Ed Sheeran
24th March 2018
Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Bridget Herlihy. Photography by Matt Henry Mendonca.
To say that New Zealand is home to a legion of dedicated Ed Sheeran followers is an understatement, and quite frankly it has been difficult to avoid the Ed fever that has been sweeping the country on the eve of his highly anticipated, completely sold out record-breaking NZ tour which kicked off last night at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium. Undoubtedly thousands of eager Ed fans, fondly dubbed ‘Sheerios’ had their eyes turned upwards the skies for much of the day, keeping all fingers and toes crossed that Mother Nature would come to the party and keep the rain at bay. Alas, in the hours leading up to one of the most eagerly anticipated shows of the year the heavens did indeed open, leaving large chunks of Auckland sodden, which ultimately resulted in a slightly scaled back stage production compared to what our friends across the Tasman witnessed (not that anyone seemed to mind or even notice).
Forewarned is forearmed, and as thousands of eager Sheerios made their way into the stadium it was a verifiable rainbow of plastic ponchos and raincoats. Yet dreary weather forecasts aside, nothing could put a dampener on the sold out show – the first of six, with three shows each lined up in Auckland and Dunedin. Yet somehow, as if by magic, all precipitation ceased mere minutes before the man of the moment took to the stage.
As the lights went down the crowd roared, with Sheeran’s brief walk to the stage shown on the huge screens at the back of the set. To say that this was possibly one of the loudest crowds ever to grace Mt Smart Stadium is an understatement. From the moment Sheeran took his place behind the mic and picked up his trusty acoustic guitar the crowd’s adoration of the ever humble singer-songwriter from Suffolk was palpable. Upon greeting and welcoming the crowd Sheeran promised that he would “make sure that you really enjoy the show” before beginning the evening’s proceedings with Castle On A Hill from last year’s Divide.
For the sake of clarity he briefly described how he performs live, in light of criticism he received for allegedly lip-synching and using backing tracks while performing at Glastonbury. Explaining that he uses a loop station and a guitar, he promised that everything the crowd heard would be played, recorded and looped live, before putting his multi-tasking prowess to good use with a superb, multi-layered rendition of Eraser.
It was evident from the outset that Sheeran was determined to ensure that the crowd had a great night, pausing several times during the evening to thank the audience for coming despite the weather, while admitting that “it has a weird habit of raining when I play”. Yet he reassured everyone that he had observed that crowds have a tendency to get better when it rains. Although there were only a couple of brief showers of rain during the entirety of the performance, it appears that Sheeran, in this case at least, is indeed correct, as the crowd soaked up every moment of the performance like a sponge. The way in which Sheeran skilfully encourages crowd participation contributes to the sense of sheer joy that radiates from his fans as they watch their idol play. They dutifully obeyed as he instructed everyone to dance and sing as loud as they could, imploring those who didn’t know the words to make something up, promising “to give 110%” of himself as long as the crowd got as weird as possible. And while the crowd may not have exceeded average levels of weirdness, Sheeran made good on his promise, delivering a thoroughly enjoyable set of almost two hours in duration (yet it seemed to be over much too fast), with the performance providing multiple highlights that were almost too numerous to count. A scaled-back version Tenerife Sea was pure magic, featuring just Sheeran and his guitar sans effects and loops. The distinctive notes of Galway Girl had the crowd dancing with hands waving in the air with seemingly reckless abandon. The masterful segue from Nina Simone’s Feeling Good to I See Fire, a song he wrote in Wellington in 2013, was exquisite. A superb rendition of Photograph, arguably one of his most adored tunes, produced one of the loudest sing-alongs of the night, and understandably so, as this is a prime example of Sheeran at his song writing best. And as if on cue, the heavens opened once again in the final chorus, making the moment just that much more memorable. An impressive rendition of the upbeat Sing had a majority of the crowd grinning from ear-to-ear as that sang along and danced as if there were no tomorrow. After leaving the stage for only a minute or two, Sheeran reappeared for the mandatory Encore, starting with mega-hit Shape of You, which was meet with yet another thunderous roar of approval from the crowd, before ending the night on You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.
One of the most endearing qualities of Mr Sheeran is that he appears to be so personable, and totally and utterly genuine to boot; just one of the many reasons why he can wrap a crowd 48,000 wet punters around his proverbial finger with ease. It appears that Sheeran not only wants to share his music with the crowd, but prompts the audience to engage with the experience as much as possible and share it with each other. This is about living in the moment and enjoying it to it’s fullest. The way in which he can solely command an audience of that size in a stadium setting is not only mesmerising but also a massive feat in itself. It is also a testament not only to Sheeran’s abilities as a performer and a songwriter, but also how loved he is in New Zealand, a country he fell in love with when he first visited in 2011 as an emerging artist. Watching Sheeran work his magic truly is spellbinding.
Suffice to say those attending one or more of his remaining five NZ shows are in for a real treat, whether the weather cooperates or not.
Were you there at Mount Smart Stadium for this brilliant open air gig? Or have you seen Ed Sheeran perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Castle On The Hill
- Eraser
- The A Team
- Don’t
- Dive
- Bloodstream
- Happier
- I’m a mess
- Tenerife Sea
- Galway Girl
- Feeling Good/I See Fire
- Photograph
- Perfect
- Nancy Mulligan
- Thinking Out Loud
- Sing
- Shape of You [encore]
- You Need Me, I Don’t Need You [encore]
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