Watch the Throne: Chicago

Been thinking a few days about posting my thoughts since I saw the Watch the Throne tour in Chicago last Thursday. I've read a few reviews already, so I think I'll fill in some gaps I haven't seen anybody else write about yet.

First of all, it's amazing how Jay-Z and Kanye can keep 24,000 people on their feet for three hours. They are at the top of their game when it comes to showmanship and skill as performers and entertainers. Kanye was literally sprinting from one side of the stage to the other while holding down entire verses of "Touch the Sky". They chose a set list the way a DJ spins records for a dance floor. There were crescendoes in energy, mini-sets of songs that shared common themes, and the few lulls in momentum were carefully planned and spaced throughout the night.

Regarding energy and performance style, Jay-Z came across as more relaxed than Kanye. The audience was so engaged, though, that Jay's reserved style brought the fans into a more intimate space to appreciate what he was doing lyrically. During some of his more intricate and rhythmically complex verses, he would quiet down and just stand still during the delivery. The crowd went just as wild for those little bursts of words as they did for the Kanye sprints! That's how finely attuned the audience was to what he was doing on the mic.

I also liked how they chose to intersperse tracks from Throne with their older hits. Got me and my friends thinking about how a theme for the album, the tour, even their careers, is how power is used (or misused) by those who have risen to the top of the game. Most of the songs from Throne have to do with the interdependency of success and responsibility. Of course, the exorbitance displayed on "Otis" is cartoonish and (unfortunately) probably not satire. But "No Church in the Wild" is about the misuse of religion; "New Day" grapples with Black fatherhood; "Made in America" recalls the legacy of Black political leaders; and "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Murder to Excellence" are all too real about senseless crime among the urban poor.

I'm also thinking about the use (misuse?) of power as it pertains to the now-infamous marathon of "Paris" performances that has ended each night of the tour. When we saw them they played it eight times straight. Which pretty much proves Jay-Z and Kanye West are past the point of trying to please. They have been so good for so long at giving fans what they want, that they are now defining what the audience wants, instead of catering to it. I was wondering if the 45 minute block of "Paris" was supposed to be some kind of Kaufman-esque, postmodern comedic stunt, in which the comedians make the audience so confused that they forget what is supposed to be funny. If it was, I guess you could call that a misuse of power. But I don't actually think that was it at all. I think the majority of people in the arena genuinely loved watching Jay-Z and Kanye ham it up on that track. If only they had gone for nine.