last night charles and i went to the kanye west concert at the nokia theater (it’s the new one right next to the staples center). the concert went from 7:30 until past midnight! first up was lupe fiasco, then n.e.r.d., then rihanna and finally kanye. we didn’t actually get there until closer to 8:30 because we’d already heard that rihanna and kanye were last (and those were the two we wanted to see) and between each act the stage had to be redone, which took about 30-45 minutes. we still actually caught most of n.e.r.d.’s performance (not my piece of cake, i got a pretty bad headache).

before we went to the concert, we went to the beverly center and also got some dinner at morton’s THE steakhouse. i’d never been to morton’s before.. a lot of my classmates went to a different morton’s yesterday for happy hour. they have bar bites that are about $5 a plate, which (especially considering how pricey morton’s usually is) is a pretty sweet deal. i was sad about not being able to go to happy hour with everyone, but then coincidentally charles chose to eat at morton’s in la anyway because it’s the closest restaurant to the theater. i was actually really disappointed by it. it was even more expensive than i thought, and my steak was a little burnt on the outside and the whole thing had a smokey, burned taste. i don’t like my steaks bleedy at all, so i always order medium well everywhere i go, and i figured such a high-end restaurant would be able to cook it better. we went to mastro’s last year (i loveeeee that place) and the steak there was delicious and not at all charred on the outside. charles also likes to judge places by how clean/cool/nice their bathrooms are, and the bathrooms at morton’s are pretty blah, haha. at least i saw a cute puppy sleeping at the petlove store at the beverly center.. can’t you just imagine him giving a high five?

the nokia theater is as nice as i expected. here’s a picture of it from across figueroa.. i think that’s the staples center on the left.

i’m sad this next picture didn’t turn out better. as we were in line for charles to buy a commemorative t-shirt, we saw that one of the guys in front of us had a bear wearing kanye glasses shaved into his head. for those of you who don’t know, i’ve also included a picture of said bear from kanye’s graduation album artwork (the bear’s also on the shirt that charles ended up buying). i also drew a box around the guy’s head, but you can’t see that very well, either, haha, oh well. i found him amusing.

rihanna’s performance was actually really good. it kind of shocked me. the first performance i’d ever seen rihanna do was pon de replay (on tv) and it sucked so much i guess i’ve just always had it in my head that she can’t actually sing.. but she sang live last night and totally rocked it out. i love her songs and i enjoyed her part of the concert the most. it’s more entertaining when there’s backup dancers and things going on during the performances.

i’ll have to admit i was pretty tired by the time kanye went on and for parts of it i must’ve been one of the only people in the entire theater sitting down, but i just wasn’t that into it. it was okay, but you guys know i don’t really like rap in the first place. i wanted to go see rihanna and experience charles’ immense joy while watching kanye perform. he had the stage set up like a spaceship and an extraterrestrial planet and he rapped for over an hour. i do have to admire his stamina.. he never stopped. and the whole thing was JUST him. no backup, no dancers, no nothing (which is probably why i got tired of watching). everybody around us was seriously so pumped up though.. jumping up and down, chanting all the lyrics.. it was crazy.

having so many people all get together to watch you perform must be one of the most intense feelings in the world. no wonder kanye’s gotten so consumed by his concert that he and his girlfriend broke up..