“There’s only two times in history: before Yeezus, and after,” Kanye West yells earnestly to a crowd of thousands while wearing a diamond-studded mask. “The world, they don’t have to understand me in my time. But they will understand me, eventually.”

West is in Australia for his first tour of the country since 2010, and the divisive, audacious artist delivered plenty of swagger as he kicked off the Yeezus tour in Perth.

It began with that commanding entrance; West emerged from below the stage to the Darth Vader theme song, The Imperial March, demanding the crowd’s full attention without speaking a word. Then he launched straight into a carefully crafted set list: there was New Slaves, Runaway and Cold (which was led in by Foreigner’s Cold as Ice), but also Gold Digger, Stronger and Touch the Sky. West even included All Falls Down, a nod to his debut record from 2004.

West impressively lays down verse after verse without missing a beat. But when it came to songs that required something a little more melodic, there were a few hitches. The hip-hop master can generally hold his own vocally, but there were several awkward moments when he demanded his tech team remove the auto tune from the microphone (“fucking turn it off”) that lead to off-key verses and a brief temper tantrum from the sulking star.

But West lives for drama and thrives on his ability to make everyone just a little bit uncomfortable. Throughout the show, the star’s silhouette was projected on to an outrageously large cube sitting behind him. Thus, not only could the audience see two Kanyes at all times, but Kanye, too, could also see Kanye whenever he liked – a fact he took advantage of, preening and checking his position every few minutes.

He strode slowly and deliberately up and down the stage, hyper-aware of his position. For many artists, performing solo means a lot of running, bouncing and riling to get the crowd going – but not West. They were eating out of his hand from the word go, and he knew it.

A signature on-stage sermon from Kanye “I Am God” West kept the fans staring up with adoration, cheering as he roared – despite the fact that he quickly segued his follow-your-dreams speech into a rant about his feud with Louis Vuitton.

The 90 minutes of West shown to Perth audiences was bold, reckless, arrogant and brilliant. The only letdown came at the encore; West returned to the stage, performed Blood on the Leaves for the second time, and left. No “thank you”, second song, nor happy ending. “He’s coming back, right?” fans desperately mused.

But all things considered, that’s probably exactly how Kanye wanted it: screw ’em, and leave them wanting.