Words by Christopher Kevin Au // Images by Brayden Smith

There’s few contemporary celebrities who have undergone a rebrand as monstrous as Justin Bieber.

In his earlier years, Justin Bieber was a shiny Canadian pop star, harmless as a Furby, plucked from YouTube and pre-packaged into the next big thing. He fulfilled the prophecy which had been laid before him by industry heavy-hitters like Usher and Scooter Braun, and soon enough, the pre-teen demographic began praising Justin Bieber as the closest thing to Jesus Christ, and his sugar-coated anthems were sweetening earholes across the world.

As he entered his teenage years, Justin Bieber’s deeper voice wasn’t the only change that he underwent. He began gaining headlines for his mischievous behaviour: smoking marijuana, egging people’s houses and other activities that regular-ass teenagers do on any given weekend. Despite growing up under an unwavering global spotlight, he finally seemed like a real person – temperamental and prone to idiotic stunts, property destruction and drug experimentation.

When Bieber released his latest album Purpose in 2015, his lyrics became more introspective. He recruited Diplo and Skrillex to create wonky dance beats, while also exploring Caribbean sounds and subtle electronica. Designer Jerry Lorenzo helped him craft a goth-influenced, on-trend merchandise line that people were willing to queue for, and voila: It was cool to listen to Justin Bieber. Now, both your older brother and younger sister might be pumping out Purpose, while everybody has sung ‘Love Yourself’ while crying alone in the shower.

On his latest Australian tour, Bieber has again been making controversial headlines for apparently telling a persistent fan that “you make me sick,” which is strangely similar to what I say every morning when I look in the mirror. Still, all the tabloid smear campaigns in the world haven’t stopped parents bringing their kids along to Bieber’s show at ANZ Stadium tonight, while there’s also plenty of teens, Culture Kings customers and general swag lords.

Bieber begins his set early, which is basically unheard of at any gig ever, and is lowered to the floor in a giant glass case of emotion that looks like it was taken from a David Blaine stunt, soundtracked by ‘Mark My Words.’ After the very pensive and dramatic introduction, it’s straight into ‘Where Are Ü Now,’ with back-up dancers flooding the floor and immediately doing backflips. Anybody who introduces themselves to you via backflip is a real one.

From there, it’s a flurry of lasers and boy band-worthy choreographed dancing as Bieber sings his way through Purpose and some other collabos. He strips the extravagant stage of all distractions – sans a plush burgundy couch – and picks up an acoustic guitar for a downplayed rendition of Major Lazer track, ‘Cold Water.’ Gucci Mane remixed this tune awhile back, but unfortunately he doesn’t magically appear and bless the audience with his guest verse. Bieber then transitions straight into the gentle strums of ‘Love Yourself’ for the show’s biggest sing-a-long, and it’s kinda nice even though basically everybody is off key.

After that, the burgundy couch is gone, and Bieber continues the over-the-top antics including getting a crew of kids onstage for ‘Children’ – makes sense – including one named Jet, or Jed, or Jeff who he high-fived. He also plays a very long drum solo on an elevated platform for some reason. The later highlights include his early single ‘Baby,’ which is cheesy pop at its best with Bieber rapping Ludacris’ verse, as well as the thick groove of ‘Company.’ After sitting on the floor for a cathartic performance of ‘Purpose,’ Justin Bieber exits the stage and his guitarist belts out an extended guitar solo while headbanging and flicking his Lil Yachty-esque dreadlocks everywhere. These guys love their instrumentals.

Everybody knows that Bieber will be back, because he hasn’t played ‘Sorry’ yet, and sure enough he returns to sing it in all of its sun-soaked pop glory. He’s also wearing a white wife beater and looks suspiciously like ‘Stan‘ from the Eminem song. At its best, the Purpose tour feels like a cult with catchy indoctrination anthems – a whole arena of 70,000 people swaying, squealing and singing at the alter of Biebs. Interludes soundtracked by those fucking blaring instrumentals made the show a little more stagnant and sluggish, as did the omission of ‘Beauty & A Beat’ featuring Nicki Minaj.

Justin Bieber’s show may not have been perfect – but he could have gotten onstage, scratched his ass for 95 minutes, and the applause would have still been deafening. Nobody can deny that there were moments of carefree pop genius with the overwhelming visual aspects to boot, but it feels like the show could have been further condensed and much punchier. On the way home, a group of drunk women sang Big Sean and Chamillionaire on the train to Redfern and it was the absolute worst. We just closed our eyes and looped ‘Love Yourself’ in our heads.