UK singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran kicked off his American tour at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney, Orlando, on Saturday night, and the concert could not have been better.
Sheeran’s longtime friend Passenger opened the show, and the crowd instantly fell in love with the unsigned artist, perhaps because his style of music is so similar to Sheeran’s. He played a few songs from his latest album, All the Little Lights. Based on the amount of applause, the crowd favorites were “Let Her Go,” “I Hate” and “Holes.”
When Sheeran walked onto the stage, the girls in the audience went crazy in a way that only fangirls can. He opened the show with a love song from his new album, +, entitled “Give Me Love,” and had the audience involved from the start, having us sing the background vocals. He went on to sing several more songs from the + album, including “Grade 8,” “The City,” “U.N.I.” and “Small Bump.”
Sheeran covered a few songs by other artists during the show, most notably Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband,” a song he had learned for a music festival. He brought opening act Passenger back onto the stage for a duet. He put his own spin on the traditional folk song “Wayfaring Stranger,” a rendition that gave chills to everyone in the audience, especially when he began singing without any background music or a mic. He also sang another folk song entitled “Parting Glass,” which is also on the + album.
Though he did a good job of making the covers his own, most of my personal favorites Sheeran sang came off his album. “Give Me Love” was the perfect way to start the show, and was followed shortly by “Drunk,” which really got the crowd pumped up. His UK hit “Lego House” was by far one of the best of the night, and everyone got excited when clips from the music video featuring Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter movies) started playing in the background.
The song that blew everyone away, though, was “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You,” the first song Sheeran sang when he came out for an encore performance. While the song has always showed off Sheeran’s ability to rap, he took it to a new level Saturday night. He threw in some sick breakdowns and did some extremely impressive freestyling that left the crowd screaming for more. He continued his encore with “Parting Glass” before ending on his radio single “The A Team.”
The level of excitement doubled when people got a glimpse of who was in the VIP box above the stage: Liam Payne of the popular British-Irish boy band One Direction, for whom Sheeran has written several songs, came out to the show with his girlfriend, professional dancer Danielle Peazer. Sheeran dedicated one of his most romantic songs, my personal favorite, “Kiss Me,” to the couple, as well as to his godparents, for whom he had originally written the song.
What impressed me most about the concert was simply the level of talent Sheeran displayed. In a world where auto-tuning is usually expected and often needed, it’s rare to find an artist with true and natural ability. In my opinion, however, Sheeran had it in spades. He had no band behind him, no one auto-tuning his voice as he sang. Just him, an acoustic-electric guitar, two microphones–a regular mic and a recording mic–and a loop peddle.
I thought the loop peddle made things really interesting. The audience would watch as Sheeran would sing into the recording mic, laying down the harmonies and sometimes beatboxing or drumming on his guitar to get the beat going. He would pump the peddle with his foot, signaling the microphone to start or stop recording. The mic would then play back whatever he’d sung into it, allowing him to sing lyrics over whatever background music he’d created. He literally did it all.
Overall, I thought the concert was absolutely incredible. Sheeran’s voice blended perfectly with his guitar playing, and the light show in the background only added to the excitement. His beatboxing and freestyling had the crowd jumping around like crazy, while his slower songs were sung beautifully, actually bringing tears to my eyes at one point. He has definitely become my favorite singer-songwriter, and I encourage everyone to look up his music, because once you hear it, you’ll be hooked for life.