Words and Photographs By Jordan Newton
The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) made his triumphant return to Australia this month with a strictly limited sold out concerts in both Melbourne and Sydney. This comes after the Canadian R&B superstar had initially scheduled an 11-date stadium tour of Australia and New Zealand last November and December in 2023.
The After Hours Till Dawn Tour consisted of highlights of The Weeknd's 15 year career of iconic R&B pop hits with haunting lyrics both past, present and future including Blinding Lights, Starboy, The Hills, I Feel It Coming and Take My Breath Away. Defying the 10:30pm NSW music curfew, Abel greeted Sydney to an special treat with the debut of a few new songs off his upcoming album "Hurry Up Tomorrow" called One of The Girls & Open Hearts.
The Weeknd Sydney 22/10/2024 Setlist:
The Crowd
Wake Me Up
After Hours
Too Late
Take My Breath
Sacrifice
How Do I Make You Love Me?
Can't Feel My Face
Lost In The Fire
Hurricane (Ye cover)
The Hills
Kiss Land
Often
House of Balloons
Starboy
Party Monster
High For This
Faith
One of The Girls (live debut)
Sãu Paulo
Heartless
Repeat After Me (Interlude)
Low Life (Future cover)
Reminder
Creepin (Metro Bloom cover)
Popular
In Your Eyes
I Feel Coming
Call Out My Name
Die For You
Is There Someone Else
I Was Never There
Wicked Games
Save Your Tears
Less Than Zero
Blinding Lights
In Heaven (Last In The Radiator Song) (Peter Ivers & David Lynch cover)
ENCORE
Dancing In The Flames
Open Hearts (unreleased live debut)
Moth To A Flame
Olympic Park was divided into 2 fan groups, Olivia Rodrigo fans and The Weeknd fans. Both pop stars were performing at the same night across from eachother. The Weeknd's stage was also divided into 2 parts, the band located to the back of the stadium with a massive cinematic LED backdrop. As the band was providing the goods, The Weeknd walked along a neon catwalk only to climb up this gothic structure/moment, followed by hypnotised women in red cloaks dancing in unison (like Weeping Angels from Doctor Who). Felt like a pagen ritual was taking place with The Weeknd as necromancer. His love of the cinema was in full swing.
Mix that with Rammstein level pyrotechnics and blinding lights, you get one of the biggest music productions in Australia's history.
The Weeknd showed off what Sydney was longing for and how much he missed Sydney.
There's still a chance to see The Weeknd for his 2nd and final show in Sydney & Australia tonight. It's a show you don't wanna miss.
PHOTO GALLERY:
Special thanks to Live Nation Touring for the opportunity to review and capture the highly anticipated event of the year
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