Power 106’s Crush Concert Delivers Surprise Guests

Power 106 Crush Concert
The Forum
2/12/16

In honor of Valentine’s Day weekend, Power 106 decided to treat all of SoCal with a major concert headlined by the Weeknd at the Forum in Inglewood on Friday night. Like any great Valentine’s Day gift exchange, some of the best parts were kept a secret until the last second. With openers Jake & Papa and the first performer (Kehlani, who danced with a backing track as much as she sang) being about par for the course, the evening didn’t seem to be off to a terribly exciting start.

Tory Lanez came off as a less-talented Vince Staples, but then made a name for himself after the show when sucking up to the king of his Toronto rap scene after Drake passive-aggressively dissed him on his “Summer Sixteen” track. The interview clip got picked up by outlets across the country (and presumably Canada), although Complex Magazine stated that it took place in Toronto at the NBA’s All-Star Weekend. Apparently they were too busy to see the Power 106 logo repeated in the backdrop.

Kid Ink was the first set for much of the crowd to get excited about, particularly once a rotating bed (complete with lingerie-clad dancer) was moved out to the center of the stage. While it was apparent at the beginning of Kid Ink’s performance that some of the audience didn’t know who he was, radio and club hits like “Main Chick,” “Be Real,” and “Show Me” quickly reminded them of where they knew his voice from. Toward the end of the set, Ty Dolla $ign came out to perform “Blasé” with Kid ink for one of the surprise highlights of the night (although many people were too drunk to recognize him until the song began).

With Kid Ink’s energetic performance in the books, the stage rotated 180 degrees to reveal Miguel’s setup. Donning all white (and almost looking like a cult or a Kanye West fashion show), Miguel and his band took the stage for almost an hour of heartfelt love songs and dramatic combinations of fog, flames, and feathery accessories. Although Miguel (who seems like he could also fill in for a Latino Queen cover band in a pinch) certainly had the romance of Valentine’s Day down, he lost a good portion of the crowd after the first slow jam and struggled to get them back no matter how much flair he had. On the other hand, roughly 15 percent of the crowd emptied out after Miguel, as they were just there to see the crooner belt out “Adorn” and other love songs while they held their dates.

Before the night got to its main event, two Power 106 DJs took to the stage to play a handful of songs to get the crowd pumped up again for the Weeknd. Halfway through, French Montana joined them in the middle of “Pop That” to drop a few bars and electrify the atmosphere ahead of the headliner. With the entire arena now buzzing, it was finally time for what many fans had been waiting close to four hours for.

As his three-piece band and handful of bright lights lined the stage, the Weeknd walked out to an ecstatic crowd and opened his set with “Acquainted,” “Often,” and “Low Life” before giving someone everyone in the room to sing along to in his part of Drake’s “Crew Love.”

While also doing an excellent job of giving credit to his band and pandering to the crowd, the Weeknd’s performance was as great as ever. Perhaps the most talented young vocalist in the modern R&B world, the 25-year-old Canadian did nearly the entire set without any semblance of a backing track, often relying on his talented guitarist, bassist and drummer alone to accompany him.

The set continued on with “Or Nah” before Belly came out as the last special guest of the night to join the Weeknd on “Might Not.” As the 11:30 curfew was rapidly approaching, the Weeknd made sure to land all of his hits and fan favorites from “Tell Your Friends” and “The Morning” to “In the Night” and “D.D.” As expected, the night ended with “Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills,” which had every stumbling drunk fan singing about being “the real” them on their way out of the Forum.