Ed Sheeran : One Kind Of A Show
I’m back! And I’ve been quite busy this month! And you won’t believe it, but I saw THE artist of our “pop” generation drum roll: ED SHEERAN.
He was in Paris on the 29th of January and the 2sd of February and I had the opportunity to see him both times! The first time was really intimate, it was on the tv set of a french tv show called Le Grand Journal. He played his singles “Don’t” and “Thinking out loud”, the show provided him musicians, but it was obvious that he was awkward about having to share the stage with other people. Nevertheless, his performance was outstanding, but it was nothing compared to his real show a few days later.
I had to work on that day so I was pretty late, but with a certain amount of luck I got good places. Not too far from the scene, not too close either. Anyway, I was ready to see one of my favorite solo artist rise in his natural habitat. He came on the stage alone, with nothing more than his acoustic guitar, his charisma, and his voice. He played the first chords of “I’m a mess” and the audience went crazy and yet stayed disciplined. I’ve been to a few concerts before and I’ve never seen someone do what Ed did that night, especially with songs like “take it back” where he had nothing more than his voice, an incredible flow, a perfect command of his breath.
However, Ed’s most phenomenal ability is the way he controls his audience as if he was a puppeteer. During “Kiss me” not a word could be heard in the Zenith’s room, a room full of 20,000 persons, and when the first chords of Thinking Out Loud started the whole audience was in a trance, screaming back the lyrics. This ability to steer his audience, to make them feel things seems inherent to Ed Sheeran. When he played “Bloodstream” I was blown away, how he made me feel the lyrics of his song only because of the way he played the song, how he build the pressure by mixing the chords together. It was spectacular, I was at the same time afraid and excited and all I was waiting for was for it to “kick in”, I never did drugs but I think that what I felt at that moment is exactly what he is describing in his song. But what I wanted was to feel his songs, his voice, really. So when he started to play (after a few technical errors, but how great a show could be without them ?) “I see fire” I closed my eyes, and I felt immensely better, his voice was infiltrating every hence of my body and most importantly my soul. I wasn’t listening to his voice, I was feeling it, living it. I wasn’t in a room full of people, I was in a completely different universe filled with all the mystery running through his voice, I was in danger and safe, feeling unity, and disunity. And despite all of this intensity during the show Ed kept his humor, doing a great job at entertaining his french audience, which for a large part didn’t understand a word he was saying (french aren’t good with languages oops). I didn’t get the chance to stay the whole set, but it ended with Sing and I’m sure that Ed brought all his energy in this last song, finishing his show on a happy and strong note.
Earlier I said that Ed was alone during his whole show, and even if he indeed was alone on the stage, his background team, and more importantly the lighting director did an amazing job, the play of the lights was a big part of the show, and especially the design and videos passing on the big screens. For example, during “bloodstream” the built of the pressure I was talking about was accompanied by a play on the color red.
As you can see Ed Sheeran is a true artist taking part in a music industry that more and more people like to call “commercial”. Before seeing him I made the mistake to call him “The Bob Dylan of our generation” due to the fact that he has nothing more than his guitar and his voice, but Ed Sheeran is a fully-fledged artist, he is making history and I can’t wait for what he is going to bring further on the road.
*Picture: Ed on stage in Paris’s Zenith
