On Thursday March 15th, a crowd 80,000 strong packed in to ANZ Stadium to watch one man with a guitar and a loop pedal, the enigmatic Ed Sheeran. After taking the tour through Europe and the United Kingdom, it is Australia’s turn to hear the multi-talented singer-songwriter in his biggest shows Down Under to date (his first one was in Sydney’s Hibernian house – to only 60 people!).
The first opener of the night was 25-year-old Irish singer Ryan McMullan, who is definitely going to be one to watch in the next year. This wasn’t the first time McMullan has interacted with Ed, performing with him in 2016 at Latitude Festival in England:
Next up was Aussie icon Missy Higgins, who got the crowd going with her older classics like ‘Special Two’ and ‘Everyone’s Waiting’, as well as her new single ‘Futon Couch’. Her music reached a new younger generation, and by the end of her set everyone was chanting the lyrics to crowd favourite ‘Scar’.
With the audience successfully warmed up, it was time for the man himself to get on stage. Sheeran opened with his upbeat hit ‘Castle On the Hill’ from his latest record Divide, before clearing something up with the crowd:
“I played a festival in England called Glastonbury festival, and after I played the festival I had a lot of accusations about lip syncing and playing to a backing track. So before we get into the show, this thing at my feet is called a loop station, and everything you hear tonight is live looped in to this, it is recorded live, it’s looped live, it’s built live… and after the song is over it is deleted and it’s a completely different version tomorrow.”
It was amazing to see one person command a stage and a stadium this big, with nothing else to fall back on. It is a stark contrast to many of the other big stadium shows I have seen, there was no crazy light show, no back-up dancers, no crazy gimmicks, but Sheeran managed to keep everyone engaged and entertained for his full two-hour set.
Crossing generational boarders, I watched as families, boyfriends, girlfriends, dads, mums and more boogied out to an amazing set list of old and new classics, such as ‘The A Team’, ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and ‘Shape Of You’.
Sheeran’s banter with the crowd left you feeling like you were having a chat with one of your best mates, and that meant everyone was comfortable enough to let go, have a dance and as Ed said, “get a little bit weird”.
