Live review: Kanye West, Sydney

31 January 2012

by Nathan Jolly

Sydney Entertainment Centre
January 27, 2012

Your opinion of Kanye West’s live show (either his Sydney Entertainment Centre show or his Big Day Out set, they were the same thing) hinges on what elements of his work you admire. If you care little for the endless self-examination, preposterous posturing and overblown antics, then you will enjoy nearly three hours of hit singles punctuated with faux-inspirational speeches and embarrassing oversharing, pointlessly divided into three acts. (Plus the part when he actually gets changed underneath a billowing white sheet held by dancers while Chariots of Fire blasts unironically from the speaker.) However, if you find the dark, twisted purging to be beautiful, the boasting to be inspirational, and adore his endless artistic endeavour then you will love the steady stream of singles, the ornate and often truncated arrangements which translate amazingly live, despite the lack of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj or Jay-Z (the number of reviews bemoaning their absence, as if they were ever going to be part of the show unbilled, is truly astonishing!) and the admittedly way-too-long sections where he stops to bear his soul (then reiterate, then iterate). Kanye isn’t best when off the cuff, as his long-winded repetitive rants showcased. This isn’t surprising; his professional canon, both as a producer and a recording artist, is impeccably crafted - even the more throwaway tracks are clearly laboured over. He is a craftsman, not a motivational speaker, despite his restless need to project his every thought.

::LIVE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENING

Most of the criticism levelled at Kanye West’s recorded work can easily be applied to his live show. It’s overblown and unforgivably pompous in places but like Kanye himself, possesses a likable blend of arrogance and little-boy-lost insecurity. As he said in All Falls Down, “We’re all self conscious, I’m just the first to admit it.” And boy, does he. Who could have imagined how prescient that line would become. And while these little mid-song talks became tedious for even the most devoted Yeezy fans, this mattered little. As he blasted through hit after hit, rapped with a better sense of melody and flow than he does on record, and ignited a genuine sense of excitement and wonder throughout the audience, his line from Power seemed to encapsulate the mood of the evening with more accuracy. As he crowed, “At the end of the day, God-damn it I'm killing this shit. I know damn well y'all feeling this shit,” it was impossible to deny, and the only thing that mattered. As with all good artists, the music did all the actual talking.