Ever since hearing “The A Team” in sixth grade, all the way back in 2011, I have been a huge fan of British singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran. When I listen to music, I prioritize relatable, meaningful lyrics that I can obsess over all else and Sheeran has always been able to fill that order. He is one of those artists that, no matter what stage in my young life I’m in, I can turn to his music and find something I need to hear, and when he drops new albums, I hope on the pre-order faster than you can say whatever mathematics symbol he’s using next. And, on June 30th, on the second stop on the North American leg of his tour, I was lucky enough to experience his music first hand.
When Ed got on stage, it was just him, his guitar, and his loop pedal, just like it has been for his entire career. Ed’s voice is nothing revolutionary or mind-blowingly unique, but his stage presence is like nothing I have ever experienced. For it just being him, it felt like the stage was full of more feeling than I have ever felt in my entire life, When he performed, he wasn’t just performing for the crowd, it was obvious that being on stage was where he belonged. It was an amazing thing to witness.
This was especially evident during the most memorable song of the evening, in my opinion, his performance of “Bloodstream” from his album Multiply. It is a song about drowning your sorrows in drugs and alcohol, with is an evident theme in a noticeable portion of Ed’s earlier music. A song usually lasting around five minutes, took no less than eight when he performed it live. His eyes were closed for a majority of the performance as he went off on the guitar, screaming the lyrics into the microphone with all of the feelings he must have been feeling when he first wrote the track. I remember leaning over to the person I was attending the concert with towards the end, when the tension was building to an all time high in the song, and telling her that the performance was so intense that I thought I was going to have a heart attack, which I think is kind of the way music is supposed to be. As a person who tends to be more empathetic than the average Joe, I typically feel very connected to music in general, but I had never felt the way I did when he performed that song. Which is saying something because I have spent my whole life completely sober. It was truly the performance of a lifetime.
Another important thing to note about the concert was the crowd. For all of my concert attending career, up until that point, I have attended concerts that were full of almost all teenage girls in the crowd, because that is typically the artist I am willing to drop cash for, but this concert was the opposite. There were people from pretty much every age range, style, and race there. It really spoke to the universality of music and it was beautiful.
In LA or New York, when I sell out shows there, I have to remind myself that there’s just a lot of British people living there. But when I come the heart of America, like you Des Moines [Iowa], and sell out shows, I know I’ve made it and it’s amazing.
Sure, I’m biased due to a five year stint of loving Ed Sheeran, but when I looked around at all of the different people that were swaying and singing and smiling in the crowd, it was undeniable that this summer’s 2017 tour for Ed Sheeran, was not one to be missed. If you can still find tickets for a show near you, I advise you snag them. Even if it’s in the nose bleeds, the music will find you and it will feel like it’s meant just for you. That’s the beauty of a concert as simple and music as powerful as Sheeran’s. He’s internationally recognized for a reason, folks.
