Friday night’s Jay-Z concert was one of those events you know you’ll remember forever. It wasn’t even the great show itself, it was knowing the exclusivity of a Jigga show. He may never come back to Vancouver again. Who knows? But he put on a wonderful performance worthy of a swan song.
It all began at a friend’s house where we got hyped up watching Jay-Z’s “Fade to Black” DVD and various music videos. Later we were parking lot “pimpin” with friends from Surrey. Once we were tuned enough we entered the show to catch the last two tracks of N.E.R.D. I remember a whole bunch of chicks on the stage. After a long break, “feel it comin in the air, hear the screams from everywhere… we gonna run this town tonight!” as Jigga pops out of the stage. The crowd is going nuts.
“99 problems,” “Lucifer,” “Empire State of Mind,” and finally “Forever Young” were the highlights. Bridget Kelly popped out to sing the Alicia Keys chorus to “Empire State of Mind.” Memphis Bleak put in a good sidekick role for a bit. Pharrell jumping back on for “So Ambitious” was pretty cool.
The stage set-up was absolutely freakin stunning by the way. I would stare at that thing at times and be like, wtf how they do that? It was the New York skyline wrapped around by a massive LCD screen.
Anyways, to finish off, Jigga gave personal complements to fans in the stadium, pointing them out. It was genuine and great.
In the end, a great freakin show worth the money for the capacity crowd. I give it an A.
Read on for afterparty stuff:
After the concert the buzz was all about the “Jay-Z Blueprint 3 Afterparty” at Aubar. People wanted to see Hova. C’mon if anyone remembers from past concerts, the artist NEVER goes to the “official” afterparty. We drove by and saw that it was absolutely packed outside. Outside was Casey Printers too. We stopped and I shook his hand and everything. Then we left and hit up Coyote for UBC’s Bora Bora. Even they were playin Jigga tracks. Afterward we hit up Envy (old Cheers) in Delta and chicks were flashing everyone in the “Deeds 4 Beads” event. Pretty cool.
We later found out N.E.R.D. was at Pop Opera. Obviously, Jigga doesn’t really need to go clubbing so he was probably just chilling in his hotel. All in all the afterparty atmosphere was great downtown despite the pouring rain and I’m sure the clubs were hoppin.
Photo credit: Nick Procaylo, The Province
Follow Channels and Categories