Lupe Fiasco “Superstar” f/ Matthew Santos LIVE @ Congress Theatre, Chicago

(10.31.08 - Acoustic)

Wow. It’s past 4AM and I’m still blown away after attending Lupe Fiasco’s Halloween show up at the Congress Theatre in Chicago. I just can’t sleep because I’m filled with excitement, optimism, and inspiration after Lupe’s incredible performance in front of his hometown crowd. During the set, he had 2 announcements: the first being that the show being performed tonight will be recorded for Lupe’s first official LIVE CD/DVD! The second sent shockwaves throughout the Congress Theatre:

L.U.P.End will be Lupe Fiasco’s last album… Oh, you already knew that, but the shocking news… L.U.P.End will be an unprecedented TRIPLE album!!! The ‘E’ stands for Everywhere, the ‘N’ for Nowhere, and the ‘D’ for Down Here. (Can we get a ‘G’ somewhere in there for Gowhere, Lu? Haha..)

Wow. Unreal. I flipped out along w/ the rest of the GWHH fam (Max G., Mr. Music, LA, S-Preme, limrik) and am no longer salty that L.U.P.End will be Lu’s last album, haha. As for the show itself, Lupe outdid himself again, simply put. He came out with a chilling introduction, helped created by a live band, complete with a horns section, keys, and an orchestra! The eerie start turned into an energetic performance of “Kick, Push”, which he then followed up even stronger with “Hip Hop Saved My Life” with Sarah Green filling in for Nikki Jean on the chorus. My favorite performance of the night has to go to “Streets On Fire”, which Lupe set up perfectly with the “Tonight…” line and Matthew Santos came on to kill that one. I had chills. Lupe was spittin’ word for word with clarity and his usual intense Chicago flow not only on “Streets On Fire” but throughout the entire show, even goin’ an approximate 20 seconds without taking a breath on the 2nd verse of “Go Go Gadget Flow”. As one can imagine, a crowd from “a city in the midwest, best city in the whole wide wide world” went nuts! But Lupe saved his strongest set of performances for the end of the concert, beginning with “Superstar” with Matthew Santos providing the acoustics. The crowd was rhyming word for word as Lupe calmly sang the first two verses over just Santos’ guitar, and then the live band jumped in and Lupe got the crowd from mellow to hyped in .5 milliseconds as he matched the band’s energy with rhyming the 3rd verse passionately while jumping around on the stage. Santos concluded the song with numerous choruses, each subsequent one getting the crowd jumpin’ even more than the previous one. Lupe then took the time after “Superstar” to make his ‘Wake The Fuck Up’ speech, which was delivered with such passion that literally spread through my entire body. Every concert-goer had to have been impacted similarly because the passion that Lupe has when he performs a song on stage even took a back seat to the passion that he delievered in his speech. He made the point that with tragedy comes triumph and vice versa, first focusing on the triumph that is Chicagoan Barack Obama. Lupe said, “A vote for Barack Obama is a vote for the future!”. He went on to showcase his hometown pride, saying that there’s just too much talent that comes out of this city, naming a bevy of artists who reflect that. Then he flipped it and exclaimed how outraged it is that Chicago is the murder capital of the United States, which certainly hit hard to all us Chicagoans in attendance. He was on his kness on stage, expressing his disgust about how we should be “outraged, pissed, and mad as fuck” if we hear another person has lost their life because there is no reason in the world for someone to lose their chance to experience the world. He further inspired us to get up everyday, realize that the world is not right, and act as if we are the only person who can do something about it! Lupe Fiasco told us to, “wake the fuck up!”. After this powerful speech, there was only one way Lupe can end such a beautiful day, with “Daydreamin’” of course! With Matthew Santos, Sarah Green, & GemStones contributing on the chorus, Lupe Fiasco poured every last ounce of energy into the two verses, which he just belted across the stage. A powerful ending to cap off a powerful night.

I also caught a video recording of “Superstar” that was performed at the show. The video quality is not very good, but the audio is decent and worth a viewing to visualize the description of that performance above.  We will come through again tomorrow with exclusive pics from the show so stay tuned!

~ Sgt. Tibs