Complaining about the setlist but a little more grounded

There has been a lot of discourse in our community about the setlist and overall nature of the concerts in this new tour, and I feel like we all have to take a step back and reflect on this situation a little bit more. I’d like to preface this post by saying that I am on the side of people that complain about the setlist, while also understanding the people that enjoy it and defend the exposition they had on opening night. However, there is something to be said about both side’s ability to think critically and make calm, rational claims, which is what I mostly wanna talk about in this post.

On the side of the people who complain, I believe it makes total sense to be mad. There’s been a lot of expectations created for this tour, one of them being a sort of “Last The Weeknd Tour” before he retires his identity and starts a new chapter in his artistry. There have been instagram posts paying homage to Abel’s whole discography before the tour dates released, also a lot of speculation in the fanbase. These things have created very clear expectations for the diehard fans, and justifiably so (after all, we are paying THOUSANDS to come to these shows). Not to mention the fact that the merch is also alluring to Abel’s whole discography with that 1125 jersey that they sold.

So, you can see where we are coming from when we say that only ONE song from the OG era is diabolical in a “Last The Weeknd Tour”, and even though we cannot expect most of the setlist to be OG tracks we should really expect the inclusion of staples of his career. I mean for fuck’s sake, no earned it or The Morning, two songs that he is KNOWN for constantly performing??? That’s honestly ridiculous, not to mention the fact that the setlist is a very blatant recycling of the previous tour’s, which had way more old songs and had to cover TWO new albums due to covid by the way. It just does not make sense from the standpoint of feeding your core audience what they want.

However, this does not give people a green flag to say crazy shit like “Abel is a sellout” or “I’m not going to the concert anymore”. Some of you are acting a little too crazy about this setlist and it puts how much of a fan you really are at jeopardy. I will be blunt and say that some of you “OG XO’s” are being waaayyy too tryhard with this shit, and you have to relax because even without the songs we wanted, the tour and performance will be an awesome experience.

On the side of people who defend the setlist and are telling people to stop complaining, I would like to give you your flowers as well though. It’s ok to enjoy our favorite artist’s vision exactly how it is, and it’s already an enormous privilege for a person to be able to go and afford a The Weeknd concert. I can also understand the point made about the movie coming up soon, and his need to push for the newer songs in order to make the movie stand out more. It’s awesome that we can enjoy this new album and transitional period in Abel’s career, even if some songs were missing.

However, I don’t like the invalidation of people defending this setlist towards those that complain. While I will say that it’s been ONE night and people are sometimes taking this out of proportion, we have to all understand that as we pay for a VERY EXPENSIVE performance we have the right to criticize it and have mixed feelings about it. I’ve seen a lot of comments like “If u complain about the setlist ur not XO” or shit like that, which is corny and overall sheepish. Just the same way you have a right to like the show, we have a right to want a little more than what we got.

I would like to end this by reiterating that overall though, ITS FAR TOO EARLY TO JUMP INTO CONCLUSIONS. It was one night, the tour may still change or it may not. Do some of y’all have to be more grateful? Absolutely. Do some of y’all need to put yourselves in other peoples shoes more? Yes. The fact of the matter is that both positions on the issue have their valid points, but we need more time to appreciate the tour. And more importantly we need to learn how to not invalidate people when they disagree with you.