The Weeknd
December 9, 2015
The Forum- Los Angeles, CA
“It’s overwhelming selling out the Forum two nights in a row!” The Weeknd exclaimed while looking into the sea of the roaring 18,000 die hard fans. The R&B singer, songwriter who was accompanied by a three piece live band and an extravagant stage production showed the Los Angeles crowd how and why he quickly rose to fame, selling out arenas in every city.
The show began with the lights dimmed and the synths to Real Life being played. A cage like structure enclosed the singer and stage while LED screens surrounding the cage flashed different designs to the song. The Weeknd wasn’t throughly visible through the screen until his fourth song of the night, Often, when a riser lifted him over the cage. After High For This the cage was lifted away and The Weeknd was able to command the stage, constantly going from side to side, taunting the crowd who so desperately reached out, but couldn’t reach far enough to touch him.
The Weeknd’s 20 song and 1 encore set consisted of not only flawless execution vocally and musically, but also visually. During the first of three medley’s of the night, which consisted of King Of The Fall/ Crew Love/ Or Nah/ Professional The Weeknd’s production crew showed off the first set of pyro, with fire shooting out 
as the singer captivated the audience with his gentle, polished voice, reminiscent of Michael Jackson, who The Weeknd later covered in the set.
Highlights from the night had to of course include Can’t Feel My Face which was The Weeknd’s first number-one hit on the Billboard Charts. He showed off his dance moves during the hit song and made the female fans scream even louder than before. Following, was Prisoner in which the cage came back down and enclosed the singer for the last time of the night. A quarter through the song, as the cage was being lifted up revealing The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey made her entrance from stage right. The Weeknd held her hand and escorted her to center stage and motioned with his hand for her to take it from there; She belted out the vocals for their first ever live performance of Prisoner.
Following Prisoner, while fans were still in awe of Lana Del Rey, the stage quickly went dark for a moment, to then reveal several black stands surrounding the stage. The Weeknd re-entered on stage to play his second number 1 hit, The Hills. The black stands turned on and fire streamed out of them during the entire song. “Los Angeles, I think this could be our new anthem,” The Weeknd said as the crowd hummed along with him. “I only call you when it’s half past…” He sang as a boom echoed through the venue while fire shot out from the tops of the black stands.
After thanking the crowd, he quickly walked off stage and the cheers instantly began. Fans weren’t ready for the show to be over, and after several minutes, The Weeknd and his band were back on stage, ready to give the crowd one more. They ended the night with a slower song, Wicked Games which compelled fans to pull out their lighters and phone flashlights and sway them along to his voice.
Review by: Nicole Lemberg
The Weeknd
Banks
