Kanye West took the stage at the Hollywood Bowl to perform his seminal album 808s & Heartbreak last night, as scheduled. He also brought some of the album's guests to perform: Kid Cudi came out for "Welcome To Heartbreak," "Heartless," and "Paranoid," and Jeezy, who did "Amazing." Mr Hudson was on hand for "Paranoid," and Rap-Up reports that Lil Wayne did not take the stage despite a "mic pack" ready for him.
Entertainment Weekly's round-up of the show notes the presence of "the better part of a symphony orchestra" and lots of abstract choreography. However, the ornate evening was apparently marred by technical difficulties, with Kanye commenting “This is one of the best dress rehearsals…so please excuse…” during the performance.
But it wasn't all revisiting the past. At the end of the show, Kanye "returned cloaked head to toe in a theatrical costume: a burlap bodysuit replete with a bulging codpiece and rough-hewn mask that covered every inch of his body and face." And then, it spoke:
Lurching around the stage with the herky-jerky movement of a marionette, he continued singing: “I’ll tell the truth…and keep running. There is no Gucci I could buy. There is no Louis Vuitton that I could put on… There is no YSL that they could sell/To take my heart out of this jail…There are no clothes I could buy that could turn back the time…There is no vacation spot I could fly that could bring back a piece of real life… I ask you tonight, what does it feel like? To live a real life?”
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