BY TER STAFF

As the world continued to mourn the tragic attacks in Manchester, where a suicide bomber killed over 20 during an stop on Ariana Grande’s world tour, thousands of music fans in Chicago came out to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont to share a common love for music in an emotional setting. With heightened security efforts and nerves running throughout the crowd, fans were able to take a timeout from all the terror in the world as the curtains dropped for The Weeknd’s Chicago performance.

Dubbed the Starboy: Legend of the Fall World Tour, Canadian singer, The Weeknd, brought entertaining performances from his latest LP and a lot of supporting talent to the Illinois crowd. With opening performances from singer 6LACK (pronounced “black”), XO and Roc Nation rapper Belly and the always energetic duo of Rae Sremmurd, Chicago was set for a memorable night from the very beginning.

But as the house lights turned off, it was all about The Weeknd. Fans began to scream and the floor crowd rushed from their seats to the barricades of the long catwalk that extended across 3/4th of the arena’s length. As the tour’s production set up, which resembled a futuristic spaceship, began to lower towards the ground, Abel emerged from underneath the stage to greet his Chicago fans, opening with the title track to his new album Starboy. Continuing with tracks like ‘Party Monster’ and ‘Reminder’, both singles from the album, the headlining performance kicked off on a high note.

The energy levels stay high, as The Weeknd invited his tourmates back on stage for a number of guest performances. First, Belly joined The Weeknd for a great performance of their track, ‘Might Not’. Next, 6BLACK reemerged, to join Abel for 6LACK’s track ‘PRBLMS’. And last but not least, Rae Sremmurd picked up where they left off, to perform their mega single ‘Black Beatles’ for the Allstate Arena, with The Weeknd serving as the duo’s hype man.

Performing over 20 tracks for Chicago, which included the majority of tracks from Starboy, as well as a collection of tracks from the rest of his catalog, there was a plethora of highlights to choose from. Whether The Weeknd was performing hit singles from his Beauty Behind The Madness LP, or tracks from his critically acclaimed The Trilogy series, fans were entertained from start to finish. And after The Weeknd finished his performance with his hit Daft Punk-assisted track ‘I Feel It Coming’, the night wouldn’t have complete without an encore, where The Weeknd said goodbye to the Windy City with a perfect performance of his 2015 single, ‘The Hills’.

Last night was just what music fans needed, a reminder that live shows can still be a safe place to escape the rest of the world and enjoy some great music with friends and family. Except for heightened security levels, no terror attack will ever change that.

Check out our photos of The Weeknd’s Chicago stop on the Starboy: Legend of the Fall World Tour below and pick up your tickets for another stop on the tour at LiveNation.com.

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