“What makes this night so special is that it’s about y’all and the way you feel: This is a representation of that feeling.” Feelings were indeed front and center at Kanye West’s Saint Pablo Tour in San Jose last night, an emotional, visual, aural rollercoaster ride that lasted nearly three hours and could’ve gone on longer if the audience hadn’t been on the brink of rioting.
Not only did Kanye feel like Pablo, he also left the audience feeling all ten stages of grief over the course of his hour-long spoken word performance/tirade/slam-poetry session about Donald Trump, education, race in America, internet echo chambers, and, of course, himself. While shoes, hats, and other articles of clothing were thrown at West from the raucous pit that churned below his floating stage—partly a representation of the audience’s feelings last night—fans were also wilding out at the raw energy, passion and creative ingenuity he brought to his off-the-wall, one-man show.
You have to give it to Kanye for being Kanye. He spent the evening floating above an audience, tethered to a tilting stage that showered fans below in gold, orange and yellow lights—reminiscent of a scene out of a Philip K. Dick novel or a George Miller film. Beginning the show with “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” the self-proclaimed modern-day Einstein led the audience through a few of his hits from his latest, post-physical-release LP, The Life of Pablo album, stopping repeatedly to comment on the country’s current political climate and revealing that he didn’t vote but if he had, it would’ve been for Donald Trump.
As the audience began booing in anger, Kanye persisted that he wasn’t asking their opinion on who should have won, but was simply stating that he did win, despite everyone’s confident predictions that he would lose in a landslide, and questioned that false confidence.
“Don’t believe that just because the media doesn’t like the headline, there aren’t enough people out there who do believe it,” West said. “For everything you might not like, there’s another human being right next to you who might like that shit. You might not like what you’re hearing right now, but I’m just gonna ask you to ask more questions.”
Unfortunately, Kanye’s constant interjections and interruptions didn’t allow for a cohesive flow of songs, or even any semblance of his recorded work to be fully enjoyed. When he wasn’t skipping songs altogether—“skip that track, next one”—he was bringing the audience’s energy from zero to one hundred real quick, starting a verse, stopping after the first line, talking extensively, then starting the song over again. For “Freestyle 4,” Kanye repeated the first verse three times, stopping before every chorus to shed light on racism or Donald Trump’s campaign genius and then skipped the song altogether.
He did try to end the performance on a strong note, singing hits like “Runaway,” “Stronger,” “Touch the Sky” and ultimately ending with “Ultralight Beam.” It wouldn’t be true to form if he didn’t stop in the middle of the booming gospel choral outtro for “Ultralight” to leave the audience with one last bit of wisdom: “This world is racist, OK? Let’s stop being distracted to focus on that as much. It’s just a fucking fact: We are in a racist country, period. Do not allow people to make us talk about that so fucking long. Let’s talk about whatever the fuck we wanna talk about, just stop fucking talking about that, bro.”
Kanye West said it best last night: “You are fooled by the information on the mother fucking internet, bro!”
As news outlets across the globe will report on his outlandish claims today, we have to consider last night’s performance in the context of Kanye West—one of the few celebrities on the planet with the chops to go head-to-head with Trump in a troll-off.
Ye has been saying outlandish things in the interest of making headlines for the majority of his career. Did he really believe that George W. Bush didn’t care about African Americans? Does he actually fancy himself a god among mortals? Would he really have cast a vote for Trump?
Perhaps these are the wrong questions to be asking—at least when it comes to last night’s show.
In an era in which the truth has become a matter of opinion—thanks to the social media bubbles we actively choose to live within—perhaps all that counts is that West has managed to go viral with his antics yet again. There is at least one man out there who can attest to the virtues of viral content. And come Inauguration Day, that man will be taking the oath of office.
Check out photos by Greg Ramar from last night’s show below:
Click here for the full gallery.
Listen to “Ultralight Beam” below:
