E verything about the Superspreader Bowl, as this weekend will inevitably end up being, seemed intent on producing the image that everything in the country was service as usual: unneeded football game, exceedingly big crowd, harmful partying, and hyperbolic industrialism passed off as entertainment, pandemic be damned. At least the halftime show was an important tip that we are still in the middle of a dystopian hellscape, no matter what alternate reality was being presented at the Raymond James Arena in Tampa Bay.
During the brief break from Tom Brady’s triumph lap, The Weeknd ran through a medley of his greatest radio hits as if he was suffering a macabre seizure.
It was undoubtedly among the strangest, darkest, and headiest uses of entertainment’s greatest phase there’s been, but likewise a canny staging of a kinetic, if upsetting, efficiency design throughout a time when the logistics of a standard spectacle would be careless and an audience, both in the stands and in the house, could utilize a little stupefying.
Even if the gifted showman’s vocals were typically hushed or too distorted to determine, the stagecraft definitely captured our attention.
Some might still be reeling from flashes of Hannibal Lecter, the red-dressed Tethereds from Us, or the New Directions kids doing creepy drag for that “Thriller/Heads Will Roll” mash-up from Glee— all of which were obviously stimulated throughout The Weeknd’s act, depending who on Twitter you follow.
Some may have been impressed by what seemed, initially, to be a shrewd copout to orchestrate a performance implied to play to the audience viewing on TELEVISION. The grand, explosive, people-packed pop-star extravaganza we have actually pertained to anticipate is illogical in a pandemic, so much better to pander to the folks in the house. From the couch, a minimum of it looked interesting. But then a flash mob of short-circuiting dancers in plasters stormed the field, and there were echoes of the scale we had missed out on after dynamo blowouts carried out by Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Girl Gaga, and Beyoncé in recent years.
Some might question how a tune from the movie version of Fifty Shades of Grey had made it to the Super Bowl Halftime Program. (I say it is about time)
And many of all, some may wonder why we were doing any of this at all. (It can’t be referenced enough: PANDEMIC!) However hey, a minimum of the dancers were wearing masks, and those masks were covering their noses.
The Weeknd, whose album After Hours was among the greatest of 2020 and who has ruled over the music charts with songs like “Blinding Lights,” “Starboy,” and “I Can’t Feel My Face,” is both a safe and an unusual option for the much-hyped Super Bowl gig. On the one hand, he has a lot of good, hit songs. On the other, his eccentric, nearly cerebral efficiency design is a plain contrast to the normal crowd-pleasing, dance-heavy, arena-style shows current pop star acts have staged.
Especially during a pandemic, The Weeknd’s more avant-garde technique was going to play weird. The finest thing he did was play into that weirdness.
The whole thing began with the singer in a Pepsi-themed neon lights diorama, posturing in a cars as his back-up ensemble began to sing. That ensemble was dressed as a choir made up of the ghosts of C-3PO and his household, an innovative decision that never really described itself, however nevertheless established the eerie-glamour vibes that echoed throughout the set.
For most of the very first half of his efficiency, The Weeknd sang in front of a proscenium set, a dazzling skyscape adorned with words like “Touch,” “Alone,” and “Enough,” which I presume to be pandemic-related, however also presume I’m not wise enough to get.
With the set and effects doing the majority of the work– I’m relatively particular fireworks started going off at the very first beat of the “Starboy” opener and never ever stopped– you missed out on the arena stimulate that an entertainer like J. Lo, Prince, or Lady Gaga would bring to the show, especially with the audio mix doing such injustice to his vocals. However settling into that lower energy actually leant the typical bombast more strength.
Take his vacation into the trippy cube of gold lights and mirrors to carry out “I Can’t Feel My Face,” during which he strongly jerked the camera around himself. Disorientation was the point, which is definitely a different note for a show normally implied to rouse, link, and engage.
“ Disorientation was the point, which is definitely a various note for a program normally suggested to stir, link, and engage.“
You could hear the collective “whaaaat is occurring???” of a nation as additionals with face bandages burst in and began crashing versus each other, eventually parading their act out military-style to the field as The Weeknd overcame “I Feel It Coming,” “Made It,” and “Blinding Lights.”
( Possibly it was a reaction to the pearl-clutchers who were scandalized that J. Lo and Shakira performed last year in what totaled up to swimwear The Weeknd’s dancers even had the skin on their faces covered up.)
The whole thing was morbid, a horror show happening on a night suggested for diversion, gluttony, and indulgence; something this deep is not meant for this arena. Because way, The Weeknd was making his point.
He’s invested the in 2015 brutalizing audiences through his public efficiencies– or, rather, facing America with its own brutality, ugliest instincts, and tendency towards depravity.
There was much speculation over whether The Weeknd himself would appear at the Super Bowl with his face wrapped in those very same bandages, or makeup used to make himself look bruised or bloodied, or with prosthetics to make it look like he ‘d just had actually cosmetic treatments done on his face.
The Weeknd has actually used the performances, press, and public appearances for After Hours to act out a storyline, loosely a bad night in Las Vegas, that had him playing a character in a red coat who gets batter and after that careens down a course that ends up being progressively surreal. Frequently, performances included a bandaged nose, but then his entire face would be wrapped, like somebody who had actually simply undergone cosmetic surgery. Recently, he appeared with the abovementioned “after-surgery” prosthetics.
Asked what all of it signified, he informed Variety tha t, “The significance of the entire head plasters is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial factors to please and be confirmed.”
It’s a remarkable take to have for the person who is headlining the greatest show in home entertainment on industrialism’s most fruitful night for an operation desperate to keep up appearances of normalcy throughout a deadly pandemic.
There was, honestly, a lot taking place throughout his efficiency that I’m not sure what to read from it in particular regard to any of that.
But it’s fun to think what the folks at home were shaken into thinking after that performance, let alone whether the crowd reside in Tampa Bay finally pulled their masks up over their faces so regarding cover their agape mouths.
Perhaps that’s the whole, damning declaration about our current national mindset. What in the hell are we doing expecting the normal right now, when things are anything however? The Weeknd had us dancing through our own self-destruction.
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