Kansas City Blog

Rocking Converse All-Stars, long khaki shorts and a white t-shirt (the first of many wardrobes worn during the set), Weezy F. Baby looked like a renegade skater when he first popped onto the stage amid smoke through a trapdoor. The appearance came after a lengthy intermission -- one of the few low points of the show -- that followed T-Pain's preceding performance. Prancing midgets and face-painted pop-lockers made T-Pain's set a veritable Cirque du Soleil.

With a live band that included a guitar player, drummer, DJ and violinist, all suspended in the air on platforms above him, and four mammoth television screens at his back, Wayne put a satisfying performance. Though his lyrics were often lost in the overpowering sound system, his fans seemed unbothered, happily singing along and filling in the gaps.

The set blended the rapper's most recent work, from Tha Carter III, with earlier classics and joints from his prodigal mixtape appearances. The central theme of the evening was fire: towering flames frequently sprang from all points of the stage. During "Fireman," Wayne took control of the flame-throwing as he a shot a stream of fire toward the audience from an instrument that resembled a machine-gun turret.

Wayne's wide-ranging emotional registers, which often go unnoticed on radio-friendly hits, were on full display. Genuine alienation shone through on a visceral delivery of "Misunderstood." Wayne, seated alone in the middle of the stage, showed what Blues sounds like through the hard voice of hip-hop when he crooned "Prostitute" with an electric guitar slung across his lap.

Aside from a few too many collaborations with T-Pain, whose wistful persona is ill-suited for Wayne's complex, Dylan-meets-gangster pathos, and dull appearances by various rappers from Wayne's rap label (all seemingly named T-something), the show was far from derivative. It was a little too long, perhaps, but commendable still for the genre-bending grandeur that kept the audience visibly captivated.

At the end of set, draped in a hooded boxer's robe, Wayne disappeared through the trapdoor from which he had first emerged. At this concert, Weezy had made a piquant case to back up his claim that he is the current champion of his genre.

Click on photo for slide show of all the acts.

Many of the songs that are not listed were either collaborations with Lil Wayne and T-Pain, songs by artists on Lil Wayne's label, or songs where the sound system was just too damn loud to distinguish lyrics. Please feel free to make me look like less of a dumbass by adding to and/or correcting the set list.

Set list
Mr. Carter
Last of a Dying Breed (Ludacris, feat. Lil' Wayne)
Got Money (Lil Wayne feat. T-Pain)
Out Here Grindin (DJ Khaled feat. T-Pain, Lil' Wayne)
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Sky is Tha Limit
La La
Mo' Fire/Fireman
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Knuck If You Buck (feat. Mack Maine)
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Turnin' Me On
Prostitute
Misunderstood
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Phone Home
Duffle Bag Boy
Go DJ
Lollipop
Shoot Me Down
My Life (The Game feat. Lil Wayne)

Encore
A Milli

-- Kyle Koch
Photos by Nicole Reinertson