21ST CENTURY GUITAR MAN
Ed Sheeran finally brought his particular kind of magic to Bangkok
Frizzy orange wigs. T-shirts saying “When I Was 26 Years Old, I Broke My Arms”. Thai fans sure brought inside jokes with their props at the sold-out Ed Sheeran Live In Bangkok 2017, held last Thursday at Impact Arena Muang Thong Thani. The night kicked off with Lauv, a budding American singer, the opening act for the evening. His pop single I Like Me Better was quite popular with the crowd, and he gave a likeable performance. But all was in the past when the man of the evening took to the stage after 9pm to a loud cheer.
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter Sheeran works with musicality and simplicity. He came up alone with his guitar, and with two microphones and a looper pedal, ready to entertain the crowd. No backup band; no fancy laser beams flying around. He only had towering screens as a backdrop, and then he was off.
The performance opened with Castle On The Hill,
the lead single from his third studio album, ÷ (Divide).
And it was followed by hits from his latest album and the previous ones such as Eraser, Dive, Happier, Galway Girl, Perfect, Nancy Mulligan, Thinking Out Loud, Sing
and more. Sheeran sang, rapped and hopped around with his guitar in a lone-wolf performance. The only time he was joined by another musician was during How Would You Feel, in which he played guitar to the keyboard accompaniment.
My personal favourite of the evening was perhaps Photograph, Sheeran’s single from X (Multiply). It was in the emotion, and the way Sheeran dragged the song out a little through his looper pedal, and perhaps the already splendid sound of the hit love song, that made the performance so mesmerising. And we were lost, enchanted by the words, the melody, the voice and the sound of his acoustic guitar.
The concert — like Sheeran’s albums — kept to a set of rhythms and a range of dynamics consistent with his style. We swayed from one love song to another. And finally the night ended with Shape Of You and You Need Me, sending the one-and-a-half-hour performance off with an upbeat finale.
Sheeran proved to be a powerhouse all on his own, flaunting his musical talent in a one-man show of pop goodies and acoustic prowess. However, this lone-wolf act is perhaps received differently from one audience to the next.
By stripping down all the fanciness and props we have seen at other concerts, Sheeran gave audiences the chance to pour all attention onto the artist, with nothing to distract from the music — aside from the graphics on the screen. But, at the same time, parts of the stage may have felt a little empty. I wouldn’t call it a flaw, because at least the setting was successful in delivering and exhibiting Sheeran’s musical talent perfectly. We wouldn’t have believed he recently got into an accident and had to cancel some of the shows on his tour.
During the concert, Sheeran also reflected that, after his humble beginnings in a small town in England, he didn’t realise he had so many fans so far across the world.
Personally, I remember vividly how, on my recent trip to Nepal, my porter was blasting Sheeran’s songs on his phone as we went on a mountainous trek. His music has indeed touched the globe in all corners and regions. And the Bangkok concert affirmed his status as a singer-songwriter who sure knows his way around a guitar.
Sheeran’s rise to international fame was a steady and relatively quick ascent that shows no sign of fading. At just 26, he is touring the world with a handful of platinum hits and awards on hand, plus millions of fans in every continent. We sure are expecting more great tunes from him and remain ever excited at the musical journey he will be taking his fans on in the future.