Like the adage says, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Proof was provided by professional nice guy Ed Sheeran last night, who delighted a full house at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena with a concert where mild manners and gentle romance brushed aside the traditional fare of attitude and edge.
Rumours of Sheeran’s everyman charm have not been exaggerated. Scruffily sauntering onto the stage in t-shirt and jeans, even an unscheduled guitar change 20 seconds into opener “Castle on the Hill” failed to dilute the instant emotional connection with his fans, all of them on their feet and cheering at the first strum.
Sheeran, to his credit, is a genuine solo artist. Armed only with an acoustic guitar and a pedal board (including an all-important looper pedal), Sheeran is a master of self-sampling, able to generate on-the-spot snare and bass beats from his guitar, the frame to build his songs around. There is no backing band. Every sound is coming directly from Sheeran.
The accompaniment, crucially, came from the crowd, whose unwavering affection for the singer-songwriter was sealed after his opening admission of Vancouver love; “I’m not lying when I say this is my favourite city in North America.”
Safely tucked into his pocket, Sheeran’s every wish was the crowd’s demand. They answered his request for phone lights by illuminating the arena for “The A Team.” Taking his best guess at Vancouver’s natural rivals before “Drive” he implored the crowd to “Imagine you’re in a karaoke bar. You can sing louder than Edmonton, right?” “Bloodstream” was prefixed by a detailed explanation of how and when everyone should put their hands in the air. Those instructions were faithfully obeyed.
Sheeran’s crowd-pleasing ability was never in doubt, even as the concert drifted into syrupy sentimentality. “Galway Girl,” riddled with Irish stereotypes and “I See Fire,” were illustrated on the giant screens behind the stage by a neon Guinness sign and a Hobbit-hunting dragon respectively. Both were rapturously received.
Over time however, Sheeran’s one-man sonic palette began to show its limitations. Party favourite “Sing,” in particular, sounded like a shadow of its recorded counterpart. The crowd, singing its unmistakeably Pharrell Williamsish hook, came to Sheeran’s rescue, their collective voices providing the energy his multi-tracked guitar couldn’t quite muster.
Wildly popular but colossally cheesy (the video of a whale swimming through space for “Thinking Out Loud” and his emergence for the encore in a borrowed Michael Bublé Canucks jersey striking down any last hopes of a detour from the middle of the road), the legend of Ed Sheeran and his niceness continues to grow.
Perhaps a line from “Hearts Don’t Break Around Here,” “I feel safe when you're holding me near,” summed up the key to Sheeran’s success. Because in an increasingly confusing world, it’s easy to fall in love with a sweet, scruffy acoustic troubadour dishing out romantic (but not too sexy) comfort.
That adoration was real in Vancouver. There’s never been a better time to be a redhead.
