My Night With Kanye: Saint Pablo Tour
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Kanye. After attending his last tour for Yeezus, I had already decided that I was attending the next tour even before the album was released. The tickets for the concert in Boston sold out immediately but I was lucky enough to get tickets a week before at a great price for a GREAT seat.
TIP: If you are still looking to buy tickets, get seats in the first tier up from the floor! Don’t worry I’ll explain later..
The day before, I received an ambiguous email from Ticketmaster stating that the concert was pushed back to 9 pm and that the was no opening act.
Okay…
So since I wanted to get some merch and things I arrived at TD Garden at 8 thinking that the concert actually started at 9. Nope. The doors actually opened at 9 and Kanye wasn’t supposed to go on until 10:30. Even worse than that was the fact that there was no accessible merch tables which meant that you had to wait until the doors opened to do ANYTHING.
TIP: If you’re not planning on buying merch, it literally doesn’t matter what time you get there even if you have a general admission ticket. But, if you do want to get some merch, get there on time and prepare to fight for your LIFE.
The best thing about Kanye not having an opening act was that the show started exactly at 10:30. Since I was still out by the merch table trying to buy a sweatshirt, I missed the first 3 songs Kanye did. Yes, it was that serious and yes it was worth it. Now onto the actual show!
The minimalistic theme artists have been embracing lately is definitely still thriving and with Kanye being the king of that, he didn’t disappoint. There was literally only a black “floating” stage, Kanye and a row of orange to red gradient lights. For a long time I didn’t even think he had a band until Kanye mentioned them towards the end of the show. There was only a pianist, one background singer and a dj. Pretty simple!
Kanye performed a variety of his classics such as Jesus Walks and Can’t Tell Me Nothing but he also performed some of his recent features and did most of the songs from The Life of Pablo. Since I was singing along I couldn’t help but notice that sometimes Kanye would straight up forget the words or skip whole verses. Also, since he was restricted to the stage (there was a strap holding him in place so that he didn’t slip off) there was definitely something lacking in the performance. There would be times when Kanye would interrupt a verse to ask if the stage could be shifted further out into the audience and since there was no background dancers or videos, all we got in between songs was an awkward light show.
Yes, it did lack in pizzazz but the overall energy of the fans made the entire concert so much fun! When Kanye would forget the lyrics there were thousands of fans filling in the blanks. Several people in general admission tried to grab onto the stage and during some of Kanye’s more aggressive songs, the ground floor turned into a big mosh pit. This brings me to why you shouldn’t buy general admission tickets.
You’re literally looking up the whole time since the stage is above you and the stage moves so you kind of have to move with it in order to see what’s going on.
More importantly, Kanye fans are crazy. If moshing isn’t your thing and personal space is important to you then I suggest that you listen to my first tip. Since I was up a tier I enjoyed watching the crazy antics of the concert goers below but I am 100% sure it would’ve been a whole different situation if I was down there with them. Since the stage is elevated, if you’re up a tier or two then you are literally looking straight ahead at the stage so getting the cheap seats aren’t too bad in this scenario.
I found out before the concert that Fade was the last song of the show so in order to avoid all the traffic I started making my way out. To my surprise he actually did one more song, Ultralight Beam. Since I missed the beginning of the concert I was very curious to see how Kanye was planning on getting off the stage. Towards the end of the song, the stage slowly started lowering to the floor of the general admission section. A crew member unhooked him from the stage and in true fearless Kanye fashion, he straight up walked to the people in general admission and started shaking a few people’s hands! There was no barrier, barely any security and at least a thousand of fans eagerly reaching for him. That was really cool to see.
Long story short: It was Kanye rapping on a floating stage. This tour is definitely for true fans since production is very pulled back and he performs a wide spectrum of songs from all of his albums. Do expect to sweat out your hair and possibly lose your voice.
I did prefer the Yeezus show over this one but the fact that I went all by myself and STILL had a great time means a lot!