The Weeknd
29th November 2017
Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Jordan M Vickers.
Over the last few weeks Auckland has seen an invasion of Canadian musicians; from the global superstar Drake through to the gorgeous up and comer Shawn Mendes and the powerhouse that is Feist, we have been treated to some of the finest Canada has to offer. Last night saw not one but two Canadians entertain the almost capacity crowd as The Weeknd rolled into town for his first ever New Zealand show accompanied by two well-known and exciting support acts.
Taking to a rather bare looking stage with nothing but a DJ desk behind him, fellow label and Ontario born artist NAV was the first off the block to entertain the already thousands of screaming fans. Working the stage like a pro he soon had the crowd bouncing to his infectious beats with early tracks such as ‘Perfect Timing’ and ‘Myself’ proving popular. But it was his cover of the Travis Scott track (upon which he of course features) ‘Beibs in the Trap’ that saw the entire audience lose their minds as they sang along. Not a bad way to start the evening.
Following a short break and it was the turn of the Moroccan born artist French Montana to make an appearance. Again the stage was very simple with basically an identical set up to NAV’s except for the fact that there were a few more people up there. A montage dedicated to his protégé Chinx Drugz who was mowed down in a drive by shooting in May of 2015 played across the back screen as those in the audience who were fans paid their respects by increasing the volume of their cheering. Accompanied by a female DJ and a hype man, French Montana strode out to roars of applause in red and black striped pants. Wasting no time he was straight into it, hitting the audience with a cover of A$AP Ferg’s ‘Work’ followed closely behind with ‘Ain’t Worried about Nothin’ which easily saw the biggest audience participation of the night so far. Just thirty-three and currently residing in New York, French Montana has seen his fair share of trouble after surviving a gunshot wound to the head fourteen years ago while leaving his recording studio.
Influenced by everyone from Tupac through to Wu-Tang Clan, Montana also has an appreciation for artist’s such as Adele, Florence & The Machine as well as Lana Del Ray, all of whom he often samples in his music. By now the crowd are fixated on the stage and the man before them who is spitting out rhymes with the greatest of ease. ‘Lockjaw’ and ‘Pop That’ with a nice little broken down section in the middle had the crowd riled up; Montana bringing them down to a more R&B vibe momentarily as he performed a stunning version of ‘Famous’ that proved he had the chops to sing and not just rap. Sliding nicely into his latest track blowing up the airwaves ‘Unforgettable’ featuring Swae Lee and the fans towards the back that had a little more room to breathe broke out the dance moves. ‘Ocho Cinco’ and ‘Whiskey Eyes’ were solid but this is French Montana and there was no way he was going to leave the audience unless it was on a high; “Before I get off the stage I want everybody to put their hands up one time – are y’all going to get turnt up tonight or what? With that he dropped his final track for the night; a cover of the Fat Joe and Remy Mas track featuring Montana himself ‘All The Way Up’ – the crowd collectively losing themselves to the song and belting out the chorus on command. The perfect lead in to The Weeknd.
Following a DJ set featuring the hottest songs in town, the crowd soon became restless as they waited for the Starboy himself to appear, scheduled to start at 9:30pm it would seem he was running a little late…
Shrieks filled the air as the house lights suddenly dropped and everything was plunged into darkness; a low throbbing seemingly coming from the bowels of the arena itself. Thousands of eyes scanned the stage as a lighting rig hovering a little more than midway beamed soft rays of light onto the stage. The low throbbing gave way to a fuller, more bass induced sound that continued for over a minute before giving way to the spine shivering; deliciously dramatic opening synth bars of The Weeknds latest hit ‘Starboy’. Emerging from behind the cascading beams of light the crowd lost their minds at the appearance of The Weeknd himself; decked out in a simple combo of black jeans and tshirt, with a semi bleached out denim jacket and sweet kicks (he recently designed the XO Parallel sneakers for Puma) he looked every inch the star he is.
If anyone was initially disappointed visually by the on stage lighting and lack of catwalk that he has been known to use at previous shows, they needn’t have worried; moving into ‘Party Monster’ and you could hear the collective ‘woahs’ coming from the audience as the what looked like a simple lighting rig above his head suddenly began to move and revealed itself to be in fact a 3D triangle that cleverly featured several different forms of lighting and which would become an integral part of the show. With angled visuals of flames on the back screen, the combination of the two gave the entire stage a field of depth that has not been seen in Auckland before.
Adding to the sonic profundity of the show was what has to be one of the best three piece live bands currently on the tour circuit. Off in the right hand corner of the stage Ricky Lewis on one hell of an impressive drum kit was joined either side by Patrick Greenaway on guitar and LJ who performed dual duties throughout the night on both bass and keys. Moving quickly through his outstanding set list one thing was glaringly obvious. This boy can sing. At only twenty-seven years old The Weeknd gained notoriety after uploading several tracks to YouTube anonymously under nothing more than his artist moniker. By the time he dropped his debut album in 2013 entitled ‘Kiss Land’ The Weeknd was already a household name. As the triangle of light moved position once again, dropping a corner down to kiss the stage the familiar notes of Drake’s ‘Crew Love’ hit the audience square in the jaw as perfectly timed CO2 cannons backlit by white strobe lights kept in time to the music. His cover of the song was flawless and had more than one audience member nodding their head in approval. This is an artist who knows how to use his greatest instrument, not only that but he wields the mic as an extension of himself, cradling it in his hands for those softer overtones.
Interacting with the audience continuously The Weeknd forms a bond with the crowd. They sing the words back to him on command, they jump and hold their phones up and you can almost feel their hearts go out to him as he repeatedly sings the line “They told me not to fall in love, that shit is pointless”, the song ‘Tell Your Friends’ taking on a far more personal meaning in light of recent events. Each song is delivered with such vocal precision that it is almost unbelievable; not once does he falter, moving from the lowest octaves that are strong and smooth like hot coffee to his higher ranges. Every so often Greenaway shreds a beautiful little solo to give that richness to a song; Ricky Lewis impressing the audience time and time again with his enthusiastic slaying of the skins.
Bathing the stage in hues of blue moving through to a sunset orange The Weeknd has certainly ‘made it sexy’ for the audience as he takes them down into more of an R&B realm with his earlier work from his mixtapes such as House of Balloons. As he moves from that infamous 50 Shades of Grey track ‘Earned It’ into ‘In The Night’ the audience feel the home straight coming and they throw themselves into it head first. Finishing on ‘I Feel it Coming’ the fans feel it too as one of The Weeknds biggest hits has not yet made an appearance. The tiniest of interludes gives way to those opening blasts and red lights as ‘The Hills’ takes the roof of the arena, the crowd singing to that chorus that oozes sex, swagger and illicit substances. Humble to the end The Weeknd bows to each side of the arena and throws up the horns with one hand before exiting the stage as the band play him out.
Flawless? You know it.
Were you there at Spark Arena for this brilliant alternative R&B performance? Or have you seen The Weeknd perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Starboy
- Party Monster
- Reminder
- Six Feet Under / Low Life
- Might Not / Sidewalks
- Crew Love – Drake cover
- Often
- Acquainted
- Or Nah / Some Way
- Tell Your Friends / Die For You
- The Morning
- Wicked Games
- Angel
- Earned It
- In The Night
- Secrets / Can’t Feel My Face
- I Feel It Coming
- The Hills [encore]
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