by Katherine Greenberg

Globe Editor

“Live on the Levee” has brought countless successful musicians to play in free concerts under the arch and this year was no different.
“Live on the Levee 2009” started off with a concert headlining the Counting Crows.  Other big names that were on this year’s roster were Train, Sonic Youth, Angie Stone, Gretchen Wilson and Guster.  This year’s summer concert series ended with Lupe Fiasco.
Lupe Fiasco began his set at 8 PM.  He was able to pull everyone onto their feet by opening up by playing “Thriller” by the late Michael Jackson.
Although the Metro Link was crowded and uncomfortable it solved the dilemma of parking, which turned out to be very difficult because the crowd was so large.  There was barely room to move in the audience with fans covering the grass under the arch.
One thing that was distracting was the amount of people milling around not paying any attention to the concert; but with the loud music and a commanding entertainer that could be forgotten.
One interesting aspect of this concert was the live drummer that was on stage that gave the rapper a rock and roll edge to his usual hip-hop raps.
Lupe Fiasco is not just an impressive artist he is a gifted entertainer.  He was always moving and always dancing to the music that he is playing.  It is fun to watch him sing because he seems like he really cares about the music and loves what he is doing.
A crowd favorite was definitely “Hip Hop Saved my Life” with the majority of the people at the concert up singing and dancing.
One thing that I appreciated at the end of the concert was that Lupe Fiasco thanked everyone for coming out and supporting him; some artists would be bitter about playing for free at such an open venue but he really seemed like he was honored to be there and took it as seriously as a sold out stadium.
The singing and dancing didn’t end directly after the concert.  People were in such a happy mood after the concert circles formed with sensational break dancers in the center.
Although there was a long wait for the Metro Link to get home, people were friendly and made it fun rather than tedious to wait in line.
There is not much one can say against a free concert; the opportunities to go do not come up often and they need to be taken advantage of.  In this case this was a concert that no one should have missed.   After a great summer of entertaining attractions at “Live on the Levee”, I can only look forward with great anticipation to the coming attractions of next summer’s group of entertainers.