Last night the kindly purveyors of fine spirit at Absolut Vodka invited me along to the big Kanye West “Glow In The Dark” tour stop at Madison Square Garden here in New York. Leading up to Kanye was the ridiculously amazing opening line-up of Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D. and Rhianna. All in all, the show was an amazing spectacle (no matter what Entertainment Weekly says), but here are my favorite specific parts of the night (from memories that weren’t destroyed by copious amounts of Absolut 100):
- Kanye’s stage and lighting production, which makes “Ziggy Stardust”-era David Bowie seem understated by comparison.
- Chris Brown joining rumored girlfriend Rhianna onstage for the “Umbrella” chorus, and the resulting shrieks of female fans nearly shaking the entire Garden into ruin.
- Kanye groping the Giant Gold-Painted Alien Woman (so SHE’s this Gold-Digger we’ve been hearing so much about), who in turn told him, matter-of-factly, that he is “the biggest star in the world”.
- Rhianna covering M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” while wearing an outfit that made her look like a Michael Jackson 80’s Robot.
- Lupe Fiasco setting things off – and closing out his set – with a soul-stirring rendition of “Daydream”.
- N.E.R.D.’s hip-hop mosh-pit during “Everyone Nose”.
Read the rest after the jump!
- The tarted-up fourteen year-old girls in the audience, and their hilarious white suburban Jersey kid boyfriends, who are all under the impression that they’re “street”.
- Feeling nervous Kanye was going to burn himself on the giant blue and red flames spitting forth from the stage.
- Models, actresses, Gossip Girls, people who are (or really want to be) all three, Russell Simmons, Janice Dickinson and the Jigga Man at the after-party.
- Vodka. Lots and lots of vodka.
More pics at Brooklyn Vegan and WireImage (after-party).
