Kanye West lives up to his promise to be the greatest star in the hip-hop universe with his "Glow In The Dark Tour," which kicked off Wednesday night at the Key. He not only took the concert experience to a new level, he took it to a new planet.

It was a magnificent, thrilling, uplifting, sensory experience, unlike any other pop concert before it. West has rethought the whole idea of live performance, from the staging to the lighting to the overall message. He took the excited, involved, constantly moving young crowd on an out-of-this-world journey, to Planet Kanye and back.

West was the only inhabitant of this lonely planet, the only person on stage during his 90-minute set. A 10-member group of musicians and singers were in a pit well below him, all of them in black to make them even more obscure.

The huge, very tall set was like the uneven surface of another world. West first appeared lying on an elevated plaform, which eventually became like a spaceship, moving up, down and sideways, with smoke and flashing lights. An enormous video screen created the look and feel of space travel and otherworldly landscapes.

Using raps and songs from his entire career, he tells a story of a quest for love, knowledge and recognition. He returns to Planet Earth with the hard-won wisdom that life is a gift and every day a miracle.

He opened with "Good Morning," the lead cut from his latest CD, "Graduation." He blended most of his key raps — "Gold Digger," "Jesus Walks," "Hey Mama," "Stronger" and, of course, "Spaceship" and "I'll Fly Away" — into the narrative, changing some lyrics, including taking the N-word out of "Gold Digger" and adding Seattle name-checks to other raps..

His show was amazingly tight, given the elaborate, seamless, creative nature of it all. It was an absolutely amazing production.

The star-studded show was impressive in its entirety, with three more of the most talented, versatile, pop-oriented, positive acts in hip-hop.

Rihanna was like a hip-hop supermodel, looking sexy and beautiful as she performed with four dancers, two background singers and three musicians. Her huge, Grammy-winning hit "Umbrella" was the high point.

N.E.R.D., featuring gifted singer-songwriter-producer Pharrell Williams, backed by six musicians (including two drummers), started strong. But his voice gave out, due, he said, to inhaling stage smoke.

Lupe Fiasco, along with a DJ, co-rapper Mr. G, and three excellent pop/rock vocalists, kicked it off with a short, powerful, fun set. The sound was body-slamming loud, during his and the other sets. That only helped bring everyone to their feet, and kept them dancing all night.

Kanye West, Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco all turned in stellar sets to begin the “Glow in the Dark” Tour, what will likely end up as one of 2008’s most talked-about bills. All of Kanye’s openers were given thirty minutes to do their thing at Seattle’s KeyArena last night, and Lupe Fiasco kicked off the night with a fast-paced half-hour into which he crammed parts of eleven songs, including the hits “Kick, Push” and “Superstar.” (Matthew Santos, who sings on the latter track, appeared for three songs at the end of Fiasco’s set.) The stage was bare for his performance, but Fiasco made up for it with vibrant physical energy and a very red dress scheme shared by his backing singers and DJ.

N.E.R.D. — Pharrell Williams’ rock ensemble — played second. Fronting two drummers, a bassist/keyboardist, a synth player and guitarist (as well as a small handful of hangers-onstage who helped hype the crowd at climactic moments), Williams and co-vocalist Shay threw themselves into performances of “Lapdance,” “Brain,” “Rock Star” and “She Wants to Move” (the latter featuring a brief jam on Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”). After the set was finished, Pharrell returned to the stage to apologize for his use of profanity in front of a young child seated in the front row.

No apologies were necessary from Rihanna, whose stage set-up included light-up speaker stacks that glowed yellow, pink and aqua. The singer and her dancers’ clothes were basic black accented by pink and lime neon; the entire presentation was very new wave, down to Rihanna’s bright pink lipstick. The show was tightly choreographed but never felt laborious, and she got some traction doing “Hate That I Love You,” a duet with Ne-Yo on record, by herself. She also introduced “Umbrella” by saying, “I remember going up to Dream” (R&B phenom The-Dream, who helped produce and write the song) “and saying, ‘If you give this record away [to someone else] I’m going to kill you.’” ()

The headliner took his time, playing eighteen songs in an unbroken ninety-minute set. Half of the songs came from 2007’s Graduation, five from 2005’s Late Registration and the rest from 2004’s The College Dropout. Kanye stood alone on a stage that was made out to look like a spaceship, complete with a giant video backdrop that flashed psychedelic fractal patterns, bursting stars and moonscapes.

Ostensibly, Kanye was trapped aboard a rogue ship piloted by a female version, dubbed Jane, of 2001’s HAL 9000. Kanye began with “Good Morning,” then touched on “Through the Wire,” the thematically inevitable trio of “Flashing Lights,” “Spaceship,” and “All Falls Down” and hit his climax for “Hey Mama,” during which he bowed forward on his knees and delivered an emotional monologue about following one’s dreams. The song that came immediately after Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” blasting over the PA before Kanye-in-space got his strength back to deliver “Stronger.”

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