Kanye West – Yeezus Tour

STAFF MEMBERS ATTENDED: DAN GARCIA; DEAIRIST POINTER

CITY: CHICAGO, IL

DATE: DECEMBER 17 2013

“It is depression, being an avid lover of live music, to know when you have already seen the best concert you likely will ever seen. At relatively young age, I experience this moment in December of 2013 when I witnessed Kanye West’s Yeezus Tour in his hometown of Chicago, IL. That day me and my good friend De’Airist drove from Milwaukee to my mom’s condo in Lincoln Park, a neighborhood just north of the Loop in Chicago. Throughout the entire day I was best planning how we could use our 100 level tickets to get into the General Admission Pit so we could see Mr. West live in the front row. Weeks before our show I would look on instgram to find pictures people posted in the pit so I could see what the wristbands looked liked. Some where solid neon colors, some were checkered, but more were neon colors with ‘KW’ printed on the bands. I thought our best bet was to by some black white wristband, remake the designs on photoshop, and print a bunch of them (all of the ones I have seen online). That way we could have a stack in our pockets, see which they are using, and maybe full the ushers at the United Center. This however was just my back up.

My first plan was to use our real tickets to get in the door, and promptly pull out fake tickets that looked identical to general admission tickets, but would not scan. However, with days until the concert, I did not know what these tickets looked like. So what I did was I went on craigslist, found someone selling such tickets and emailed him asking if he could send a pdf file of the ticket, black out the bar code so he doesn’t have to worry about theft, and send it my way so I can see they are real. After he did that, I told him I no longer needed tickets, then I put a fake barcode into the file (which of course would not scan).

Then it was time to go to the show. We got in with our real, and pretty nice tickets, and then as soon as we got inside the doors we walked to an usher on the lowest level, and told him we never got a wristband. He checked out tickets, saw that they looked legit and sent us to get some. It worked perfect, and for many reasons! The best reason is that we essentially were let in our gate the same time that the person who was the first in the GA line was let in, not to mention we saved a ton of money (which we didn’t have). Finally, we had our front row spots secured for Kanye West!

Opening for Mr. West was Kendrick Lamar. We could not ask for a better opener. As soon as ‘Money Trees’ and the Yeezus Tour was underway, I got chills throughout my body. I had been to so many concerts before, I had already seen Kanye’s Glow in the Dark Tour, Lana Del Rey at Lollapalooza, Big Sean, Kid Cudi, Ludacris, Childish Gambino, Chance the Rapper, Frank Ocean, so many artists I love and even The Spice Girls, however I knew this was about to be special. Kendrick of course killed his set, and while I wish it was longer I was so excited for Kanye to come on stage.

The set-up for the show was unreal. There was a mountain, that turns into a volcano, a 70 foot custom made oval screen, a raising stage, snow, a yeti, ‘White Jesus’, balerinas, costume changes, so many things that Kanye West gives meaning to the word artist. The set list was great to, a number of hits, the entire Yeezus album, and about two-hours worth of Kanye music and of course a little Kanye ‘rant’ where he even shouted out Michael Jordan. His stage presence was almost magical and even when Kanye forgets his own lyrics he gives his all. While some rappers just perform over instrumentals on a MacBook, Kanye West is so much more. I can die happy knowing I have seen the voice of our generation live and in the front row, however I am so excited to see how Kanye continues to try to top himself on his next tour (whenever that may be).” – Dan Garcia