It’s hard to imagine that an intense theater performer like Weeknd — whose videos, concerts, performances and lyrics for the 2021 Super Bowl Halftime are loaded with lively and sometimes disturbing imagery — would launch his first stadium tour without a spectacle.
And luckily, after a few unintended drama incidents—including two Covid-related delays, the postponement of the tour’s opening date in Toronto last weekend due to wireless outages across Canada, and the original opening show of Doja Cat dropping out due to tonsillectomy—for the late first night of… Philadelphia’s “After Hours Til Dawn” tour, all theatrics on stage.
The concert took place on a humid July night in Philadelphia, which had a temperature of 87 degrees when the show opened with sets from producer-artist Mike Dean and Canadian electronics artist Kaytranada, but had cooled off by the time Weeknd’s main set began around 9 p.m. The Weeknd’s best music streamed in a mood, nuance and mix of ecstasy and darkness, and it carries over to a vast and technically complex stage, which broadly resembles a towering and crumbling cityscape and spans most of Lincoln Financial Field’s grounds. For the two-hour set, the singer, dressed in his usual black outfit, was accompanied by a band of veiled dancers — and a crowd of nearly 70,000 people, many of whom were devotees in red jackets and bandaged noses, to mimic the “After Hours look”.
Rising to the center of the set with dancers shrouded beneath him, Weeknd emerges wearing a clear face mask and a long car coat, easing into the oscillating electro style of the “After Hours” opener “Alone Again” in a clear, warm voice that conveys sadness and boredom. tiring the world.
Down to stage level, he follows his dancers into a new wave of picking up “Gasoline,” picking up steps and dancing, reaching out to the audience even as the lyrics hold them at bay.
The next set was heavy on his two most recent albums, this year’s “Dawn FM” and 2020’s “After Hours”, with previous hits dropping strategically to keep audiences excited – although the arrangements of many songs were changed. Her angelic voice soars through the Swedish House Mafia remix version of “Sacrifice,” a disco “How Do I Make You Love Me?” and a restless version of “Can’t Feel My Face” featuring pauses reminiscent of the vintage New Order. The three songs, performed as a medley, turn the venue into an apocalyptic dance party, with Weeknd as the jolly and evil host.
Even though the musicians weren’t visible on the sprawling stage, they certainly made their presence heard: A shattered guitar and a wheezing church organ dominated his recent hits “Take My Breath” and “Hurricane,” followed by the sultry “Often.”
He lowered his energy levels by shooting spacious “Starboy” and “Heartless”, with cobalt blue lighting adding to the cool atmosphere; Ambient R&B songs act as a cooling agent for the heated emotions and red hues of the first half of the night.
The mood continues into the evening’s more ruminative second act as Weeknd moves subtly but no less theatrically through the ’90s Motown vibes of the heavenly “Out of Time,” “Less Than Zero” and the cinematic “Save Your Tears.” Through these songs, filled with soulful blues guitar licks and synths, he lowers his voice an octave, adding to the love emotion of the lyrics.
Of course, the two-hour show ended with its biggest hit, the ’80s reflecting the global smash “Blinding Lights,” a song that in many ways encapsulates the contrast of the show, the music, and the performers. : an avant-garde superstar, an aloof male lover, a combination of beauty and madness, all embodied in a somehow intimate concert in a football stadium with nearly 70,000 fellow fans.
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