Twas the night before Bieber,
and all through my room,
the speakers were blaring,
with a JB tune.
The Bieber shirt was packed in my bag with care,
for it was the night before Bieber,
nothing can compare!
Before I tell you about my concert experience, you should probably know that I am a hardcore Belieber. I’ve bought all of the albums, watched all of the movies, and seen Justin live three times now. Since the release of Purpose, it’s been a bit harder to differentiate those who are Belieber from those who are not; Justin’s fan base has grown and diversified quite a bit. As happy as I am about how many have hopped on the Bieber bandwagon, I do like to point out that I have been a Belieber since day one.
I woke up the morning of the Bieber concert (without the need of the five alarms I usually set) with a thirst that was unreal. You could blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol I consumed the night before, but I knew this thirst was different. It was a thirst for the Biebs that could only be quenched by seeing him in the flesh and blood.
As I was about to leave for my bus, my roommates cheered me on victoriously (Shout out to 444). You’d think I had just completed a marathon or had returned from space from the way they were cheering for me. But who can blame them, they knew that this was a highly anticipated day for me, as it had been nearly three years since I had last seen Justin live.
Fast forward to my arrival at the concert at the Allstate Arena in Chicago. We were sitting in the 200 level, which were by no means the best seats in the house. But to be honest, merely being in the same vicinity as Justin was enough for me. The concert opened with Moxie Raia followed by Post Malone. They were good openers, but with the exception of “White Iverson”, I didn’t know any of the songs by these artists (BTW there’s something quite amusing about a bunch of teenage girls belting out the words ‘balling when they were young’).
At approximately 9:00 PM, the man, the myth, the legend himself, Justin Bieber, came on stage. He rose from underground in a giant glass box as he sang the first song on his album, “Mark My Words.” This may be one of Justin’s slower songs on the album, but the audience went wild and you could feel the energy of the hyped crowd.
The high energy continued when Justin performed “Where Are Ü Now” and “What Do You Mean,” which were accompanied with insane lighting effects and amazing dance performances by both the Biebs and his backup dancers. “Children” was another fist-pump-worthy performance. Justin even brought kids on stage to dance to the song with him.
As much as I loved boogieing to these Bieber bangers, I thoroughly enjoyed the more mellow songs JB performed. During his performance of “Love Yourself”, he simply sat on a couch with a guitar in his hands. It’s true when they say less is more, because the simplicity of his performance was a perfect demonstration of how good Justin sounds live. Now, I may be biased, because in my eyes Justin can do no wrong, but belieb me (couldn’t write this article without including at least one Bieber pun) when I say that Justin sounds as good, if not better, live as on his album.
Justin really connected with the crowd during his more self-reflective songs like “Purpose” and “Life Is Worth Living.” He performed “Purpose” sitting on the stage with members of the audience on both sides of him. He even gave a little inspirational spiel about how he had at one point lost his purpose in life and how “it’s not about how we fall but how we rise.” I valued Biebs words of wisdom, as they were quite comforting for someone who is about to leave the glory days of college behind and begin to take on the real world.
I was pleased that Justin performed a majority of the songs from his Purpose album, but I was also happy that he made sure to throw in some oldies but goodies into the set list. He performed “As Long As You Love Me” and “Boyfriend” from his Believe album, and thankfully, he also played one of his OG hits, “Baby.”
If there’s one thing that can be said about Justin Bieber fans, it’s that they are dedicated AF, especially at a Bieber concert. Numerous times throughout the show Justin took a swig from his Fiji water bottle and the crowd went wild. So yeah, people were losing their shit merely because Justin was drinking water, something that all humans do to survive. After rehydrating, Justin threw his water bottle out into the crowd. I was too far to see who the lucky soul who got to take home the Biebs backwash was, but I can only imagine some elbows were thrown to take home that treasure.
They say that your wedding day goes by in such a flash that you’re lucky if you even get a piece of your own cake (Ok well, Michael Scott may have said that on an episode of The Office). I’ve never had a wedding, but let me tell you, nothing goes by faster than a Justin Bieber concert. Before I knew it, the crowd was chanting Justin’s name as he was about to come back on for his encore.
Justin closed the show with his hit song “Sorry.” The encore performance definitely did not disappoint. Not long after the song began, it started down-pouring on the stage. Justin was dripping from head to toe. At that moment, I regretted downing my water in the first half of the concert because it felt like it had just gotten 100 degrees hotter in there.
When “Sorry” was over, Justin and the dancers took their final bow and exited the stage. Immediately, the post-Bieber-concert blues began to kick in as I felt a wave of emotions. But then I remembered, it’s not goodbye, it’s see you later Biebs. This may have been my third time seeing Justin, but it certainly will not be my last. As long as Justin keeps making music and touring, you can bet your bottom dollar I will be there.
As we exited the arena, we saw a stampede of girls running in the opposite direction. You know that scene in the Lion King where Mufasa gets trampled? Well, these 16-year-old girls were spitting images of the wildebeests frantically charging. We heard screams of girls saying they saw Justin in a car. We also overheard a security guard saying a girl got run over trying to catch a glimpse of Justin. So, to reiterate my point I made earlier, Beliebers are dedicated AF.
The next day was spent monitoring Twitter in efforts to find out how/where Justin was spending his day off. I was able to discover that he was at a park somewhere in Chicago, but that was about as far as my detective skills got me. If I could speak squirrel, I would have asked this furry friend (who Justin instagramed) where he last saw Justin. Unfortunately, my college education did not teach me such an essential dialect.
I drove back to Wisconsin accepting the fact that I had not met Justin Bieber. But that’s ok because I had endless GT’s at the concert and so did Justin!
Now I know this may come as a huge shock, but if I had to rate Justin’s concert I would give it five out of five stars. If you are considering seeing him on tour, I can promise you, you won’t be sorry.