Was there a pep rally Friday night or something? Maybe a triple-kegger at your ex-roommate's frat that couldn't be missed?

I can't quite explain it, but Kanye West, the biggest star in the world, took the stage at Bryce Jordan Center on Friday evening, and some of his fans weren't there. Seriously, what were they thinking?

Opener Keyshia Cole's brief set was nothing if not relentless. Keyshia's got one heck of a voice, and she's managed to snag herself a pretty decent set of songs for an up-and-coming R&B artist. But it seemed like Ms. Cole, with nothing but two singers/dancers as backup, was treated as a mere appetizer to Kanye's main course, which discredits her obvious talent. By the time Keyshia took a spin on Mary J. Blige's "I'm Goin' Down," the house should've been shaking; instead, most people seemed to still be finding their seats. Oh well.

American Idol champ Fantasia Barrino did Keyshia one better by bringing out a full band to help her wade through some tunes from her debut album Free Yourself and a pair of well-placed covers. Throughout her set, Barrino flexed those vote-getting vocal chords like the preternatural pro she is. For a young lady who can really belt out a tune, Fantasia's often limply constructed original songs at times seem to hold her back. But she wasn't about to keep anything inside when she took on Prince's "Purple Rain" or Aerosmith's "Dream On," positively nailing both to the wall. It wasn't quite the soul shakedown party I would've expected from the best contestant Idol has ever seen, but Fantasia held her own, and the gathering crowd seemed to love it.

But nobody could've matched the sensory overload of Kanye West's ferocious 90-minute set. Complemented by an ingeniously constructed stage setup featuring an energetic string ensemble, a percussionist, a DJ, a keyboard player and a duo of background singers, Kanye the consummate entertainer took the stage and showed he had nothing on his mind but giving his crowd a good time. And from note one, he did that and then some.

Kanye's extensive set packed in the hits, from College Dropout classics such as "All Falls Down" and "Through the Wire" to new sensations "Touch the Sky" and "Diamonds From Sierra Leone." There were times when it seemed that every member of the crowd was rapping along to every line and doing a number of occasionally embarrassing-looking dances to boot.

Forced to pick the night's highlight, I'd have to go with "Addiction," Late Registration's eerie undiscovered gem. The track's pinprick guitars and haunted Etta James sample sounded especially freaky through Kanye's huge sound setup, and for one of the night's rare non-hits, it still hit, hard. But the biggest screams came for the phenomenal "Gold Digger," which found Kanye jokingly encouraging the "white people [that] this is your only chance to say n---a -- take advantage."

I'm guessing Friday's concert was the first foray into live hip-hop for a lot of attendees, and Kanye set the bar pretty high. His lengthy, lively performance was a far cry from the occasional contempt one feels certain rappers have for their audiences. As his lighting setup cast a spooky glow over his every movement on stage, it was clear that Kanye wasn't just putting on a show for us -- this was truly an event.

If you walked out of the BJC Friday feeling anything but satisfied, I honestly don't know what show you were watching. As good as I thought Kanye might be live, he was better than that.

Seriously. You should've been there.