Life and Times: Watch The Throne

Watch The Throne Tour. Izod Center. East Rutherford, NJ

Leather Kilts, Laser Beams, Rising Stages, Shooting Flames, and the most intriguing repetition of Jay-Z's lyrics by any one human being other than Jay-Z. The Throne has been Watched. Live.

The most anticipated album of the year. The most anticipated tour of the year. Tickets sold out in half minutes, for some half a second. For those who gave up a years allowance, or a months worth of income and were able to get a ticket, you got your moneys worth. For those who didn’t, we apologize for spending the next couple of weeks shooting laser beams at your eyes, and wearing leather kilts.

7:12pm

The long journey from Brooklyn ends and we reach the Izod Center. Long lines, jumpy fans, security guards that look like Michael Clarke Duncan, and Watch The Throne tees were all that could be seen. Conversations of the Philadelphia show were in the air, “I heard Kanye wrote a song for Amber Rose”, and some conversations from first time Jay-Z and Kanye West concert goers filled the air as well. As we entered the center, the atmosphere reached new levels. People wearing Air Yeezys, Venetian-Blind Sunglasses, and New York Yankees fitted caps filled the center.

9:00pm

The lights in the stadium shut off quickly, laser beams of green, red, blue, and the white bright stage shines, the American Flag is shown on stage and the Opera sampled portion of H.A.M plays. By then we knew the show had begun. Kanye Jumped out with “It was all good just a week ago”, then Jay-Z jumped out, and then the most incredible display of lyrical repetition persisted by Carl. Kanye’s leather kilt was cool enough to put and Irish bagpipe player to shame, the lighting display was perfect, and if it wasn’t, Kanye West let you know (by making the lighting crew do All of the Lights twice because the whole stadium wasn’t lit up when the beat dropped). Jay-Z’s performance was incredible, although his performance at the Blueprint 3 tour is still our favorite.

We hoped that when Otis played that the Maybach would be driven on stage, but that might have been a little too much to ask. Hov and Ye performed all of their hits from Where I’m From, to Flashing Lights, to the Diamonds are Forever Remix, to Runaway, and many more. We especially liked a small clever back to back conversation Jay-Z and Kanye had through music. Jay-Z performing Big Pimpin’ first, Kanye exclaiming how he loved it and how he tried to emulate it, but ended up with a “Gold Digger” (and performs Gold Digger) and Jay-Z finishes it off by stating that he apologizes about Ye’s woes and says that he has “99 Problems” but a b*tch aint one (and performs 99 Problems).

The show was one of the best concerts we have ever attended. An amazing show through and through, the tandem really presented all of their best, musically and creatively. We got a small hunch that N**gas in Paris was their favorite song on the album (Performed 3x and was the last song in the show).

- Carl

Life and Times: Chicago

           If you’re like any of us here at headquarters you don’t get to vacation much (Unless you call Carl’s wooden escapades a vacation). While everyone was vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard, bungee jumping at Cape Town, or tearing it up at Seaside, we spent most of the summer stuck inside headquarters behind a computer screen clicking and clacking at Adobe Dreamweaver and Illustrator. Every once in a while we do get off our 15 year old leather office chairs and rack up some flight mileage. This time around we took a trip out to the mid west, home of Ye, Derrick Rose, and some statue of some guy jumping in the air with his legs split open. Yeah, Chicago baby (hums Homecoming by Kanye West and John Legend).

            Midsummer in the mid west in’t the best time for tourists (sitting on top of a tour bus in 100 degree weather is no easy task), but we made the best of it. Chicago is by far the coolest city we have ever visited. Buildings everywhere, to the point where some parts of the city get like 15 minutes of sunlight per day. Incredible architecture, super parking garages, an oversized Marilyn Monroe, deep dish pizza, and of course Lake Michigan. Enough of us rambling about the trip. Enjoy the photos!

- Carl