Despite a disappointing loss to Ball State Saturday, Nov. 5 at Rynearson Stadium, the students that were found at the Lupe Fiasco concert only hours later weren’t shaken.
Ready to dance and have fun at the Convocation Center, it was the place to be Saturday night — if you weren’t there you were missing out.
With the doors opening at seven, it wasn’t very crowded. Even by eight there were
numerous seats open, no doubt due to the letdown of Chiddy Bang being unable to play that night.
A DJ trying to pump up the crowd introduced two very amateur acts, though they were surprisingly decent for pre-opening acts.
While unknown to me, they were enjoyable to listen to as I waited for the start of the concert.
The two performers rapped and sang across the stage, apparent happy to be on stage in front of an audience that size. Still receiving a great applause we waited again for the next act.
The lights dimmed and the noise level grew ten fold. Chip “tha Ripper,” recently finishing up the “Life Tour” with Kid Cudi, started to play. Spotlights were cast on stage and the fog increased.
The energy was slowly rising. It was obvious to see that fans weren’t as excited to see him as he kept trying using the phrase “I see we’ve got some haters in the audience.. Let’s change that!” If anything, fans were excited to finally get the show on the road.
At the end of his performance, everyone was ready for the long-awaited and hyped-up Lupe Fiasco. After waiting for him to walk on stage, fans were growing tired of standing around as they started to chant “Lupe! Lupe! Lupe!” Eventually the chanting worked as the lights dimmed once more, the fog increased again and lights flashed like mad.
After the long-awaited album release of “Lasers,” fans went crazy. Mostly playing songs off of the new album, he blew minds.
“When Lupe Fiasco came out, everybody went wild,” Derek Miceli, a freshman and longtime fan, said. “Everyone was allowed to come down to the bottom rows, and it went from being chill to hype in seconds! It was a good time. A great concert for me to see for my first time at the convo.”
“Words I Never Said,” “Till I Get There,” “I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now,” and “Beautiful Lasers,” were just a few of the songs he performed from his new album, as well as “Kick, Push,” from an older album.
He was able to mix hip-hop and techno with rap. As a first time Lupe Fiasco listener, I can safely say I was amazed at his performance and I will be putting him on my computer to listen to later.
It was a surprise to everyone that he was ill as he performed as well. He joked around saying it felt like he had pneumonia and that his fans pushed him to perform his best even in that condition.
I met with senior, Zach Bollinger after for his opinion of the show. “You wouldn’t have been able to tell by his performance that he was sick, because Lupe put on one heck of a show!
“He played a great mix of his old and new hits that did not disappoint.”
At one point during the show, it was visible how excited and happy he was to be back in Michigan as he threw water on himself then to the crowd, along with the water bottle.
People went crazy.
Before closing with his new hit single, “The Show Goes On” he set himself on a platform on the stage and laid himself down as he did a cheer with his fans only a short feet away from him. “E… M…U… Are you out there… Are you out there…” to which overly excited fans would yell and respond “Yeah!” right back to him.
Take it from me, a new fan of Lupe, that if you weren’t there you really did miss out on a memorable experience.
