The concept pitted West as the pilot of a spaceship hitting a meteor storm, landing on a desolate planet of dry ice, and trying to find his way home through tracks from The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, and latterly 808s & Heartbreak. The tours opening acts were Lupe Fiasco and Rihanna. before heading to Mexico and then across the Pacific, via South America, to the Far East and Europe. The Glow In The Dark Tour crammed in more than 50 arena and festival shows in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
The Glow in the Dark Tour was West's first worldwide tour and also included his first truly extraordinary stage. Australia tour commenced in late March, early April 2006. There was UK arena tour in February 2006 in the cities of Manchester, Glasgow, London, Cardiff and Birmingham.
Positive reviews of his music and character were projected behind the stage, and he wore six different costume pieces (designer blazers). In the end, the stage show was accompanied by a six-piece string section and featured live video of the show projected behind the stage. This left West with Fantasia and Keyshia Cole for his opening acts, although Common would appear when his schedule allowed. Following this, just days before West was meant to start touring, opening act Common announced he couldn't make it, as he'd just landed an acting role. The tour was completely redone by new tour designer Es Devlin just a fortnight before opening night. West scrapped the Touch the Sky Tour's entire lighting plan just two weeks before the opening show in Miami. The Touch the Sky Tour was announced on Septemand started off with a few hiccups, with West making changes right down to the last minute.
Onstage, West paced in front of seven slim LED-screens, with the Chicago cityscape as his background. The tour was opened by Dilated Peoples, and featured John Legend as the pianist and signer, along with A-Trak as tour DJ. Not only did it kick off at Virginia Tech, it hit a number of college towns across the states-from Pace University in New York to George Washington University in DC, ending with three shows at House of Blues in West's hometown, Chicago. The School Spirit Tour was Kanye West's very first headline tour, in 2004.