We have been to many shows this year but last night’s show at the Chicago Theatre easily makes it into our top 10 (maybe even 5) of 2013. The Weeknd, acompanied by Anna Lunoe and Banks, packed the iconic theater two nights in a row. The good folks over at React Presents provided us with some passes for the second Kiss Land Tour show in Chicago.
We arrived to the Chicago Theatre midway through Banks’ set and from what we saw, she was very impressive; it is very obvious as to why she was selected to open up for The Weeknd on this tour. She has a very mysterious style with a pretty good voice and we will definitely be looking forward to listening to some of her new material in the future. Anna Lunoe did her best at keeping the crowd entertained while the set up for The Weeknd’s set was underway. She blended music from artists like Miguel, J. Cole, Lil B and others.
The Weeknd hit the stage and opened his set by performing “Adaptation,” off of Kiss Land, behind a curtain. The crowd went crazy once they were able to catch a full view of The Weeknd as he went into “Love In The Sky,” the second song performed. We were able to witness the amazing stage set up for the first time during “Belong To The World,” and from then on the show was on a whole other level. The Weeknd has a pretty decent catalog to work with and he used that to his advantage. The Weeknd made an announcement early in his set stating that he would be playing the classics even though the tour was created to promote his Kiss Land album.
The Weeknd blended old and new material really well throughout his hour long-plus set. He performed “What You Need,” “House Of Balloons/Glass Table Girls,” “Loft Music,” “High For This” and more tracks off of his mixtapes and the Platinum-certified compilation album, Trilogy. The crowd was definitely at its loudest during his performances of some of the older material. The Weeknd performed his Drake-featuring tracks, “Live For” and “Crew Love” towards the end of his set before going into two of the biggest songs off of Kiss Land. His performance of “Pretty” featured cameras around the stage focusing in on him at different angles and displaying them on the eight screens on stage. It was one of the coolest moments throughout the show other than when there were two chicks making out across the screens during the entire performance of “Kiss Land.” The Weeknd closed his set with “Wanderlust” that featured a lot of crowd participation at his request. For the encore, The Weeknd returned to the stage to perform arguably his biggest record, “Wicked Games.” After seeing this performance, I really regret missing The Weeknd’s performance at Lollapalooza last year. Without a doubt we will be looking forward to The Weeknd’s next trip to Chicago next year.
Best Performances: “Belong To The World,” “House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls,” “Pretty,” “Wanderlust” & “Crew Love”
“Belong To The World” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eud7qRVhdpU]
“Live For/Crew Love” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68I2A1IjtJY]
