Originally published 10:52 Aug. 10.

I am speechless. Kanye West just finished up his set at Virgin Fest a few minutes ago. I hate to speak in hyperbole, but that was probably the greatest musical performance I’ve ever witnessed firsthand. I’ll admit that Kanye is my favorite musician today, but he didn’t just come up on stage and play his hits.

He made them masterful.His performance was epic, at least in my opinion. Kanye sounded terrific, making nearly every single word clear and passionate as a full band backed him up on stage, giving the whole concert a very powerful, robust sound. If you’re a fan of Kanye or just a fun of good music in general, you really missed out. I got in for free, but I feel like I should write Kanye a check for $100+ or whatever the tickets were running to show my appreciation. He was that good.

Kanye started out with a lot of hits from his latest album before tackling all of his hits at the end of his set. In between, he spoke/rapped passionately about life in the spotlight, fake, superficial people and the passing of his mother — he even endorsed Obama mid-verse. You could cut the tension with a knife as he went on about life under the microscope — I guarantee you his next album will be dark and powerful, his best yet — but then he got back on track and got the party started back up again. As if we minded. That’s what I love about Kanye. He’s so passionate and his lyrics are real, and that was on display tonight.

I could go on for hours about Kanye’s performance, but I’m about to get kicked out of the press area in a minute (I’m already blogging on a stack of chairs as they shut everything down).But here’s the set list in case you wanted to know exactly how tonight’s unbelievable performance went down:

-Good Morning
-I Wonder
-Heard ‘Em Say
-Through the Wire
-Champion
-Get ‘Em High
-Diamonds (from Sierra Leone)
-Can’t Tell Me Nothing
-Put On [one of the best songs of the set]
-Flashing Lights [this is when Kanye started to get really emotional]
-American Boy [and this is where he got back to the party]
-All Falls Down
-Homecoming [another one of the best songs of the set]
-Touch the Sky [probably the best]
-Golddigger
-Good Life
-Jesus Walks
-Stronger

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