The Weeknd @ Wilton’s Music Hall, London 08.06.12
Anticipations reach fever pitch as the intimate confines of Wilton’s Music Hall are stretched to their full potential – the three-hundred people held responsible include the likes of Katy Perry, Florence Welch and some punters who reportedly payed four-hundred pounds per ticket outside the venue.
All the excitement is for Toronto’s Abel Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd, who tonight, is marking his first gig on English shores with a set that lasts little over an hour, yet provides a platform big enough to showcase his talent to the extent that his performance justifies the current hype engulfing him.
The audience stand in awe as opener ‘High For This’ blasts its bass-heavy sound around the room – the darkness of the latter, illuminated by countless camera-phones capturing the memory of The Weeknd performing in a venue far too small to contain the countless fans that attempted to gain attendance.
Despite the songs lyrical material refusing to stray from the dark-side of sex and drugs, (arguably, a successful formula responsible for his success), there are moments of beauty, witnessed in the uplifting, electric guitar licks played throughout ‘The Morning’, or Tesfaye’s record-perfect falsetto on tonight’s acoustic closer – ‘Wicked Games’.
The fact that impressive cover version’s of Michael Jackson‘s ‘Dirty Diana’ and fellow-Toronto-artist-Drake‘s ‘Crew Love’ are equal in their startling power to Tesfaye’s own deliciously dark ‘House Of Balloons’ – show not only the latter artist’s quality in songwriting, but performance as well. ★★★★
Setlist:
Katy Perry posing with staff of Wilton’s Music Hall.
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