Ed Sheeran does the crowd-pleasing math to perfection
Ed Sheeran
At Rogers Center, June 17
Ed Sheeran concerts are rarely newsworthy events, but Saturday night’s performance at the Rogers Center was an exception.
That’s because about three-quarters of his more than two-hour set, the ruddy marvel timidly asked the estimated 50,000 in attendance if they’d mind if he played a song he hadn’t done in a while.
And after completing a verse and a chorus of “Lego House” from his debut album “+”, he introduced the Pickering prince of pop, Shawn Mendes, who joined him on stage to finish the song as a duet .
This was the first time local hero Mendes stepped onto a stage anywhere since he canceled the rest of his “Wonder” world tour in July 2022 to take a break and focus on his mental health.
And if the popular Canadian was worried about his return to the public eye, they were erased by the explosion of excitement that greeted him as they sang along to the Mendes hit “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back.” performed again as a duet by the impromptu duo.
After Mendes, who looked healthy and happy, left the stage, Sheeran took the position for his next song and joked to the crowd, “How can I follow that?”
Don’t worry, Ed, you’ve done a great job: in the 12 years since he first graced our shores, he’s gone from promising talent to mega-superstar, selling over 100 million records and doing so virtually as a solo artist with a interesting niche as the king of loop driven music.
For the uninitiated, he even offered a tutorial after his first solo performance, “I’m A Mess.”
“When you come see me live for the first time, I’d like to explain,” he told his observant fans. “This thing right here at my feet is called a loop station. Everything you hear tonight is completely live – there’s no backing track at all. It’s all made live on the spot. It is controlled by my feet. At the end it will be removed – and tomorrow it will not be the same.
Pointing to a black device with a green circle and a red circle on the floor, he demonstrated by strumming a chord on his guitar, which began to repeat itself as Sheeran then added the word “Hey” – forming an impromptu rhythm number. — before he killed the sequence.
“I’m going to do that often,” he added, later demonstrating the technique with such mesmerizing songs as his hits “Give Me Love” and “Photograph.”
As he masters this sonic trademark, from which he spawned huge hits like “Shape of You” and “Sing” — both performed with gusto on Saturday night, the second of three weekend Toronto shows — he has so is its Hollywood-standard production values, complete with fireworks, fireballs and an elaborate array of rotating stages that evoked fond memories of the Ontario Place Forum.
Spoiler alert for those attending the Father’s Day concert on Sunday: skip the following paragraphs if you want to remain surprised.
The lavish circle-in-the-round stage design is, in context, a summary and conclusion to Sheeran’s “Mathematics” series of six albums: 2011’s “+”, 2014’s “x”, 2017’s “÷:”, “No .6 Collaborations Project,” 2021’s “=” and 2023’s “-.”
Located in the middle of Rogers Centre, the set consisted of a main stage and then a ring of a main stage, with six crane-like “arms” hanging guitar-shaped video screens surrounding a round screen and a light trestle in which Sheeran himself was housed.
This time, Sheeran brought a band he employed for nine songs, while he performed the rest solo – except for duets with Mendes, Khalid on “Beautiful People” and a violinist named Alicia Entrom on “Galway Girl”.
And when he performed solo, Sheeran was, for the most part, literally in motion, prancing energetically across the stage, which spun at a decent pace so that everyone in the ballpark could get lucky with him.
Visually, it was a highly imaginative and stunningly colorful venture that underlined Sheeran’s immense talent as a multitasker. And if you need any more proof of his skills on that front, keep in mind that he’s conducting two tours at the same time: On Friday, he played his “Subtract” tour at the History with a capacity of 2,500 (get it? Smaller venue = subtract?), before settling in two Rogers Center performances that would draw about 100,000 by the time the smoke cleared.
For the record, this is the 32-year-old Sheeran’s sixth concert (four as a headliner, two opening for Taylor Swift’s “Red” tour), and it’s easy to see why he’s become a household name on the planet alone. based on his performance.
He’s a talkative host and down-to-earth fellow whose gratitude and humility shine through his personality. Sheeran, wearing a T-shirt with the monogram “Toronto” on it, endeared himself to the public by talking about how important the city was at key moments in his life, both as a career marker and creatively.
And then, of course, there’s the music: bits of recognizable, universal reality that speak of love (“Perfect”) and loss (“Eyes Closed”), maturity and realization.
“I’ve grown up / I’m a father now / Everything has changed, but somehow I’m still the same”, — the first verses of “Tides” and the show’s opening, the rocking salvo performed with his full band, pretty much set the tone in terms of the life lessons Sheeran is able to articulate so well.
He’s also talented enough as a writer to authentically adapt to numerous styles: hip-hop (“You Need Me, I Don’t Need You”), Celtic reels (“Galway Girl”), pop (Justin Bieber’s hit , “Love Yourself,” which Sheeran wrote), dance (“Overpass Graffiti) and a host of other musical vernaculars.
Sheeran is also fun as hell, using his host status to encourage sing-alongs and incite the audience to “jump” when the right rhythm conditions call for it.
So it was hard to walk away from this show without liking it even more – and now that this musical concept of his is over, Ed Sheeran fans will be curious to see where his creativity takes him next.
After all, he’s already done the crowd-pleasing math… to perfection.
