CONCERT REVIEW: Jay Z and Kanye West @ Wells Fargo Center 11/2

It was the Thrilla in Manila and the peace summit in Malta. It was a marriage and a divorce. It was a bro-down and a beat down. It was the way-mega-sold out Watch the Throne show at Wells Fargo.

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CONCERT REVIEW: Jay Z and Kanye West @ Wells Fargo Center 11/2

POSTED: Friday, November 4, 2011, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Music Concert Review

It was the Thrilla in Manila and the peace summit in Malta. It was a marriage and a divorce. It was a bro-down and a beat down. It was the way-mega-sold out Watch the Throne show at Wells Fargo.

Even Michael Vick, Kiajfa Frink and Todd Herremons were made by the epically rising cubes that popped from each of two stages that the hip hop supa-stahrs appeared upon. Actually those stages made my neck hurt, having to look up to view Kanye West (dressed at the start in a Spartacus tunic top designed by Robert Geller with a black leather Ben Hur-ish warrior kilt) and Jay Z (clad in black, topped by his famed New York Yankees cap which he doffed briefly at “Empire State of Mind’s cheery end).

That was the point of the show, though: YOU are the one watching the throne. They’re just sitting on it. The speedy agile braggadocio-based raps from Jay Z such as “Jigga What” and its bouncy legacy tale, “Hard Knock Life” showed off how the throne’s pillows were to be primped and fluffed. The massively spookily boastful “H.A.M.,” the first song out of the box with Kanye on the front stage and Jova in the center ring was the perfect introduction to the king’s seat production. Besides, the giant cubes were available for hi-def projections of chomping sharks, biting dogs, and flapping doves. So, OK deal with a little neck ache for the icily staged event (kudos here have to go to Philly Live Nation boss Geoff Gordan who put together the entire Watch the Throne tour. ‘Saying).

For all the staged grandeur, the pyrotechnics (oh yes, there were flames shooting up from stage a la KISS) and big pimping the show was surprisingly stark. Much of the staging was in darkness with only well placed and handily timed lasers to speck the black. During one of his solo sets (each man got several) West was lit only in red light, mostly from below, during his synth-phonic set, a self-hating “Runaway” and the coolly Auto-Tuned “Heartless.” West’s Daft Punk-based “Stronger” was eerily space and cutting. Blame the clad-in-black trio of musician/programmers that hung toward the back, providing simplistic synthetic but sturdily musical lines through which Z and West could operate. Jay played the confident outward going but cocky older brother to West’s insular performance style. As they two approached the low stage’s front, Jay was laughing with the crowd while West could barely crack a smile.

While Jay was rapid fire, West was wearily reticent (a performance style, not a flaw). While Jay was erect as direct West was a crouching tiger. While the two offered rigid pugnacious raps through the hard cracking roar clip of “Monster,” the over-wrought “Welcome to the Jungle, the wily “Who Gon’ Stop Me” and the heated “Run This Town,” they chilled to the Otis Redding sample (“Try a Little Tenderness”) that ran through their own “Otis.” Though Jay Z’s jarring and jovial best such as “Encore” and “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” were a treat in the dusky synthetic setting, West’s flights of fluttering (“Flashing Lights”) hammering (“Jesus Walks”) and all around yammering (the luxurious “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”) were only slightly more effective in their emotional reach. But that’s West. And as the show wound to a close (some 30+ songs later) and kinda-weighty epilogues like “No Church in the Wild” played on, West’s level of dizzy wonder pushed up against Z’s cool reserve made for quite a handsome pairing.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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