Kanye West Storms Off Stage At Sydney Concert
December 7th, 2008
Kanye West surprised fans by re-starting his hit song ‘Love Lockdown’ four times during his Sydney concert Saturday night (December 6) – after a bizarre rant during which he sympathized with Britney Spears, saying that she was driven to a mental breakdown by the media. The Celebrity Truth was there, and has the details after the jump.
West’s set started strong, but during a breakdown in the show, the rapper spoke to the audience in a sing-song tone about the pressures of being a celebrity. He complained that the media had stripped him of a “real” life, and spoke of Spears and her marriage to Kevin Federline, saying that the reason she “spazzed out” was because Federline took advantage of her.
After performing an electric – albeit occassionally self-indulgent – set, which had the crowd on their feet for most of the show, West’s ego took centre stage when it came to the finale.
After a ten-minute performance of ‘Heartless’, West disappeared from the stage for several moments, and then reappeared, and began singing ‘Love Lockdown’.
Thirty seconds in, he abruptly ended the song, walked off stage, and instructed his band to start again. The music recommenced and when West reached the chorus, he again stopped the song and left the stage.
His confused band started the song a third time, and West began singing, before again killing the song and storming off stage. At this point West walked back on and announced, “I’m supposed to have another f*cking outfit for this song, but they’ve taken it back to the dressing room. Let’s just do it”.
West, who has had a difficult year during which his mother died and he broke up with his fiance, then performed the full song, before walking off stage and shouting, ‘Goodbye Sydney’. House lights went up, and bemused fans were left wondering whether his stylist still had a job?!
December 7th, 2008 at 11:49 am
It was a weird show alright, with high high peaks and deep deep troughs. At moments (Touch The Sky, Stronger, Good Life, Jesus Walks, Flashing Lights, Diamonds) you wondered if any live show in history could be as thrilling and entertaining as this… but at other times it was bemusing and even plain dull. Those long-ass sing-song “soliloquy’s” were kinda raw and heartfelt I guess but very very self-indulgent. His new stufff, as much as he hates hearing fans say it (and told us so during one of those long interludes), just doesn’t stack up to anything on his last 3 albums, and closing the night with three new songs was a bad idea -, even without that crazy start-stop-start-stop tanty during Lockdown as mentioned above. A bizarre night.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:57 am
“storm”ing offstage is a bit of an exaggeration
December 7th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
My friend was right up the front, and the reason why he needed to leave so often is because his crotch was THAT saturated that it leads to speculation he peed himself… ewwwwww! No one can sweat that much…
He did start off so strong, but his britney tyrade and then carrying on with stronger and touch the sky for ten minutes lost me, followed by the love lockdown fiasco…. he has already burnt sydney once with his good vibes act, now with this concert… if he keeps it up he’ll need to do his concerts in the metro!
December 7th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I do not want to hear love lockdown ever again. He really should go back to rapping. I love the eccentricity that is Kanye West, but his expressiveness and attitude spoke volumes through his older songs, but not through any of his newer songs. Talk about repetition! After “Jesus Walks” and “Stronger”, i experienced the biggest anti-climax in my whole concert-attending life.
Man…i do not want to hear love lockdown ever again.
December 7th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I never blog or comment. However I feel obliged to do so today… I don’t usually eat KFC either, but I thought I’d give emotional eating a go after being exposed to an ‘overload’ of sentiment brought forth by one Mr. West. Apparently the same 20 minute tribute to a song he ‘loves’ is to be performed at every show performed during his stint here. I’m not sure if he was going for the humourous angle when talking about Britney, but as a result of my severe lack of empathy – I belly-laughed, instinctually. After his spiel on what can be best described as the norm for a select few (the famous) residing within the confines of a society both a/effected by media, he went on to perform a few of his better tracks… before boring me half to death from about 11. The dancing ceased as the crowd stood still, my face unsure of which emotion to express as his rendition of the word ‘why’ during ‘Heartless’ just didn’t cut it the first six times (‘wah, weh, woh, woo, w, wee, wo, we, wough, waaaai *pause why’) – we stood still not due to the lack of danceable beat (the band was fantastic), more due to a severe case of confusion…
After the show I kept hearing the word ‘sh*t’ as I walked over to the carpark, why? ‘cos anti-climax action stimulates activity in the synapses that connect the Brain’s Left Temporal Lobe (in particular the Broca’s Area) with the Insula resulting in a less than eloquent expression of dis-satisfaction.
I left asking 3 questions.
1) What could I have better spent $140 on?
2) Why did a respected veteran like Nas agree to taint his name?
3) Is Kanye’s Charlie pure Colombian?
December 7th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
get em high in satan voice? dude
all those t pain voice things kill it. i would of rathered nas rest of the night.
ending it on love lockdown no way.
should of brought nas out and did major.
but other than that lights were awesome
December 7th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Kanye put on a great show for the first hour and a half, but the show did get very awkward towards the end when he clearly had peed his pants on the stage! I was right up front and you could clearly see his jeans all of a sudden stained around the crothc. He ran off stage several times to change, but was horrified to learn that his wardrobe had already been packed away! Kanye please wear a diaper next show…
December 7th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
maybe he takes a hint that everyone hates his new shit……..it was dragged out for so long, the base in love lockdown was so annoying then he keeped on playing it……….all his old stuff was top notch……but after listening to his new album and watching last night he is clearly fucked in the head…..
December 7th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
“storm”ing offstage is a bit of an exaggeration
December 7th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
nas and scribe were awesome, so was kanye- but he absolutely killed it at the end with he’s tantrum and the ‘love lockdown’ fiasco, i as many others were so confused and i must admit it was quite painful during he’s solos everyone was just standing looking around.. he started off fantastic and it was amazing but he ended the concert on a really bad note…
December 7th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I don’t know what you guys are on about…
His “storming off stage” parts were when he was changing outfits… who cares.
I admit some of his “freestyle” parts were a bit too long, but overall it was an amazing performance. The crowd was pumped and singing for every song, and his new album is great. Once you listen to the new album properly its actually very good, seeing it live just made it even better for me. What band or rapper or performer do you believe could put on a better concert than this for less than the $140? And when he re sang love lockdown it was only because he wanted to get it right, not because of some tantrum.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Scribe exceeded my expectations and was great. Nas was also fantastic he put on such a good show for a fan like myself who had never really heard his music i was so impressed.
Kanye, without a doubt was very very good. He put on a very giving performance which was powerful and energetic and great.
BUT!
He didnt do the glow in the dark show he did in the states. Thats what some of us paid for. He had a story and tied the songs in and it was a full scale production. If were paying that much money for a tour with exactly the same name+tour poster+credits then I think we shouldve got that. ALSO he should not have played so much off the new album. It wasnt the 808s and heartbreak tour it was the glow in the dark tour, and we got somewhere in between.
The 10 minute rants were ridiculous and completely killed the mood, as did the very very strange love lockdown finale. After 20 minutes even the best fans were leaving.
But still there were so many highlights. Almost every song was reworked in some way, highlights for me were flashing lights, diamonds, heard em say, i wonder, gold digger and jesus walks.
It was such a fantastic night it was a shame it was ruined by those somewhat minor fuck-ups.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
“He didnt do the glow in the dark show he did in the states. Thats what some of us paid for.”
apparently at the melbourne show he aired his frustration at the promoters for billing the show as glow in the dark even though he told them it would be a new show
December 7th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Show was emotional. Strange, amusing, annoying and enjoyable.
It’s true, saying he stormed off stage is probably speaking a little in hyperbole. He did say “Goodbye Sydney, I love you”..
December 8th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Personally? I appreciated his raw emotion and sincerity. I also find the songs from his new album inventive, beautiful and moving – although I understand how hardcore fans of the other albums might find it a bit too “exposed”.
I also, also didn’t mind the rants … the guy is speaking from his heart. And he’s obviously a little emotionally volatile what with his mum dying and his fiancee leaving him, so I think we can cut him some slack. And frankly, appreciate him just ripping himself open for us.
I was a bit concerned that not having the jacket threw him off so much, but whatever. The guy is still grieving. Fair enough that little things like that are making him go a bit insance.
In the end he still brought the goods.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I was waiting for these editorials on West’s performance Saturday and knew that the concert’s goings-on would be exaggerated.
The show was excellent. A good 2 hours of rocking beats and brilliant performances. West was dynamic, played everything the audience wanted to hear plus two decent encores – I feel bad for the impatient fools who left before he came out the third time with Stronger and the singles from 808′s – but thats what you get when not waiting for the floor lights to come on – cardinal rule.
Yeah, the rants were long and I drifted in and out of most of them, but they were heartfelt and raw. And at times even insightful; who needs to pay for therapy when you can rant to a group of devoted fans who just cheer whenever you swear at something. Yeah!
Towards the end, I did get a little confused at how long Love Lockdown was going for – after the third try. I don’t blame him, the man is a known perfectionist.
Didn’t storm off, and did say “Goodbye Sydney, I love you”. Love you too, Kanye.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
it wasn’t all that bad, he did say “love u sydney” at the end and the crowd was going wild for all his songs, i thought it was fantastic but he did seem really pissed about the mess up at the end – i think he is still a man who is still grieving and likes perfection, was an awesome concert
December 9th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
i have 2 main gripes about Kanye’s performance, firstly…..he didn’t really interact with the audience, kanye of all people i thought would of been happy to share a little with the crowd and disucssing how “real” he is during his song doesn’t count although i did enjoy that part of the song! secondly, i know i am not the only one but leaving the concert on saturday, i wanted to leave completely pumped after an awesome gig and it would of been, except for the antics of love lockdown, i have never seen anything like that before and i left wondering if it was worth it instead of focussing on the 95% of the performance which was amazing!
also, i haven’t really seen or heard much of NAS but he was awesome!
December 10th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
He fkd up himself by saying he performed the Glow In The Dark Tour out here last time, which isn’t true.
He pulled all the same stunts in Melbourne with a 10 minute extension of Amazing as well.
What he did straight from the album was unbelievable but when he wanted us to listen to dribble about the media he lost the fans (several times).
Favourite moment was when he looked at himself on the screen, the sky was behind him and he said “isn’t that the most beautiful thing in the world!”
Didn’t throw anything to the crowd, didn’t smile at the audience, in fact didn’t interact at all – did it all for the cameras though so he could watch himself.
Arrogant and self-indulgent inidividual, pity his music is so good!