Even before he took the stage Saturday at Allegiant Stadium, The Weeknd was telling his followers on social media that his After Hours Til Dawn Tour stop in Las Vegas meant something special to him.
“THIS TOWN IS THE REASON THIS WHOLE AFTER HOURS UNIVERSE EXISTS… TONIGHT’S A SPECIAL ONE !” the Canadian-born singer-songwriter tweeted the day of the show.
“IN VEGAS I FEEL SO AT HOOooooOooM,” he said in another tweet.
And in a post to his Instagram account, the global superstar quoted from his megahit “Blinding Lights,”“sin city’s cold and empty! no one’s around to judge me …”
So when the house lights went down to signal the concert’s start, the anticipation was palpable.
The Weeknd did not disappoint.
For the next 96 minutes, the sight and sounds that filled the packed stadium lifted the audience into frenzy after frenzy.
First the sights: The main portion of the stage sat in the stadium’s south end zone. It featured a multidimensional set of destroyed buildings with a backdrop projecting a cityscape, presumed to be the singer’s hometown of Toronto. Throughout the night, the cityscape was bathed in an array of different colors — blues, greens, pinks, reds, yellows — depending on the song being sung. At differing points during the show, fog, smoke or fire spewed among the buildings.
Shooting out from the main stage was a catwalk that reached nearly to the opposite end zone. It led to a midfield circular stage, where much of The Weeknd’s performance took place, and continued to another stage near the north end zone, where a giant “moon” hung overhead. Lights and flame-throwing devices were lined along the catwalk. As with the cityscape, the moon was lit in various colors.
The Weeknd at Allegiant Stadium setlist
“Alone Again”
“Gasoline”
“Sacrifice”
“How Do I Make You Love Me?”
“Can’t Feel My Face”
“Take My Breath”
“Hurricane” (Kanye Westcover)
“The Hills”
“Often”
“Crew Love” (Drake cover)
“Starboy”
“Heartless”
“Low Life” (Future cover)
“Or Nah” (Ty Dolla $ign cover)
“Kiss Land”
“Party Monster”
“Faith”
“After Hours”
“Out of Time”
“I Feel It Coming”
“Die for You”
“Is There Someone Else?”
“I Was Never There”
“Wicked Games”
“Call Out My Name”
“The Morning”
“Save Your Tears”
“Less Than Zero”
“Blinding Lights”
The set, though post-apocalyptic, was a feast for the eyes. The lighting, quite simply, was remarkable, setting a mood, at times soft and understated; at other times nearly blinding.
And then there was the performer and his ensemble of 22 dancers, clad from head to toe in red cloaks. With their faces covered in cloth, the 22 performed a variety of duties: Slowly marching in step down the catwalk; serving as sentries to the star; dancing in the distance to tunes.
The Weeknd himself first appeared atop one of the main stage buildings. He was clad in a black, wearing a knee-length jacket with black gloves on his hands and an “Anonymous”-style transparent mask.
After his opening song, “Alone Again” from his 2020 album “After Hours,” the mask came off for the remainder of the show, starting with “Gasoline,” a song from “Dawn FM,” his latest album released in January. Smiling from ear to ear, The Weeknd reveled in the moment.
The songs came fast and furious: 29 of them from start to end, with little time in between to even catch a breath.
The hits were plentiful. “Can’t Feel My Face” was the first song he ventured out to the circular stage to sing. “The Hills” synched to the moon turning a bright red and the cityscape burning in flames. “Starboy,” with a little prompting from the star (“Get your hands up, Las Vegas. Let’s go!”) had the crowd jumping. “After Hours” saw the singer get emotional and had the audience singing the last chorus on its own (“You guys sounded really good,” The Weeknd said at song’s end).
Hits such as “I Feel It Coming,” “Save Your Tears” and “Out of Time,” had the entire audience swinging and swaying. “Die For You” was among songs where he led, as one music writer put it, “scream-singing.” For the record, The Weeknd told the audience that “Las Vegas, I would (expletive) die for you!”
Just before his final number, the aforementioned “Blinded Lights,” the lights dimmed for a short pause, and when he reappeared, The Weeknd was on the north stage, outfitted in his sartorial signature red jacket not seen since an Instagram post in April 2021. Between the jacket and the song, the audience response was deafening.
When the song ended, the dancers, followed by The Weeknd, solemnly marched the length of the catwalk back to the mainstage. The singer paused at the top of the stairs, raised his hands in victory, pumped a fist into the air, threw kisses to the crowd, waved goodbye and exited.
Monday morning, his Instagram account had one more message to the Allegiant Stadium crowd: A picture of him in the red jacket underneath the foreboding moon. “Had to wear it one more time for you, VEGAS ...”
