Back-to-Back Nights with Ed Sheeran
I have many life goals. Some more attainable than others. One of them is to see Ed Sheeran two nights in a row and that has been accomplished. Pittsburgh and Detroit back-to-back was such a great time. The other Ed related life goal I’m holding out for is to drink a pint with him and chat. Ideally in a London pub. Sounds great, I know.
Now, I will delve into both shows in a moment but I reckon most people don’t read past the first paragraph or two so I’ll say it now…everyone needs to go to an Ed Sheeran concert. The fact that it is just a man on stage with a guitar and a loop pedal is truly insane. People don’t want to give the guy credit for being talented because they’re like, “ew, Ed Sheeran. He’s not even good.” Well, if you haven’t seen him perform live then you aren't even good at being a person. Seriously. It is just mind-blowing. No backing vocals. No backing drums. No backing track. Just Ed Sheeran onstage making magic. Literal magic. He’s more magical than Disney World and the Wizarding World combined.
Okay, so now into some concert recaps and highlights. Also, great pics of my outfit and some tears.
Night One - Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh show was amazing! Obviously. When in this life would an Ed concert not be amazing? As per usual, I cried a lot. Not as much as the Philly show in July but still a fair bit. I just get so overwhelmed with emotions that I have to cry. I was able to sing along a lot more in Pittsburgh because I wasn’t hysterical so yay me.
The show opened when Ed hopped onstage at 8:30 in a white Hoax shirt and started strumming Castle on the Hill. Such an anthemic ballad and a great way to begin an hour and a half of fun. Ed doesn’t change the beginning of his setlist between gigs so after Castle he went straight into Eraser. Oh how I love rapping Ed Sheeran. The third song of the night was A Team and Ed had everyone pull out their phones and shine the flashlights into the air. PPG Paints Arena really lit up with all those thousands of phones illuminated. We then had the Don’t/New Man mix, Dive, Bloodstream and Happier.
Halfway into the set is when things got interesting. Ed said that he was asked to play a song he hasn’t done live in years. He said he hadn't performed it since 2010 or 2011, which makes sense because it was a song that isn’t even on an album. The song is called Cold Coffee and it is from his 2010 independently-released EP called Songs I Wrote with Amy. Fun fact about that EP is the Amy in the title is his co-writer for Thinking Out Loud! How fun! Now, I imagine most people don’t know Cold Coffee but it’s a peaceful acoustic tune written by a 16-year-old and beautifully performed by the same man but at the age of 25. Do watch below. As soon as he sang the first note I started sobbing. It just gave me feels.
Galway Girl was up next, which was a nice change of pace from Cold Coffee. Ed’s “choice” song of the night was I’m A Mess and that was thrilling because he opened up all of his Multiply shows with that song! Hearing it takes me right back to Wembley. With the middle of the show past, Ed went back to the normal setlist with Photograph, Perfect, Nancy Mulligan, Thinking Out Loud and Sing. His setlists are brilliant because he makes them very dynamic. There are ballads and emotional love songs that are followed up with groovy tunes that have the audience clapping along. I love it.
After leaving the stage for a moment, Ed came back on donning a Penguins jersey and the crowd went crazy. Pittsburgh loves its back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. He started strumming the guitar and laying the foundation for the first song of the encore. About 30 seconds in, he made a quick turn to the keyboard (that was added to the stage just for this song) and records the telling notes for the crowd to recognize that Shape of You is being played. When everyone recognizes the song they cheer again and Ed gets right into singing.
The final song of the night, and a personal favorite, is You Need Me, I Don’t Need You. This is a very original Ed song that was written many, many years ago. As I have said many times before, I love rapping Ed and YNMIDNY is Ed rapping at his best. Many moons ago I studied the song and lyrics before a show that I would be able to rap along and I’ve kept up with my practice and wow. It’s just really fun bouncing and yelling and rapping and sweating along with the lights doing wild. Ugh. So good.
Night Two - Detroit
Ahhh, what a good night the second show provided. First, Ed is only the second artist to perform at Little Caesar’s Arena so that’s quite cool. Second, the venue is amazing! Detroit did a great job with the new arena. Very spacious and well appointed. A+
As I mentioned earlier, the beginning of the setlist doesn’t change between shows. The first seven songs were the same as the night before, which was great because I wasn’t crying and I FINALLY sang along to Castle on the Hill. That song makes me so emotional since I have been to that castle in Framlingham. It was really nice belting it out with Ed though so I will try not to cry the next time I see him. Also, Ed was super duper chatty with the crowd so I didn’t even care that I had just listened to the same songs 24 hours prior.
The eighth song of the night was Tenerife Sea. It’s a lovely ballad that I have heard many times before during the X Tour but I had no qualms hearing it again. Ed shows off his vocal range as he layers his voice during the song. He almost hums into the microphone while he’s layering everything and I don’t have the words or knowledge to explain how beautiful it is so watch this video from another concert to hear it for yourself. From Tenerife Sea came Galway Girl and then Ed’s choice song, which was one I’ve never heard live!
How Would You Feel (Paean) was the special song of the night and it was obviously great. As I said, Ed doesn’t have a band but this song needs the piano to function. He said how he can pass on piano if he really tries but he’s quite terrible and he learned that someone on his crew plays. Ed asked him if he would join him onstage and the guy said he absolutely would not. So Ed asked again and the guy said yes and therefore I saw How Would You Feel for the first time and it was great. PJ Smith came out in a tie dye Divide shirt and after Ed hugged him and welcomed him to the stage he goes, “he’s got a great sense of style.” Cheeky chap.
The rest of the concert was the same setlist I saw in Philly and Detroit but it has some major highlights. Photograph had me in tears. It had Leslie crying, too, because it is just so beautiful. It was actually the one time I really cried at the Detroit show so I’m clearly #winning. Am I an adult if I don’t sob when I see Ed perform? Holla @ me if you know. Photograph, Perfect, Nancy Mulligan, Thinking Out Loud and Sing rounded out the normal show. Ed left for a relatively lengthy time (probably a full minute) and hopped back onstage in the Red Wings’ winged wheel. Obviously, everyone died because we are Hockeytown.
The encore is the same for all shows so after Shape of You I again got to rap with Ed to You Need Me, I Don’t Need You. Ed said he’s got tomorrow off so he was going to lose his voice with the crowd and he obviously didn’t but man, he was jamming. He didn’t leave the stage until 10:08pm, which was fabulous, because an extra 8 minutes of Ed is amazing. He’d been offstage right at 10pm at the other two shows I’ve been at during this current tour so I was very happy that he was chatty all night and just living life.
I am not set to see Ed again until June 14, 2018, so I sang and screamed so much. My throat is very sore as I write this. Very sore. So worth it. The Detroit crowd was better than Pittsburgh (and Philly) so that's brilliant. It is also great that I got to share the night with Les, because as much as I love doing things solo and my best night is still that solo on at Wembley in 2015, it was fun to dance and sing with her next to me.
So, in the past 48 hours I've heard Ed perform 34 songs and I'd really rather it have been 134 or 334 but I will take what I can get. Again, everyone must go to an Ed Sheeran concert. The guy is incredible. Or at least watch the Jumpers for Goalposts DVD but I recommend attending a show live.
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