Etihad Stadium, March 10
★★★
Justin Bieber is thoroughly miserable. Or, if he's not, that's what he wants everyone to think.
The 23-year-old Canadian superstar was expressionless through much of his 90-minute performance at a sold-out Etihad Stadium on Friday night. His stone face was all the more obvious when contrasted with the smiling, bright-eyes of his mostly female audience. It wasn't until the fourth song in, Boyfriend, from his 2012 album Believe, that he finally cracked a brief smile. There were about three for the entire show.
Having just won male artist of the year at the iHeart awards and a string of Grammy nominations, Bieber is arguably the biggest pop star in the world. Anticipation was certainly high, with plenty of singalongs as fans streamed over the pedestrian bridge from Spencer Street towards Etihad.
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With his latest album Purpose, a truly contemporary smash hit, Bieber managed to reposition himself from teen idol to credible artist and that was reflected in the crowd. There were some tweens with their parents, but overwhelmingly it was 20-somethings decked out in the tour's monochromatic theme who had paid $160-plus for a ticket. There were a few fans crying and some short bursts of screaming, but it was subdued compared to the girly hysterics from Bieber's Believe tour four years ago.
Perhaps that was due in part to the nonchalance of the headline act. With one hand in his pocket, Bieber sort of sang and sort of danced through the songs. In contrast with the frenetic hip hop of his dancers, Bieber's moves looked half-hearted - a bit like the marking dancers do in rehearsal, when they're not really going for it.
Even when he athletically flipped a woman over during No Pressure, he managed to look bored.
"Thank you guys for coming out", he shouted in a rare moment of audience engagement. But his back was to the crowd when he said it. There were several hollow interactions like this.
Even his warm layers of clothing suggested a desire to keep a distance. Wearing Adidas tracksuit pants that he kept pulling up, a hoodie, bomber jacket and runners, Bieber was not showing off any of his famous cover-boy body. If anything, he was overdressed for the fine 20-degree evening. He sweated from his brow for the entire show.
It was also hard at times to know whether he was really singing. The lead vocals seemed to go on just as strongly when the microphone was by his hip as when it was to his mouth.
But there was no doubting Bieber's musical talent. Whether he was strumming an acoustic guitar or bashing out a complex drum solo, the message was clear: he deserves to be taken seriously as a musician.
The concert itself was a spectacle of strobe lighting, lasers, fireworks and massive digital screens. "It ain't about the complications. I'm all about the elevation" he sang in his smash Company. And it was true that the stage was all about the elevation, with sections of the runway rising up to lift him high above the crowd before bringing him down again.
But in the end, you can't help but feel that maybe Bieber's undercurrent of angst is more about being edgy than true misery. After all, how bad can life be with an estimated net worth of $200 million? And when it came to his encore Sorry, there was really no need to apologise, as his loyal Beliebers had loved the whole thing.