Stadium shows are really hard to get right. With the capacity of the venues so high, it’s easy to feel lost within the crowd and feel disconnected to the artist. They are becoming increasingly common in Australia due to demand being so high to see international artists, and I honestly don’t know how to feel about it as not all artists can make a stadium feel good. However The Weeknd’s “After Hours Til Dawn Tour” was a masterclass in how you utilise a stadium and present an unforgettable show. The two hour show that compiled a setlist of 39 songs brought a mix of musical excellence with high-class production that visually and sonically left you in awe.

Night one of chart-topping megastar’s Accor Stadium shows in Sydney saw The Weeknd deliver a show that I will constantly think about for years to come. And it’s for three key reasons, that I want to break down for you;

1. The Stage Production – Abel has built a production that is truly unique and distinguishable within the world he’s created. With a catwalk that goes from one end of the stadium to the other, he is essentially performing in the round for the entirety of the show. It’s broken up by a giant LED wall at one end of the stadium where his band performs in front of, in the middle there is a giant temple, and then at the other end there is a cross that feels like a b-stage. This allows him to have specific individual moments with different sections of the stadium and feel up close and personal with everyone. There is pyrotechnics and fireworks that go off throughout the show, and the lighting rig is truly one of the best I’ve seen. It’s meticulously designed that even the base of the staging has lighting. He walks up and down the catwalk with such confidence, and uses the temple structure for specific stage blocking. His dancers are quite simple with their role to specifically enhance the stage blocking and create special visual moments instead of providing big choreography. 

2. The Setlist – With a setlist that combines 39 songs in 2 hours, it would be an easy thing to say it’s a little excessive, but he’s mixed together songs from all of his different era’s and made them cohesively tie in together so effortlessly. Throughout the show he reminds everyone the amount of hits he has, and it’s a lot. Early on he performs songs like “Take My Breath”, “Can’t Feel My Face” (one of the most euphoric moments I’ve experienced in a live show in a long time), “The Hills” and “Starboy”. And every time he played a song that you think might be his biggest hit, he played another one that felt even bigger. There were also hits that you may have forgotten about – for me it was “Call Out My Name”, while “Heartless” was a surprise standout that felt like it was created to be performed in a stadium like that every night. The crescendo of hits at the end were massive too with “Wicked Games”, “Save Your Tears”, “Blinding Lights” and “Moth To A Flame” closing out the show. Throughout the set he also sprinkled a few unreleased songs including “Sao Paulo” which he needs to just drop already as it’s a bonafide banger, and he premiered a snippet of “Open Hearts” as a little encore special. 

3. The Sound Production – With only three band members on stage, he made the show sound so large and stacked. And that is probably largely down to having Grammy award winning producer Mike Dean taking lead of the band. The first two songs heard the sound being a little muddy but quickly was rectified, and for the rest of the show was flawless. Abel’s vocals were also faultless, and the whole show you found yourself in awe of his technique. 

Through the “After Hours Til Dawn Tour”, The Weeknd redefined what a stadium show could be, and made it so explicitly unique to his artistry and cemented himself as someone who will continue to play stadiums for the rest of his career. It was hard to not walk away from that show genuinely amazed by what you just witnessed. 

Check out the full gallery captured by Gabrielle Clement BELOW:

Photos by Gabrielle Clement