The Weeknd lives up to superstar status
In April he headlined Coachella. Next month he’ll headline Lollapalooza. But first, he headlined Summerfest on Saturday.
In terms of pop culture credibility, Summerfest had no stronger booking this year than The Weeknd, even though the pop superstar didn’t draw the same capacity crowd as Imagine Dragons on opening night, or even the Journey and Def Leppard double bill on Independence Day.
Nevertheless, considering The Weeknd’s mass catalog of major, influential hits, and the fact that this was his first show ever in Milwaukee, expectations were enormous for his American Family Insurance Amphitheater show.
In the end, he blew them away. With a stage suffocating in smoke, and a massive, tiered lighting rig that blasted through the clouds with the blinding brilliance of a UFO, The Weeknd opened with the thumping, futuristic “Black Panther” anthem “Pray for Me,” the last note bleeding directly into the first clipped beat of the Daft Punk collaboration “Starboy.”
And that was the breakneck, breathtaking pace of The Weeknd’s 100-minute set, where the longest relief in the music lasted, at most, 20 seconds — and those moments were exceptionally rare.
Drake’s Weeknd-featuring “Crew Love,” with pulsating beams of white light and pillows of smoke synchronized to thumping drum breaks, leaped straight into the quaking, industrial grind of early hit “House of Balloons.” And the frothy synths of “Secrets” segued into the finger-snapping, bass-thumping grooves of Michael Jackson-indebted mega-smash “Can’t Feel My Face.”
It was a surprising approach, con- sidering how much The Weeknd has relied on atmosphere, suspense and tension across his catalog. His songs may be smashes, but they’re frequently dark and detached dispatches from the edge; “Face” sounds fun, but it’s about cocaine addiction.
Yet given the adrenaline-pumping approach a massive show demands, The Weeknd, through bulging eyes and the passion of his immaculately smooth croon, still conveyed the desperation of taking his bender too far on the new Belly tune “Might Not,” and the eerie attachment to a lover on “Wasted Times,” from his new EP “My Dear Melancholy,”where he sang “I don’t want to wake up/If you ain’t lying next to me.”
As a performer, The Weeknd was far removed from gloom and doom. He was surprisingly animated, frequently tossing out crowd-baiting cries of “Milwaukee” and injecting his breakout “Fifty Shades of Grey” song “Earned It” with soaring vocals that would make Anastasia Steele blush.
That stirring voice was also the focal point for the set’s lone mellow moment, for “Melancholy” track “Call Out My Name,” initially accompanied by a lone electric guitar. When it ended, The Weeknd led the crowd through a brief call-and-response singalong until the rattling synthesizer rumbles from “The Hills” came rolling in without warning. For that finale, flamethrowers were thrown into the mix, a cool touch, but wholly unnecessary. This was already the hottest Summerfest show in the amphitheater by a mile.
Saturday’s opener, Atlanta rap legend Big Boi, also recalled one of Summerfest’s coolest bookings in recent years, when the briefly reunited OutKast played the amphitheater in 2014.
Even with simple DJ and hype man support, and without his one-time partner Andre 3000, OutKast jams like “Miss Jackson” and “Bombs Over Baghdad” were still killer Saturday. Credit the songs’ production, which still sound cutting edge in 2018, and especially Big Boi’s towering stage presence and commanding flow.
There were several new, strong solo songs too, including “All Night,” an intoxicating pop crossover party track seasoned with saloon-style piano. Big Boi credited Milwaukee for being the first radio market where the track broke out, and when the song received a repeat play at the end of the 45 minute set, people were still dancing.
“Milwaukee are you having a good time, or are you having a great time?” Big Boi asked at one point Saturday. Honestly, there were no other acceptable options.