| | | Kanye West show a barren landscape | | 4/21/2008 1:37:51 PM |  | SCI-FI CONCEPT DID LITTLE TO SHOWCASE SINGER'S STAR QUALITIES
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Kanye West, shown performing in Chicago in August 2007, struck an other-worldly... ( Brian Kersey )«1»
This was supposed to be the tour that launched Kanye West out of the orbit of mere hip-hop stars and up to the level of arena masters such as U2.
And why not? He's got three hot albums to draw from, three first-rate acts to support him, a more-than-ample budget, endless ambition and fans so fired up they gave Warriors star Baron Davis a standing O just for walking to his seat.
Everything was set up for an out-of-this-world night. Instead, on Saturday at San Jose's HP Pavilion, the third stop on his "Glow in the Dark" tour, Kanye West crashed.
On a deserted planet, that is. The show's sci-fi conceit had West marooned on some distant orb. A goofy idea, yes, but one West took utterly seriously. The Chicago rapper-producer delivered his entire 80-minute set from this barren - but geothermally active - landscape, separated from the audience by an orchestra pit in which a large band toiled away anonymously.
Towering alone above the crowd, West had no one to interact with but a disembodied female robot voice - no musicians, no dancers, no posse.
Perhaps a singer-dancer like Michael Jackson or Usher could have pulled it off, but West is no stirring crooner or smooth moon-walker.
The result was a bloated Vegas-style production that emphasized West's least attractive trait - his megalomania - while obscuring his wit, his verbal playfulness and his idiosyncratic intelligence. It was visually stunning, for a while at least, but
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ultimately empty.
The music began hours earlier, however, as Lupe Fiasco delivered a set of high-powered hip-hop, starting with just two turntables and a microphone before bringing out some powerful singers to help on the hits "Superstar" and "Daydreamin'."
N.E.R.D. raised the energy level with an energetic mix of rap and live instrumentation - including two strong drummers - and an all-for-one ethos that contrasted favorably with the headliner's narcissism. The set closed with the group's new single, "Everyone Nose," which worked in the bass riff from the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army."
Rihanna's big hits sounded as good live as they do on the radio, especially the rocking "Shut Up and Drive." But the Barbadian beauty didn't reveal any particular originality or star power that would put her up on the same level as one-named peers Madonna or Beyoncé.
The crowd had to wait almost an hour after Rihanna closed up her irresistible "Umbrella" before the lights went down for the main attraction.
West's opening was genuinely thrilling, an audiovisual zoom through the cosmos as his big band gave tantalizing teases of the hits to come. But when the lights went up on West rapping "Good Morning" on the fake planetscape as a video sun peeked above the horizon, it conjured up nothing so much as Curly singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' " at the dawn of "Oklahoma!" Kanye goes Broadway?
At times, the grandness of his scope worked, like when thousands of fans waved their hands in the air to "Can't Tell Me Nothing" or "Good Life." But West's stilted dialogue with robot "Jane" kept bringing us back to the neighborhood of Styx's "Kilroy Was Here."
Even the show's emotional peak - the one-two punch of "Jesus Walks" and "Hey Mama" - was followed by a pointless band version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." Not even West's bracing "Stronger" could completely wash away the taste of that one.
Back on Earth, finally, West closed with "Touch the Sky." Since Fiasco was backstage, you might have expected him to reprise his rap from the recorded version, but West was in no mood to share the stage. This was all about Kanye, after all.
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