Ed Sheeran is on the upside of a music career that has him out on a headlining tour with Foy Vance and Rizzle Kicks. Some girls in the very front told our photographer (Rachel) that they’d camped out starting at 5 a.m. to guarantee their choice audience spot. That’s devotion…
After seeing his 90-minute set on the outdoor amphitheater stage at a sold-out Stubb’s in Austin, it’s really easy to conclude that he deserves his infectious popularity. He’s a consummate performer with an endearing stage presence, a great voice and some honest-to-goodness soul.
Foy Vance took the stage after giving the audience a quick 30 minutes to file inside and fill up the venue after they opened the doors. He was armed with just an acoustic guitar, lots of effects (delay, loops) and samples. He whipped out a violin bow during the third song, which had a pretty wonderful Middle Eastern sound.
Rizzle Kicks played another 30-minute set, which was filled with lots of energy, dancing, jumping and crowd interaction. This is basically two guys accompanied by tracks. They stayed on their mics, jumping around under massive light effects, while someone else controlled the music tracks and sound samples. The crowd really responded with enthusiasm.
Ed Sheeran took the stage to a booming chorus of feminine squeals and a sea of cellphones held high in the air. He had a huge series of video screens behind him that provided a pleasant helping of eye candy for the audience all night. He was performing solo with only a guitar and a nice loop effects unit that gave him a beatbox to control on the fly – just punching a pedal to start capturing the sound he was making. This sometimes included sounds from him singing into his acoustic guitar pickup, strumming the strings, slapping the hollow body or stomping on a big bass pedal. He’d stomp again to lock in the sounds and begin the loop. Sometimes he’d let it repeat for a while and at other times creating new loops for just one measure or phrase. He had the thing mastered and he was confident and at ease carrying the evening with his showmanship and friendly demeanor.
He referred to the crowd as his “Gospel Choir of Austin” throughout the night. It was not only an affectionate term for his audience, but a fairly accurate description of what the crowd was doing – singing along with gusto. Early on (in the tune “Gimme Love”) he divided the crowd into higher harmony and delayed harmony. It was very cool, but it certainly didn’t overshadow his great-sounding voice. Later he had his Gospel Choir singing the slightly Motown-ish chorus: “Oh daddy, now now, love me good!” It repeated and carried on for good effect, capturing just the proper mood and vibe. The audience once again happily obliged their duty as the Gospel Choir of Austin by soulfully singing along as well as much of their amateur-level skill would allow.
Vance came out on stage to accompany his buddy Ed, who asked him to announce what the name of his mustache. It was something like “Jody-ham Finkleberry Something.” Sheeran noted that “ever since I was about 14, I was a huge fan of Foy. I went to every concert of his I could.” The next song featured some really well-edited cityscapes traffic style, creating additional and movement for the fast-paced song. Near the end was a long seven-minute song with a few changes. At one point he set his guitar down on the stage as the loop played on while he stood up on a monitor wedge with just a wireless microphone as close to the crowd as he could get. His rapping in the second encore was reminiscent of Matisyahu.
He divided up the crowd once again – this time doing it all Westside Story style – one side being the Jets and the other the Sharks, who would call and respond to each other with “You need me I don’t need you” and “My eyes are red.”
It was quite an enjoyable show and it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to make the odd comparison of the soul of John Mayer or Dave Matthews with the bare-souled vulnerability of Dashboard Confessional.
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