Live Review: The Weeknd @ Marvel Stadium, Melbourne 05/10/2024

Australia’s own Anna Lunoe jumps on the decks early on to serve up an energetic mix of popular dance tracks to warm up the crowd packing in to the stadium. She’s got a new album coming out soon called Pearl and she plays a couple of new tracks in the mix including her latest track Polite to get people moving.

Chxrry22 is an Ethiopian-born R&B star hailing from Toronto who gives a strong and confident performance as she unleashes her sexy side on stage with her latest single Poppin Out (Mistakes). Her set is short and sweet but makes a big first impression with a striking performance that guarantees we’ll be seeing more of her in the future.

American producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Mike Dean plays a set packed with a moody heavy synthesizer and distorted down-tempo vocals. He creates an ambient progressive electronic vibe reminiscent of a sci-fi movie soundtrack to set the tone and build intrigue before the main act. To further excite the crowd, he incorporates some of tracks he’s written and produced with The Weeknd including Popular.

The Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye finally brings his highly anticipated After Hours Til Dawn tour down under, following previous rescheduling and cancellations.

“How long has it been Melbourne? Five or six years…I think it was 2017 when I was here last,” he says. This time around he’s playing his first ever stadium show in Australia and he’s pulling out all the stops before he’s about to close this chapter on this era of his creative career.

Visuals of a giant door opening at the front of the stage signals the beginning of the performance. Red cloaked figures walk in a line towards the middle of the room where Tesfaye ascends to the top of an elaborate religious temple and resembling a prophet wearing a black robe with gold trimmings. 

He starts off with two new songs called The Crowd and Wake Me Up, which he only recently debuted live on tour overseas ahead of his upcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow. The cloaked figures circle the middle level of the temple as he sings from the top with incredibly powerful, pitch-perfect vocals with smooth falsetto and a captivating force. The stadium is bathed in a red lighting and the strobe flashes to the pulsating beats as we’re drawn into the dark and atmospheric setting.

The intensity slowly builds as he plays a number of well-known songs for the crowd the sing along with including After Hours, Take My Breath and Sacrifice, where he eventually makes his way back up to the main stage beneath a backdrop of entrancing visuals with an impressive laser light display. The cloaked figures begin to dance to a choreographed routine in a formation across the stage runway.

“I want Melbourne to turn up,” Tesfaye shouts as he launches into Party Monster and screams for fire as flames begin to shoot up into the air across the stage. It quickly intensifies, engulfing the perimeter of the stage as he shares another new song called São Paulo with a heavy dance beat. Flames continue to burn around the temple as he sings Heartless and his latest collaboration with Playboi Carti (Timeless). This half-way mark sees the show reach its ultimate peak.

Tesfaye occasionally addresses his Melbourne audience through song, “I think I found my religion in Australia today,” he says to his worshipping fans. Apart from these subtle interactions he seems to lack connection with his audience on a personal level, not once stopping to really engage and talk to the crowd. Instead, he powers through his thirty-one-song set list without taking a break to leave the stage to change or catch a breath.

He makes his way to the tail-end of the stage for the final part of the show which distances himself from the wider audience who are left to watch the remainder of the performance from the front screens to catch him in view. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere a hysteric fan launches up onto the stage and throws his arms around a very surprised Tesfaye who manages to keep his cool and keeps singing Less Than Zero until security quickly responds and escorts the person off stage.

The show carries on with The Weeknd’s latest single Dancing In The Flames and Blinding Lights that sees the room ignite with a excitement as everyone jumps around to the danceable chart-topping hit. 

The audience fully expects to receive an encore and experience a big finale after an outro of a Peter Ivers & David Lynch cover of In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song), but to everyone’s disappointment and despite chanting for more, the lights turn on and the show ends unexpectedly and anti-climatically.