The crowd at the Molson Amphitheatre was eagerly anticipating performances by Nas and Ms. Lauryn Hill, who were to perform tracks from each of their landmark albums (Illmatic and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, respectfully).

My friend and I reached the venue at around 7pm. We weren’t totally upset when Nas didn’t hit the stage until well after 8 (he had a 7:30 call time), because he nailed his performance. I swear this guy is Benjamin Button or something, because at almost 38, Nas is looking as good as ever. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform the last time he was in Toronto, and he did live up to expectations this time around. Backed by DJ Premier and Pete Rock, Nas was full of energy, rapped with passion, used up a lot of the stage, and genuinely looked as though he was happy to be here.

Then comes Ms. Lauryn Hill. I admit, it was Lauryn that I really bought my ticket for, as I missed the chance to see her when she was in town earlier this year at Sound Academy (no complaints though, I heard she was 3 hours late for that one).

The first thing I noticed, besides the fact that she kept the audience waiting an hour and a half (she had a 9:45 start time, Nas was done his set around  9:20), was that the acoustics at the Molson Amphitheatre were terrible when she was performing. I’ve went to a few concerts at the same venue and had no complaints about the sound, so I’m stumped at to what the problem was. Lots of echoing going on.

And then she abruptly left the stage after the third song. I have no idea why, but she came back with a new hat.

Practically each of her tracks were virtually indistinguishable renditions of the original. I almost didn’t recognize them until a few bars into the song.

Now I’m not opposed to an artist re-working their own songs, but when a concert bills you for performing tracks from an award-winning album, it would be nice to hear some of it the way it sounded way back when.

And I don’t know if it was me, but Ms. Hill sounded like she was singing really, really fast. When she wasn’t singing in fast-forward she kept on gesturing with her hands to her band or the stage crew, nothing seemed too rehearsed. It was distracting and I personally couldn’t concentrate on the value of the music.

You would think that for a multi Grammy award winner things would go more smoothly. Especially since the reaction from her last show  in Toronto garnered mixed reviews.

Halfway through her performance I noticed people leaving… in droves actually (thankfully those included the row of drunken, loud, smokers behind us). I’m there thinking, ‘This is Lauryn Hill. You can’t just leave a Lauryn Hill concert mid-set!’ Needless to say, I actually left before the concert was over. It was going on 12:30am and my friend and I had to catch the streetcar to get the last subway home.

I was worried I would miss something good. We left just before she broke out with some old Fugees tracks (like “Ready or Not”), and it turns out Nas came back out and performed “If I Ruled The World” with Ms. Hill (dammit!). Oh, well… at least I still have the tracks on my iPod.

I think Lauryn Hill is a very talented artist. But I guess fame gets the best of some people. Time management would be a skill to work on, esp. if headlining a concert on a Thursday night, in a city with a noise curfew of 11pm, and not living up to the expectations of fans who were wishing it was worth the wait.

Nelly’s one friendly guy… very personable. He walked in the room with a huge entourage, and shook hands and hugged those of us who were already in the room (including a “how you doin’, beautiful” to me *blush* ). I’m happy he didn’t didn’t seemed irked at all that we had to interview him before he got a chance to eat (hope his take-out didn’t get too cold!). He answered the questions with a lot of depth, including thoughts on his new album Brass Knuckles, his collaborations, and even his desire to play for the St. Louis Cardinals if he had the choice.

I’ve always found Nelly’s tracks fun, catchy and perfect for any party. I love how he collaborates with different artists (Ron Isley, Christina Aguilera for example) and genres to create hit tracks such as “Over and Over” (with Tim McGraw), “Dilemma” (with Kelly Rowland). Now I don’t know how I didn’t notice this before, but dayyyum he sure is looking deezed! I shook his hand goodbye after the interview and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was getting hot in therre.

I’ll try to post the link to the transcript of the interview once it’s publicized! Check out Nelly’s official site herre.

I wish I left work a little earlier though, because it ended up taking my friend and I almost 45 minutes to get from Union Station to the Exhibition grounds. The station was packed with concert patrons and Toronto FC fans who were also lining up for the streetcar to see the soccer game that just happened to be at the same time in the same area. We should’ve took the Bathurst station route instead.

The show was slated to start at 7pm and we got there around 7:40. Unfortunately we missed Lupe Fiasco’s performance (which was the main act that I really wanted to see), but luckily Lupe came out at the end of the show to rap a few verses with Kanye. It was cool seeing them together.

We found our seats in time to see a good chunk of N.E.R.D’s performance. The group had brought a couple of fans onstage from the front row, one of which took their sweet time getting off the stage (I mean… we’re not here to see and 18-year-old “try” to dance to hip hop on stage). Pharrell got the crowd going. “Lapdance” is one of my favourite tracks from N.E.R.D. And surprise surprise, they ended up bringing up a multitude of girls/groupies on stage for “She Wants To Move”.

The next performer was songstress Rihanna. I didn’t realize that she had cut her hair even shorter… it looks good on her though. Rihanna came out in a red, military-style jacket and skin-tight pants (first of a couple costume changes). Her performance was good and she had the crowd ella-ella-aye-ing when she sang her hit “Umbrella”. This girl could go a wicked bogle, let me tell you.

And now to the star of the evening (which his performance stated more than once) Kanye West. The last time I saw him live was a couple of years ago at the ACC. This performance blew that one out of the water. Instead of just going from track to track, with some shout outs to the city’s audience, Kanye’s performance played like some type of apocalyptic sci-fi drama. The stage was set up to perfection… it really looked like a planet’s surface (no wonder they took so long to set up). The giant screen where “Jane”, the ship’s computer, spoke from looked like a suped-up version of the original Star Trek’s technology with all those flashing buttons and streaming starlight (now that I think about it, the set up kind of reminds me of the Synergy computer from Jem and the Holograms… lol). With levitating orbs that had planets and and anime-looking ‘shooting star’ character projected on them, smoke and pyrotechnics, the whole set-up looked really good.

One of the things I liked about Kanye’s performance was that he was in character the entire time. From beginning to end it was almost as if you were watching a play of “the biggest star in the universe” (Kanye) crash lands on a remote planet and tries to find his way home. Even the order of which tracks he performed related to the theme of the show: obvious ones like “Touch The Sky”, “All Falls Down” and “Spaceship… and then there were tracks “Wake Up Mr. West” (to start the show when he wakes up from the crash landing), Jesus Walks” (when he was feeling lonley and isolated on the planet), and “Stronger” (when he had to find the power within to find his way back to earth).

Kanye had energy from beginning to end. He ended the show on a positive note with some words for the audience on his personal philosophies, some of which are included “Thank You and You’re Welcome“, his new book co-authored by J. Sakiya Sandifer. Luckily they were giving out some copies after the show… it was a pretty interesting and entertaining read filled with “Kanye-isms”.  I have to give props to the live band that was playing below the stage as well… great job with the music.

And yes… things did glow in the dark during the show!

Visit Tokio Hotel’s official site to check out the band and their music. Their shows in Canada have been crazy so far. The music’s not bad if I do say so myself. I’m feelin’ “Ready, Set, Go”. When the interview gets posted I’ll make sure to edit this post with the update.

UPDATE: Yeah, yeah I know all you Tokio Hotel fans are eager to see them in the interview, but I promise, the interview WILL be up before the release date in Canada (March 25th)… lol (our editor is swamped with work… but trust me, I remind him every day, don’t worry!)

UPDATE #2: Yay! It’s FINALY up! My apologies again… but honestly it wasn’t my fault. I think the editor just had a lot on his plate and putting the audio together w/ the interpretor’s track was kinda tricky. I look like a slob, so forgive me… this was last minute. At least the guys look good!

Tokio Hotel interview with umusic.ca (if it’s archived visit the ‘footage’ section and click on “Tokio Hotel”).

Peterson’s illustrious career spans seven decades and has played with jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Nat King Cole. He’s also a multi-award winner including eight Grammy Awards and the Companion of the Order of Canada–Canada’s highest civilian award.

You can visit Oscar Peterson’s official site at oscarpeterson.com