Snoop Dogg, supported by Janelle Monae [20 Oct 10]

• Janelle Monae put on a FANTASTIC show, but she was a bit hampered by the fact that our concert hall was nearly empty when she started. (The show was, alas, not sold out, and it seemed like everybody arrived when the show was about to start, not realizing they would need to go through security and such.) Before they started, they encouraged people to rush to the front for her act, which helped, but most people weren't there to see her anyway.
  
  I also feel like I should note that she didn't really address the crowd at all, aside from an off-hand comment nodding to our campus, which I thought was a poor way of building rapport with the crowd. And since they were essentially doing their show in front of the curtain, rather than with their preferred set-up, there was that weirdness as well.
  
  Her voice was, all showmanship consideration aside, totally spectacular, her dancing is just as good as in the videos, and she lost control of her hair a few times, which was both funny and awesome. I think in ideal conditions, her concerts must be phenomenal, but there also should have been more effort to overcome the problematic conditions.
  
  
• Some dude from Doggystyle Records did a few numbers prior to Snoop coming on stage. I guess he was okay? Mostly kind of nondescript and unremarkable. He tried to get people to buy his stuff on iTunes via their iPhones. Whatev.
  
  
• SNOOP WAS AMAZING. An awesome performer overall, with a good feel for the crowd. He has a laid-back sort of energy, anyway, but when he's performing, it's focused in a way that you wouldn't expect. (Like, it's Snoop, you know? One would expect him to wander off and on the stage with a bottle in hand, like Kanye West at an MTV awards ceremony.) By the time he took the stage, everybody who was planning to come had arrived (about three thousand, which isn't too shabby, despite not being sold out), and there was a lot of old school stuff mixed in with his newer numbers, and also everybody sang "Happy Birthday" to him, which was kind of sweet.
  
  There was a lot of dancing, and there was a lot of crowd-sing-along. There was a lot of w00ting, and at one point, a lot of jumping. It was a pretty awesome experience, overall.
  
  Though, um, Purdue? The answer to Snoop's question, "Are there any gangsters in the house?" is not yes. Come on, now. Let's be real.