Show: Lupe Fiasco
Date: October 10, 2011
Venue: The Palladium
City: Hollywood, CA
Lupe Fiasco
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Katie J. Norris
The show opened at a high point with amazing backup singers, hot costumes and a full-on light show. It was a rock n’ roll show/pop concert/hip-hop visual delight. They started at top energy with the hit single, “Words I Never Said.” After a powerful vocal opening by the surprisingly talented female singers, Lupe hopped up on stage to rap out the first verse of the song. He was wearing black leather pants and a black shirt with “Occupy” in bold, white letters. He has always been known for his strong liberal political views and taking the side of the people. The shirt made for a popular choice, considering current events. Something else noteworthy about the beginning of the show was that it started right on time! For those of us frequent concert-goers who are used to waiting sometimes a half an hour or forty-five minutes for the headlining act to start, this act of respect did not go unnoticed.
Lupe Fiasco’s band consisted of guitar, keyboards, drums, bass and an electric violin—not the normal hip-hop/rap star’s performance set-up—and they were all incredible musicians. All the backup singers’ vocals complemented each other perfectly creating an interesting harmony despite their distinctively unique voices. Lupe was a fantastic performer with high energy and sharp movements and has wonderful usage of musical dynamics in his songs. His rapping style was the only thing that didn’t fluctuate between highs and lows. One of the male backup singers stepped forward with a solo which he performed into an auto-tuned live mic. This went great with the slick crispness of Lupe’s speedy lyrics.
After the fourth song, the stage went black for a set change and the crowd couldn’t hold back the “Lupe! Lupe!” chant. There was something for everyone at this show and the audience was pumped. Lupe came back on stage under a blue spotlight with an eerie opening that morphed into “Go, Go Gadget Flow.” Lupe requested audience participation in singing the lyrics “…best city in the whole wide world.” He performed hits that span throughout his career, some of which included “Shining Down,” “Kick Push,” “Superstar,” “Dumb It Down” and “Out Of My Head.” The last of which, he brought on a young friend—a five year old boy—to open the song by singing the chorus. The kid’s performance was priceless and a little too good for his age. For the song “’Til I Get There,” just like the studio recorded version, was a mash-up of light pop-piano with theatrical rap over top as if the two genres always belonged together. Indeed, it was a happy, snappy tune that had us all boppin’ along. This transitioned to a disco funk-beat for the Kanye West song Lupe was featured on, “Touch The Sky.”
A fun break from the playlists of songs was a classical-style piano interlude that transitioned and clamored into an experimental, atonal, industrial jam and back again, to the direction of Lupe. He added in the eclectic background chorus and wound everything back into another hip-hop song. “Scream” and “Break the Chain” followed, featuring a killer shredding solo on the electric violin. For the big finale, it was nothing else but “The Show Goes On,” a smash performance that featured everyone on stage at the same time. Lupe promoted acts of humanity to the audience in asking them to “support local homeless shelters! Support local food pantries! He ended his break from the music with “All day, all week, Occupy Wall St.” Almost immediately after that little insight into who Lupe is as a person, members of the band, with Lupe’s help, Lupe super-soaked the audience with water, much to everyone’s amusement.
Judging alone, by the volume of the crowd’s cheers and chants throughout the entirety of the show, it was obvious Lupe Fiasco’s set was well received and everyone there felt they got more than their money’s worth. These days, there are many mainstream hip-hop acts out there that are a mere cookie cutter version of the radio acts that preceded them. Lupe Fiasco is definitely not one of those acts. From his amazing stage presence, to his amazingly talented band and backup singers, to his thoughts on humanity, Lupe Fiasco is a one of a kind act.