The Weeknd - Dawn FM Experience - Review and Analysis

For the past few years Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, has only seen his popularity rise. He started as the shadowy figure behind the dark and druggy mixtapes that eventually made up ‘The Trilogy’ and built up a solid fan base. He only expanded its as he expanded his musical style. Every time you thought you knew what the next step would be, it would come with a curve ball – reinventing himself while still staying true to underground Art House roots.

In fact, it seems the more his popularity has grown, the more he leans into those avantgarde stylings. Case in point, the Super Bowl 2021. Nothing says ‘unfettered commercialism’ like the Super Bowl. With the volume of corporate money combined with habitually the risk averse NFL we usually get a show meant to entertain the rabid sports zealots (or their partners who only join to watch the commercials) who tune in yearly. Recent years relied on the stale acts of Maroon 5 whose only moment of note was a repurposed SpongeBob clip and Justin Timberlake who returned for a post-wardrobe-malfunction redemption he neither deserved nor earned; so, when The Weeknd turned the 2021 show into a fever dream fueled house of mirrors culminating in an army of face bandaged clones dancing to Siouxsie and the Banshees midfield, it was a moment of note.

Abel Tesfaye continues that Avant-inclination with his new concert/performance art ‘Dawn FM Experience’ released on Amazon Prime. Though I already loved the full album Dawn FM, the 8 tracks performed here have a special cohesion when paired with the stunning set pieces and cinematography and it provides extra clarity to the full concept of Dawn FM.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

To begin, we see The Weeknd in his full old man prosthetics wandering scared and confused through some back-alley streets and dark city corners. He approaches a doorway and after shoving his way through, collapses in the darkness. When he wakes up with a mic in hand the synths of the title track build. Abel is greeted by a strip of light beaming at him from the distance that he wanders towards while singing ‘After the light is it dark, is it dark all along.’

As the instrumental of ‘Gasoline’ rises Abel is in the middle of a crowded dance floor, the dancing ravers revealed by flashing lights and the masked-up DJ (Dan Lopatin as Oneohtrix Point Never) is illuminated by the analogue buttons on the wall and a back-lit fan straight out of a Sci-Fi dystopia. Through lighting changes and rotating master shots The Weeknd is raised up on a platform in the center of the dance floor while the dancers cheer and celebrate through ‘How Do I Make You Love Me’ and ‘Take My Breath.’

Collapsed in the middle of the floor The Weeknd breaks into ‘Sacrifice’ as he’s slowly lowered into an octagonal mirrored hole, muck like a grave, where the stage used to be, and the ravers rave above him. Midway through the song the dancers have vanished and now stand darkly shrouded figures who hover above swaying at a funereal pace as Abel sings to them from below. It all moves with the logic of a dream.

Buried in his mirrored room we enter what I think is the most visually stunning moment of the Experience where Abel sings ‘Out of Time’ to his reflections which sing back and multiply with every angel of the sweeping camera. It’s a moment of personal reflection and confession using what is proving to be one of his recurring motifs (mirrored rooms with no escape). It ends with a stunning tableau of The Weeknd crouched in front of the mirrored multiples behind him.

In the darkness we raise back up to a now emptied dance room and the flashing lights reveal a woman, shrouded head to toe in red, hovering over his shoulder as the strains of ‘Is There Someone Else’ begin. Through the song she circles him in a way that is at the same time predatory and melancholic, like a regret that won’t go away no matter how hard you try.

The Red Woman joins the other cloaked figures, now lined up behind the Weeknd during ‘Starry Eyes,’ dancing slowly, sometimes holding hands and sometimes bowing and twisting. But they are only there until the intro of ‘Less Than Zero’ kicks in. Once in full swing we see that the dancers are back, just as jubilant as we left them and the Masked DJ plays the keys while Abel sings about his inability of letting someone in to his ‘darkest truth, of all.’

Now that the song is over, Abel raises his head with his eyes shut and light covers his face as ‘Phantom Regret by Jim’ (Jim Carry if you didn't already know) pours over everyone and everything in the room. Here’s where I feel like we get the full interpretation of the confusion and nightmare that came before. At first the dancers sway along to the words before The Weeknd starts off the stage back into the darkness beyond. As we follow him, we see all the dancers have now collapsed, presumably having passed on, a realization of the line ‘Heaven’s for those who let go of regret. But you have to stay here if you’re not all there yet.’

Finally, Abel stands before the darkness, left behind by all those who danced until they found that divine Boogaloo. Perhaps, the shadows and shrouded figures represented The Weeknd’s regrets that, unlike all the ravers behind him, he was never able to shake and so here he remains, in the purgatory of Dawn FM until he fully realizes that ‘You have to be Heaven, to see Heaven.’

*SPOILERS OVER*

Overall, if you’re already a fan of The Weeknd and especially Dawn FM, you owe it to yourself to watch the Experience. I, for one, cannot wait for Abel’s next iteration where he further tricks the rest of the world into following him down the nightmare tunnels of his Art-House world of self-reflection and atonement.