This was the third of my trio of concerts in August and September. Although they were all current, popular artists, the crowd and atmosphere was a little different every time. Coldplay felt the most like an all-ages show. The Ed Sheeran show had a wide age range as well, but skewed younger. But the Weeknd crowd was the youngest and hippest by far. I remarked in a status update before the Sheeran show that everyone was dressed cute for the show. But that crowd was modest compared to this one. People (and by “people” I mean the ladies) were dressed for the club on this night.
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Obviously the vibe for The Weeknd is different than the vibe for Ed Sheeran-- edgier, sexier, and a little more sinister. But this is also the first truly urban show I’ve ever attended. OK, I can say I saw Kanye West touring behind Late Registration in 2005, but that was as the opener for U2. So that doesn’t count. I just wanted to mention it, because it’s cool to say.
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Unfortunately, I’m only a casual rap fan at best, so the opening acts didn’t interest me much. First we got a short DJ set from a guy who goes by Lil Panda. It was perfectly fine club music, but... it was just a guy drumming along with tracks. Next we got Nav, who I’ve never heard of before this tour. He’s apparently part of The Weeknd’s label, or stable, or crew, or whatever. He sounds like Drake. Do all Canadian rappers sound like Drake? Like I said, only a casual rap fan.
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Gucci Mane was up next. I know he’s a big(ish?) name, but I couldn’t tell you a single song he performed. You’d think maybe I’d recognize a song title or a snippet of lyrics, but nope. I literally know nothing about him. Pretty much all I could catch was that he enjoys f’n the b’s. But the crowd was pretty into him, so I guess it’s working for him.
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Finally, around 9:45, it was time for The Weeknd. As the lights went down, a giant spaceship-like lighting rig descended from the ceiling. Throughout the course of the show, that contraption would tilt, raise and lower, flash, and show video. But it started by providing just a circle of lasers, to serve as a spotlight as The Weeknd ascended from underneath the catwalk. That’s an awkward description, but it’s the best I can do, I guess.
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Besides the unique lighting, the staging of the show was noteworthy, in that The Weeknd spent nearly the entire show prowling the catwalk. He was hardly ever on the stage with his band; so the best seats in the house were actually in the middle of the floor. I’ve seen a lot of acts use catwalks, or go to a small stage in the middle of the floor for a few songs mid-set. But I’ve never seen an artist spend so much time away from the actual stage.
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The show started hot with “Starboy,” and it was a tight, hit-packed set, running about an hour and fifteen minutes. He ran through “Party Monster,” “Reminder,” and “Six Feet Under,” from his current album, before going back to tracks from Beauty Behind the Madness, and even back to his House of Balloons mixtape. There were also some covers thrown in mid-set.
He was able to cover so much ground because he structured his set much like a DJ would-- there were a lot of partial songs segued into the next song. At first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about that, but it was well done. He played enough of each song for the crowd to feel like we really got to hear the song. That’s how I felt, anyway. And in a live setting, when you’re dancing and having a good time, what’s the difference between two verses or three, or hearing a chorus twice rather than three times?
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Of course, the biggest songs got a full (or nearly full) performance. In the home stretch, we got “Earned It,” “In the Night,” “Secrets,” and “I Can’t Feel My Face.” After all those hits, I’d actually forgotten that he hadn’t played “I Feel It Coming,” which came next, closing the main set. I’m someone who likes to look at set lists ahead of time, so I know what to expect, and what I’m probably not going to get to hear. So I knew what was coming in the encore. But I (and the crowd, I think) was still surprised, as the encore came suddenly, announced by the arena-shaking blast of synthesizer that opens “The Hills.” I guess that was a good choice for the encore, because the crowd went nuts.
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This was another really good show. I know how to pick ‘em, I tell ya. It looks like this will be my last concert for a while; but I’ve already got a ticket for a Lorde show in March. I’m looking forward to that. I know her live performance is... something to see. I was really hoping that Taylor Swift would come near me on tour, but it looks like I'll have to travel to Kansas City, Minneapolis, or Denver if I want to see her. So, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading.