--- No seats, no air conditioning, plenty of air additives…
--- HA, Kendrick psyches the audience out with multiple mic approach and retreats.
--- “For Free?” The sticker-shocked Stubhub audience is well aware the concert is not free. They love the DC reference though.
--- “Backseat Freestyle”!! Heh, its role in the album (of an uncharacteristically cocky moment as a kid) is lost to generic gangsta haze live, but the rhythm works.
--- “Swimming Pools.” The ‘drank’ part is less annoying in concert. The verses sound good too.
--- Can’t tell if it’s “For Sale,” “Hood Politics,” of some obscure “Lucy” song. Regardless, there’s a cool "boo boo" explosion halfway through and an unexpected guitar at the end.
--- “Complexion” don't mean a thang!! He hands it off to Rhapsody – I cannot rhapsodize about his enunciation...
--- Heh, Kendrick seems to intentionally never say B. He had the audience say it earlier and now during “Kill My Vibe” again. Interesting. Another guitar.
--- Yay, DC reference number two. Oh, he now says B. There goes that theory...
--- “Money Trees” -- aka the ya-bish Halle Berry Hallelujah song. I remember reading the lyrics featuring all this intriguing imagery on RapGenius, but the story / intimacy gets lost here.
--- “mAAd City”!!! And the theater exploddddes. Red lights, bang bang bang, leap leap leap………...man.
--- “U.” Loving you's complicated. I like his shoutouts to the keyboardist, guitarist, drummer, and Tony on the smooth-A bass.
--- The intro to “Sing About Me” / “Dying of Thirst” masterpiece serves as an instrumental for his…speech!!!!! “Butterfly was therapy, this speech is therapy, coming back to core fans after 80,000-100,000-person arenas is therapy, the [meet-and-greet white kid who sent a letter] was therapy.” He does not actually perform the song, but there’s no need to. He just left vulnerability for dayyyys. “Don't believe it when you're told you're great.” Ladies and gentleman, the anti Kanye.
--- Perfect transition to the loud “King Kunta.” We do indeed want the funk.
“i,” the song performed on Colbert? The rapid fire verses sound great.
--- “The Blacker The Better”!! Album standout, live standout. Pretty sure he went three minutes without taking a breath.
--- “Mortal Man.” When it hits the fan, is you still a fan? Important question. Wooo at the Mandela references. Another section seems to have fifty appositives for who he is – and he seems to do it all in one breath!
--- Heh, spontaneous “we gonna be alRIGHT" springs up for two minutes. He prompts it with “louder,” then “quieter,” and back. Nice. The audience LEAPS during most of the actual song. He does too.
--- Andreas, this teenager I spoke to on the way out, said this was his first concert. Not a bad start.
Grade: A-
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