When Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber last took to the Bell Centre stage in November 2012, the then-cherubic 18-year-old descended from the rafters sporting a set of angel wings. Fast-forward four years, Bieber is on to his redemption phase, offering penance to his evergreen fanbase in the form of the Purpose World Tour's irresistible pomp. Although his soft speaking voice could barely be heard over the screams of his adoring fans—mostly between the ages of 12-22 based on an unofficial in-show roll call by the singer—he explained that his third world tour is about finding oneself.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
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Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber performs during his concert at the Montreal Bell Centre on May 16, 2016.
It's an understandable route for a 22-year-old to embark on, given it's an appropriate age for self-discovery — even for someone who has spent much of his short life under a microscope. His perceived sins—something he loosely acknowledged on his latest album, also called Purpose—are mostly the crimes of impetuous youth, which has made for unavoidable tabloid fodder in recent times. It makes sense that this new Bieber, fresh tattoos and all, began the evening a fallen angel: Plunging from the skies on the stage's big screen, surrounded by collapsing structures before eventually rising to a renaissance backdrop, inside a see-through box resembling Roald Dahl's great glass elevator, only scrawled with love notes. Bieber had returned, a prisoner of love. And sky's the limit.
The first five or so minutes of Monday night's performance, which encompassed the elevator action, Purpose album opener Mark My Words and Jack Ü collaboration Where Are Ü Now, was as gorgeous an audiovisual feast as one might see at a concert in a cavernous arena.
It was impossible to completely follow all the action, but imagine dancers disappearing and reappearing throughout the stage's many trapdoors, with others suspended in air, multiple screens giving a sense of three-dimensional special effects, various lights and smoke, and all of it simpatico with the thumping bass of Where Are Ü Now's dubstep framework. It was an aggressive salvo fired at the bow of pop show complacency, although it was mostly familiar tools escalated to untenable levels. The immediate rush was only heightened by the deafening screams from the audience.
A letdown after such a strong introduction was inevitable. Singing proved secondary to the spectacle as his five-piece backing band found their groove on Get Used to It, while Bieber settled into a half-singing, half-dancing flow. Bieber then found himself enclosed in another cage on the slower I'll Show You, where more strong LED visuals were served up. Clad in a Pink Floyd t-shirt, one of a few quick changes on the night, Bieber sat on a purple couch with his guitar in hand for new song Insecurities and an acoustic rendition of Love Yourself. The stripped down songs, as well as Life Is Worth Living, served as reminders of his singing abilities compared to the more elaborate song-and-dance numbers where his lips barely moved.
For Company, another stage that was hanging above the crowd was lowered, revealing it to be an over-sized trampoline. Afterwards, a platform with a drum kit emerged from the stage, allowing Bieber to partake in a drum solo, which hearkens back to his early days as a multi-talented internet sensation. The set was heavy on middling R&B-lite Purpose numbers, although he did briefly pay a little fan service towards the end with Baby, which was done as innocently as ever, yet avoided coming off as cynical.
After an hour and forty minutes, there was still no sign of Sorry, which was saved until the encore. Bieber and his dancers got sopping wet performing the inescapable smash hit under a makeshift rainstorm. A reinvigorating pop baptismal to accompany a song, and tour, about repentance.
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