Well, here I am. Three for three when it comes to Justin Bieber concerts and I ain’t ashamed to say it out loud, regardless of the false stigma that comes with it. As they say; hater’s gon’ hate.

The first thing I noticed that I can’t avoid mentioning, is the change in demographic from show to show.  During the My World tour in 2011, we had the squealing young girls with the big old crush on their teen idol. They wore glittery tops and eye shadow, and shiny lip gloss. In 2013, when he came for the second time for the Believe tour, more adults adopted their daughters love for Bieber, and even more men attended, too. This year, in 2017, they are 20 something and naked. There were short shorts, and high midriffs. There were shoes way too high for some girls to walk in and there was fake tan for miles. It was quite ridiculous. They seem to forget that JB is not going to hand pick them out of the crowd and personally take them out. It doesn’t work that way. I took my two nephews to the first concert. They were eight and five. If they were the same age today, I wouldn’t take them to this show. It was more for adults than it was for kids, but there were a few little ones around. But, besides the point…

As we compare the differences between the ever changing fan base of Justin Bieber, we must also compare the three performances from the man himself.
The first time around he was that sweet and innocent kid, with the shiny locks that had much enthusiasm and excitement in his performance. Bieber was adorable to watch. He had immense energy and was just extremely happy to be doing what he was doing. Then on the second round, he was late and extremely disinterested. He wasn’t fun to watch. It went on without effort or enthusiasm at all. Basically, it was the total opposite of the first show. This time, though chilled and based in the same tracksuit attire for most of the night, he was more professional and mature, and overly serious. He barely spoke to the crowd, but wanted his performance to speak for itself.

We all know JB is a bit of a skating fan, so the stage was set up to look like a bunch of skating ramps. Different sections of the stage would also elevate throughout different songs and descend into the ground at the end of some, with him standing on top. I felt like this was a personal metaphoric message from the Biebs. He has gone through so many ups and downs, he’s seen so much light and darkness in his career, and now he wants to be taken seriously, and wants to ask for forgiveness while being elevated into a real musician.

He was on time. 8:30pm on the dot, Bieber started off in a glass box with his mellow tune Mark My Words. With a white texture, he wrote messages on the glass walls he was confined within. He was raised up and eventually was put back down into the ground beneath him, only to come back up free from the restricted space.

The show was mainly dominated by tracks from the Purpose album; however he did make way for oldies such as Boyfriend, As Long As You Love Me, and Baby, which had the biggest response from the crowd.

Yes, I’ve read the reviews. ‘He was boring,’ ‘He seemed disinterested,’ ‘Justin Bieber was too serious’ and, ‘just seemed as though he didn’t want to be there.’ There were even comments on his lack of moving and dancing. That’s not to say he didn’t dance at all. He did everything that was required by him. The kid can move. He’s definitely not the same kid from the first show, but he can still move. He did sing live for the most part. But, that’s without saying that he did use backing vocals to assist as he danced. It was most obvious in the last half of the show when he picked up a microphone instead of using the hands-free piece he had been using so far, that he was only singing on top of vocal backing tapes while his band rocked it out incredibly. He did seem out of it and sometimes didn’t bother to put the microphone to his lips. I honestly think he’s exhausted. One fan I spoke to said he looked ‘physically ill,’ as he was constantly ‘sniffling.’ But, if that is true, I still didn’t find him boring or not entertaining, and I don’t believe he was completely out of energy.

One review read that Bieber ‘didn’t even crack a smile.’ I don’t see the big deal. He was serious, but it wasn’t something that really bothered me, at least. A lot of the show was based around his Purpose album. A lot of the songs on the album aren’t about fun and games. They are serious tracks. So what’s there to smile about?

I also read about the lack of interaction with the crowd. I do agree with this. Every time a song would come to a complete halt, and it was nothing but the screams of the crowd to be heard, I did turn to my cousin and in excitement said, ‘yes, he’s finally going to talk.’ But he wouldn’t. He said a few words here and there. He did the usual, ‘how you feeling on this side,’ pointing to each side of the stadium. But, there wasn’t the typical, ‘what’s up Melbourne,’ ‘I love Australia’ and so on. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m glad he didn’t fall to the clichés. How many artists I’ve seen that say they love the country and love being here, and how it’s their ‘favourite city’. Come on, we know its bullshit. Artists say that sort of stuff everywhere they would have gone. I’m glad he cut to the chase, and spoke only when essentially necessary. When Bieber did speak, he left us with words of wisdom. Just before preforming the moving Purpose, he asked, ‘what’s the name of this tour?’ Followed by how he was here to, ‘share my purpose.’ Then he mentioned, ‘everybody has a purpose.’ And at the end of the show he said, ‘no one can be you but you.’ He’s trying to be the best role model he could possibly be, while still being the man he is still trying to grow up to be.

I heard some fans were disappointed he didn’t take his top off. If that’s what you’re looking for, I hear Manpower and Thunder Down Under are really good shows to watch. The kid is too grown for that now. Like I mentioned already, he wants to be taken seriously. He keeps getting knocked down which then puts him in situations where he has to defend himself, and because he’s not mature enough yet, he doesn’t know how to handle it. He is however, becoming a mature performer and he is passed the taking off a shirt stage.

The opened roofed Etihad sounded better this time. I’ve never agreed with it being a suitable venue for concerts, but I think my position in the stadium this time helped. This was also my first show that included fireworks coming out of the top of the stadium’s lid. The pyrotechnics were subtle but enough. I was highly impressed by the LED octagon JB stood in as he performed I’ll Show You. It was an extraordinary light show.

JB made his signature move and played the drums on part of an elevated stage. He has done this at every show since the very first of his career. It’s always my favourite part, and this was no exception. He’s so good at it. He also slowed it down on a velvet purple couch, and strummed away on an acoustic guitar to Cold Water. Love Yourself had to be the biggest crowd participated track of the night. The crowd was in sync. No one was out of tune. It sounded beautiful. With twenty dancers behind him throughout the more upbeat tracks, it was nice to have him all for ourselves for those two performances.

A heartfelt moment came when JB gave centre stage to four young Aussie dancers as they danced the same choreography as JB to Children. He took the time after the routine to introduce each child and thank them for their time and just being awesome. This was one of the very few moments he would speak. Again, being a good role model is becoming very important to JB and his big brother instincts are finally really cementing.

Life Is Worth Living would have been a beautiful song to listen to if it wasn’t for the forty something year old women behind me who were gossiping. They actually did this for most of the show. It was hard to zone out during the more slow songs. This angered me a lot because all I could think of was how they robbed real fans from tickets. So please, next time, go talk about your ex and doctors appointment over a coffee on Lygon Street, and not at a concert you paid to see, where you’re force to talk over the artist with your loud chatter. It’s the cheaper option. Sorry, had to get that one off my chest.

It was an hour and half and everything seemed to have gone on schedule. So here leads me to say, he’s reached professional status as a performer. Just do the show and leave. No need for the fluff around. Just do what you get paid to do and sing the damn songs and dance the damn dance.

If you ask me which one was the best JB concert so far, it would be hard to choose. Each concert depicts the point of JB’s life at the time of it. That was his best at the time. The first one was the new kid on the block and the squealing girls. He bounced around and smiled a heap. Though being constantly bullied by trolls, he was still so happy to be here. He just didn’t realise the full affect of the bullying. The second show, he was sloppy and unprofessional. He did not want to be there and that was evident in his performance. If you look back to what time of his life that was, he was getting into trouble a whole heap, whether it was a fight he was in, or the stupid things he got caught saying. He had bad influences around him, too. This time, though serious in most ways, I think he just wants forgiveness. He really wants to be taken seriously as an artist and a musician and that was conveyed by the performance. He also wants to be left alone in order to rejuvenate. I think that’s why he just did the concert and left little to say.

Also want to give a shout out to Martin Garrix, who put on a show too good for this type of crowd and worthy of a big EDM festival. As a former festival goer and huge dance music fan, he made me miss those days.

Back to Justin Bieber, I want to add, leave the kids alone and give him a chance. Let him live and be the artist he wants to be. Well done Biebs. I’m with you all the way. Justin Bieber Live at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne for the Purpose tour was worth it and gets 4 out of 5.