Justin Bieber serves hometown crowd some food for thought

Justin Bieber

At the Air Canada Centre

Say this for Justin Bieber: if he seems somewhat disinterested in being Justin Bieber these days, he's at least getting interesting.

The pop pride of Stratford, Ont., set up shop at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday evening to commence a sold-out, two-night stand in Toronto. And while the plushly adorned 100-minute performance wasn't quite the all-guns-blazing superstar blowout to finally make "Beliebers" of the doubters, dads and curious dabblers in mass culture scattered here and there amongst the faithful, feminine throng, it was certainly the first Justin Bieber stage show to date that had no trouble holding your attention for the duration, even if you weren't going home afterwards to sleep with your face pressed against a Justin Bieber pillowcase in a bedroom splattered with Justin Bieber posters, hugging a heap of Justin Bieber "special editions" of Teen, Teen Vogue and Seventeen close to your heart.

Holding this particular date on the Purpose tour back from "all-guns-blazing superstar blowout" status? The same sulky, slightly distant Bieber remarked upon in numerous press accounts of previous gigs on the 64-date excursion since it began in March.

Is it a petulant pose or, as some have publicly ventured, a perch on the brink of a Britney-esque precipice to "meltdown"? Look, I don't know the guy at all and I'd prefer not to add to the legions of strangers whose undue attention – as he recently remarked in an Instagram post announcing his unwillingness to pose for "selfies" with fans any longer – makes him feel like a "zoo animal," but if I have to guess I'd lean towards the former. I swear I saw him bite back a smile a couple of times to stay po-faced when the roars from the floor got truly unhinged, and Bieber's demeanour and previously desultory dancing were suddenly operating at full wattage when four pint-sized schoolkids came out to trade moves with him on "Children" late in the set.

Bieber did have a genuine air of "tired" about him on Wednesday, and the fact that he didn't break from the tour script at all to acknowledge that he was playing to a pseudo-"hometown" crowd instead of just another anonymous blip on the calendar smacked of a guy just trying to get the job done. Some of his blankness was, however, undoubtedly shtick in keeping with the self-consciously "serious" and "mature" direction signaled by Purpose, the album, last year.

The digital-video reels popping across the giant projection screen at the back of the stage all night long kept returning to images of Bieber looking numb in a variety of situations – being pawed at by a bevy of beautiful women, for instance, or standing amidst a roomful of glowing TV sets while words like "paparazzi" and "Bieber" played across his frame – and, more significantly, he spent two of the first three songs on Wednesday's set list in a form of enclosure.

Teed up by some state-of-the-art CGI video, the backing band's resident DJ/hype man exhorting the crowd to "make some noise" and a whole lotta shrieking from the floor, Bieber first emerged from the catacombs pacing about to "Mark My Words" in a Plexiglass cube that rose to a precipitous height above the stage and then slowly sunk into the depths again before a projected tableau of Grecian statues. He resurfaced seconds later amidst a riot of laser light, pyro bursts and steam jets with a dozen co-ed dancers bustin' a move alongside him to the fleet-footed Skrillex/Diplo/Jack Ü EDM smash "Where Are Ü Now" before vanishing again into a trap door and reappearing in another cage – this time a clear, box-shaped 3D vector for dazzling streaks of LED light – for "I'll Show You."

The obvious metaphoric messages might have been lost on the thousands of teens clamouring for that one definitive snap to end all snaps at his feet. It was kinda cool nonetheless to see a Justin Bieber show serving up some self-reflexive food for thought along with a pile of hits that, thanks to the surprisingly deep and durable Purpose – which, from the sing-song acoustic kiss-off "Love Yourself" to the slinky "Company" to the effervescent "What Do You Mean?" to the roof-raising closer "Sorry," supplied about 85 per cent of the set list – has finally grown large enough to justify his stardom.

Production values that can only be described as "bonkers" didn't do that pile of hits any harm, mind you. The bells and whistles, not to mention remarkably crisp and precise sound for an arena show, helped paper over the cracks. Trapeze artists were spilling from the ceiling in silhouette at stage rear by the time "The Feeling" rolled around just four songs in, for Pete's sake, and Bieber and his dance troupe climbed onto a large platform dangling over the front rows mid-set for "Been You" that turned out to be a massive freakin' trampoline, only to abandon it for good, after a single bouncy backflip from the Bieb, once the song was done.

With so much high-tech distraction flaring around you, you didn't need to wonder if some kind of high-concept meta-point was being made or if he simply didn't care anymore when, in flagrant, Rihanna-esque disregard for lip-syncing etiquette, Bieber – who did, for the record, sing and sing well and emotively on the "I will get through this" anthems" "Life Is Worth Living" and "Purpose" – pointedly left his microphone on the floor for half a verse of "Boyfriend," then later simply tucked it into his belt for most of "Baby" while the vocals carried on as usual. You didn't need to wonder, but wonder you did. And then, all of a sudden, you realized you were at a Justin Bieber show that had made you think.

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