It’ll be no surprise to hear fans who didn’t snap up a ticket feel the sting of regret once The Weeknd completes his two sold-out performances in Sydney. Once videos emerge, reviews are written and photo galleries are published (ours is here), it’ll become clear that those not at Accor Stadium on October 23 or 24 just missed the show of the year.
As with all big-ticket gigs like this, Live Nation decided to make it a bit of a music festival with three great support acts.
First, Australia’s own Anna Lunoe took flight with a DJ set mixing in a few of her own originals and previewing her upcoming album. Chxrry22, a fast-rising R&B artist from Toronto, followed next with a short but impactful set that heightened anticipation. But the best bits came from Mike Dean, the uber-talented multi-instrumentalist whose sci-fi-like wizardry is responsible for elevating hip hop’s production overall (his talents were fundamental to Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).
Yet over three hours of waiting for The Weeknd to hit the impressively long runway-like stage was erased from memory as soon as visuals of a giant door opening flooded Accor Stadium with excitement. Dancers in red cloaks stalked the stage, strutting single file towards the middle where a curious temple-like, three-tiered structure was built.
It didn’t take long before Abel rose to the top of the religious temple, wearing a gilded black robe and launching almost immediately into Dawn FM highlight “Take My Breathe” and built it up into “After Hours” and early highlight “Sacrifice.”
One thing was abundantly clear from the get-go and throughout the two-hour performance. Despite Accor Stadium’s open-air format, the mix was near-perfect and The Weeknd’s clear, impressive vocals were pitch-perfect.
There was no aggressive low-end to overwhelm the vocals, no stuttering or lazy half-singing. The Weeknd laid his talents bare before the crowd, lifted by fantastic arrangements that sometimes even improved on his mega-hits like “The Hills” and “Die For You”. The latter was given the typical Mike Dean treatment with crunchy, textural riffs for The Weeknd’s elegant vocals to glide on.
The stadium, bathed in a blood-red glow with strobes and columns of fire, hung on Abel’s dynamic falsetto with songs like Kanye’s “Hurricane” and the darkly delicious “Often”. Fans danced and jumped around to monster hits like “I Can’t Feel My Face,” “Party Monster” and “I Feel It Coming”. I haven’t seen an atmosphere this electric in Sydney for years.
One of the most satisfying things was the evenness of The Weeknd’s set list. Virtually all of his albums were represented well, with few glaring omissions (“Crew Love” and “What You Need” would have been nice throwbacks) and mostly excellent arrangements. The only real disappointment, really, was cutting the original beat for “Wicked Games,” instead favouring a spacey, ethereal production that cut the song’s intensity.
Luckily, he kept that intensity locked in for the mental breakdown of “House of Balloons,” sticking true to the original cut.
A drawn-out “Blinding Lights” ended the main set brilliantly before The Weeknd launched into a quick Peter Ivers & David Lynch cover (“In Heaven (Lady in The Radiator Song”). It wasn’t long before he was back on stage for a generous three-song encore, performing full versions of “Dancing in the Flames,” “Moth to the Flame” (complete with a lavish fireworks display) and new song “Open Hearts.”
“I want to give you guys an exclusive,” shouted Abel before “Open Hearts” ripped through the stadium with its big, EDM-driven beat crafted by Oscar Holer and Max Martin. Given the producers were responsible for some of The Weeknd’s best moments (such as “Blinding Lights” and most of Dawn FM), the stadium-sized song went down incredibly well with the crowd and primed us for another monster hit that should be officially released sometime in November.
The Weeknd plays one more show in Sydney tonight (sold out).
Photos by Peter Dovgan.
