Jay-Z at Madison Square 9/11/9

Last night I saw Jay-Z at Madison Square Garden, which probably qualifies yesterday as my best 9/11 ever.

I normally shy away from 9/11 events, unless they're you know, protests. Or taking place at the Brecht forum. This seemed like it would be more about New York, less about patriotism, and that's fine sounded good to me (plus: it was Jay-Z. At MSG. A sight I've never, in person, seen.) I get weepy on 9/11. I like to be around other people who were in New York in 2001, and may not want to talk about it with people who weren't here. Like, that's great that you were totally weirded out over in Portland. That must have been quite an experience for you. At the show: I could have done without the pledge of alligence at the beginning or the US flag on the (John Mayer designed!) commemorative T-Shirts. I would have bought on of those shirts had it been flag-less. I would have liked less talk about strength and more talk about love, which is probably the hippiest thing I've said in awhile. I would have liked something to have been said against the wars.

But let's be serious. The show was fucking awesome.

Jay opened with my favorite song off The Blueprint 3, "Empire State of Mind". I cannot express how much I love that song right now. He stood in front of enormous cut outs of the NYC skyline, onto which to-scale video of the actual skyline was projected. The words don't capture anything, It looked amazing. It looked like the actual fucking three dimensional skyline was behind him. I got all weepy. He performed the hell outta it; I'd never seen Jay-Z libe before and he is phenomenal. He held the Garden in the palm of his hand through almost two effortless-seeming hours of classic material. I'm including the new stuff, it already sounds classic (okay, I'm excluding "Give Me What You Got", which I've never liked.)

Here is a (partial?) list of unannounced guest appearances:

Kanye, Rhianna, Beyonce, Santigold(!!!), John Mayer (can't all be winners), Kid Cudi, Swizz Beats, Pharrell, Mary J. Blige, Diddy.

MNBFBW leaned over and said "Honestly, at this point I wouldn't blink if Obama came out."

Jay-Z effectively psyched out the audience on Kanye's appearance by performing his own verse from the "Diamonds are Forever" remix sans West early in set. Ah, I thought, too bad, that's fine. A few songs later Jay launched into "Run This Town", joined by a radiant Rhianna. Sure enough, when time came for Kanye's verse, out he came. Afterwards he performed "The Good Life" and the still awesome "Can't Tell Me Nothing".

A word on Rhianna: I saw her open for Kanye at MSG during the Glow in the Dark tour. Chris Brown came out on stage with her which was kinda exciting to me because other people seemed excited but: eh. Rhianna was amazing, love love loved her set. Loved her album. Love her part on "Run This Town"--it gets me choked up. I moves me to hear her sound so strong and defiant, surrounded by perhaps the two biggest names in hip hop as her supportive comrades-in-arms, just a few months after photos of her after being battered by Brown became the toast of the internet. Last night I teared up to see her again take the stage at the Garden, without the fucker, looking so fierce and sounding so good. It's also nice to hear her sing without the autotune.

I'm thrilled I was there. One of the best shows I've ever been to, hands down. I hope they release a DVD. Amazing, amazing set.