise higher.
The concert lacked Ye’s infamous speeches and rants. The whole show seemed a bit rushed, with no more than a few sentences uttered by Kanye the whole time.
The fog entrenched the entire arena, making Kanye nothing more than a floating silhouette, unable to be seen in detail. This could be attributed to the fact that half the crowd’s souls left their bodies once Kanye opened with “Father Stretch my Hands Pt. 1.” Many audience members couldn’t even tell you what color shirt Kanye was wearing.
Despite the quickness, the setlist consisted of an excellent 32 song mash-up between “The Life of Pablo,” “Yeezus” and many of his late hits from 2000-2010. The crowd went wild for “Touch the Sky” and “N—– in Paris,” in particular.
There was no stopping the screams once the line, “I loved you better than your own kin did, I just wanted you to know” echoed through the arena. The whole crowd was on their feet, shouting about Kanye making a certain “bitch” famous.
Yeezy closed out the show with bright white lights enveloping him as he sang “Ultralight Beam.” For those of us that have imagined heaven before, it probably looks a little like this.
Who needs church when you can have the ultimate religious experience by seeing Kanye West on his spiritual “Saint Pablo Tour?”