If you would have told me eight months ago that I was going to drive seven hours to go to another Justin Bieber concert, I would have thought you were crazy. Turns out I’m the crazy one. I’ve seen Bieber before, both on his My World Tour and his Believe Tour, but after "Believe," I thought my Bieber Fever was gone. Turns out I was wrong. I listened to the album "Purpose" and knew that I had to go see him again. By the time I had decided that I actually wanted to go to another Justin Bieber concert, tickets had already gone on sale and a lot of dates were selling out. So I found myself asking my friends if they wanted to go on a road trip to Des Moines, Iowa to see Justin Bieber. They said yes and I ended up being able to see Bieber perform his biggest and latest hits to a crowd of 14,000 people (mostly teenage girls) this past Wednesday.
The show started with a performance from New Jersey artist, Moxie Raia. I hadn’t heard any of her songs before Wednesday, but after her opening set I quickly became a fan. I was so impressed with her stage presence and vocals; she is definitely someone to watch out for in the future. She also has a free download to her latest album on her website, which I would recommend checking out. Following Moxie Raia, rapper Post Malone took the stage to perform before Bieber. I don’t really listen to much rap, so to me his performance was decent but not outstanding. Although his last song, “White Iverson,” was awesome and got the crowd pumped for Bieber.
After a short 20-minute wait, the lights dimmed and the Wells Fargo Arena was filled with the screams of teenage girls. Bieber made an entrance by coming up from under the stage in a see-through, glass box to perform “Mark My Words.” His 20-song set list was mostly filled with songs off of “Purpose” but included some fan favorites like “Boyfriend,” “As Long As You Love Me” and “Baby.” While Bieber didn't even try to hide the fact that he was lip syncing during numerous songs, he packed the show with his incredible dancing, pyrotechnics, a drum solo and inspirational messages to make the show unforgettable for his fans. The whole show was memorable, but here are some of my favorite moments from the concert.
Boyfriend. His song “Boyfriend” may have been released in 2012, but four years later it is still a jam. This was one of my favorite songs to scream the lyrics to and dance like an idiot to with my three friends. Toward the end of the song, Bieber added an instrumental that was filled with incredible choreography executed by him and his back-up dancers.
Acoustic Set. Toward the middle of his set, Bieber sat on a plush couch with his guitar to perform slowed down, acoustic versions of songs like "Look at the Stars," “Insecurities” and “Love Yourself.” They were all performed beautifully and showed off his vocals. He even got the whole crowd of 14,000 people to sing along to the stripped version of “Love Yourself.”
Company. Bieber performed this song on a trampoline that was lowered to be above the crowd on the floor. I don’t know if the people under the trampoline particularly liked it, but I personally loved it. He stayed around the edge for the majority of the song while his back-up dancers danced, flipped and jumped around. Although toward the end of the song, Bieber got on the trampoline to skip around and eventually did a back flip, earning screams from the crowd. He ended the song by flopping down on the trampoline and lying there for about a minute before getting up and running back to the main stage. The dancing and trampoline effects definitely made Bieber’s performance of “Company,” one of the best of the night.
Baby. “Baby” was my absolute favorite song throughout middle school and I loved being able to hear it six years after its original release date. Bieber delivered an outstanding performance of “Baby” and I had so much fun dancing and singing along.
Encore. Before he came back on stage for his encore, the DJ got everyone pumped by yelling “when I say Justin, you say Bieber. Justin…” and the whole crowd replied with “Bieber.” This went on for about two minutes before the stage lights went dark and the music to “Sorry” started. Bieber filled the encore with his usual dance moves and even made water fall down on him and his dancers. The crowd went wild as he performed the hit song and Bieber closed the night by saying, “Thank you so much everybody. I believe in you.”
With all this being said, if there are still tickets left to a Purpose Tour date near you or you have the opportunity to go, go. Bieber puts on an incredible, memorable and outstanding show—you won’t be disappointed. He even makes being in the last possible row of the arena not seem so bad.
