Well I went to this show thinking it would be J. Cole, LMFAO, and Drake. I have heard J. Cole’s name a lot over the year but haven’t given his music much of a chance, and I didn’t really care for LMFAO. This show to me was all about Drake. I was skeptical of Drake at first. While in Davis I heard the song “Successful” and liked it but it didn’t really convince me of Drake’s talent. Even though my brother seemed to have a lot of respect for him I just couldn’t see it yet.
One night, I was flipping through the TV before bed and I stumbled across Palladia playing random music videos and Drake’s new video for “Over” came on. Something about that song really stuck with me and I then became really eager to hear his new album to see what other surprises may lie within. I ended up loving “Thank Me Later” and listened to it quite a bit in the last almost two years now. Songs like “Karaoke” spoke to me on an emotional level while songs like “Show Me a Good Time” made me dream of achieving all of my goals to live it up with the people I love. Drake came to San Jose in early January and I missed the show which motivated me to attend next time he was in town.
Well, the opportunity came with this show that I thought to be a Drake concert with some backup. Turns out it was the Wild 94.9 Wild Jam (this shows how little I have been listening to the radio these days lol). To my surprise Tyga and B.o.B were on the lineup as well and added to the awesomeness of the night. All of the sets were a lot of fun to watch and it was great to see Drake do his parts for “Forever” and “Bedrock”. Earlier this year I have seen Eminem do his part in Forever and was hoping Lil Wayne and Kanye West would do their parts as well (I saw each twice this year and they didn’t both times!). Bedrock though I have seen now in its entirety in different concert this year! SWAG!
Here is everyone from the song in 3 separate shows I was at (the middle one is not my video but the rest are)
Drake put on a great performance which you can see here:
14. Lil Wayne/Nicki Minaj/Rick Ross/Travis Barker/Yellawolf/Gudda/Birdman/Millz/E40/Too $hort/Paul Wall/Mix Master Mike 4/24 (Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA)
Well shit, I thought seeing Lil Wayne on Easter Sunday was swag enough. This show was a spectacle in every sense of the word. I mean look at who was there to start with! Everything from Travis Barker’s epic set with Mix Master Mike where he brought out Yellawolf and Paull Wall each for a few tracks to Rick Ross’ grunts and his DJ’s incessant usage of the “M-M-M-MA-MABACK MUSIC!” sample to Lil Wayne coming out with an epic hour long set only to leave the stage for an hour to showcase Young Money’s new star Nicki Minaj in the middle of his set. He came back out for another hour and a half! SO EPIC!
Unfortunately I forgot my HD Flip in the car so I only have some shitty phone footage. This song is complete however:
Unfortunately I forgot my HD Flip in the car so I only have some shitty phone footage. This song is complete however:
13. Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj 6/18 (HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA)
It isn't much of a secret that I have liked Britney Spears since her first album. After her 3rd album I stopped really listening to her music except for singles that came on the air. Toxic for example reminds me of my High School Prom night and I could give a shit less about the album it is on. She had her freakout when I was new to Davis and a year later put out one of my favorite pop albums “Blackout”. Unfortunately the public was still wary about Britney at the time and didn't really buy into the album and she did not end up touring for it. When “Circus” came out I missed out on the tour she had for it which really bummed me out because she played all of the songs I would have wanted to hear on that tour. Although I enjoy the Femme Fetal album, I would easily give up seeing most of those live songs for some of the Blackout songs and a few tracks off “Circus”.
Earlier this year I ended up seeing Britney Spears tape 3 songs live for Good Morning America at the Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco, but it only left me yearning for more. Especially since the 3 songs were all from Femme Fetal. On the show Good Morning America she revealed that she would be touring with Enrique Iglesias so I was at least glad to know I would have a chance at a real show this year. When the tour was announced however I was very pleased to see that Nicki Minaj was going to back up Britney both because it was great to see Lil Wayne’s showcasing actually worked and is bringing Nicki into superstardom along with the unexpected single (It’s a bonus song on her album) that brought her to the top “Super Bass”.
The production of the whole show was top notch and a lot of fun throughout. Ultimately I am a little disappointed with Britney’s setlist because of the lack of Blackout and Circus songs but I am just going to take it as a reason to want to see her again because the whole set was a great time regardless.
12. The Fiery Furnaces 5/18 (Café Du Nord, San Francisco, CA)
So this is my favorite band. I saw them for the first time touring for “Blueberry Boat” the Friday before Coachella 2005 weekend in San Francisco and it was amazing. They came back right before “Rehearsing My Choir”, the album with their grandmother, came out to Café Du Nord but at the time I was not 21 years old and this was a 21 and over venue. Since this was my favorite band I took measures to make sure I can go in and ended up taking my mom to see them and the venue let me in with her. Since then I have seen them 3 more times before this show and met them a few times. During this show they set up seats for everyone and I ended up standing to the side with a perfect view of the whole thing. I got to talk to them again after the show and take a picture. Both of the Friedberger siblings had a big year this year so this was great all around.
11. Lollapalooza 8/5-8/7 (Grant Park, Chicago, IL)
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