Sheeran tugs heartstrings
CONCERT
Ed Sheeran
Perth Arena
Saturday, April 4
Review: Simon Collins
3 stars
A red-haired English gent hit town, wooing thousands of Perth girls.
No, it wasn’t Prince Harry but rather Ed Sheeran who came, saw and conquered our sheilas with only an acoustic guitar, loop pedals, heartfelt songs and effortless charm.
The 24-year-old ginger played last night at Perth Arena to a bumper crowd of 14,600.
That’s not bad going considering Sheeran carries the show entirely on his own unassuming shoulders – no backing band, no dancers and certainly no pyrotechnics. The only fancy stuff were the big screens behind the star and an Aussie flag he tied around one of the microphone stands midway through the 100-minute performance on Saturday night.
It’s obviously a big plus that both his albums, 2011 major label debut + and last year’s X, topped the charts here, as well as in his native UK. X, or multiply, was the highest selling album in Australia for 2014.
Despite being in the midst of a gruelling world tour stretching from last August to this September, Mr Ed was not at all hoarse.
Sheeran had the crowd eating out of his hand from the opening ballad of I’m a Mess to the upbeat strum-along finale of the Pharrell Williams co-write Sing.
Ed Sheeran at Perth Arena last night. Picture: Duncan Barnes
In between, the superstar ranga delivered hits from his two albums, including a lengthy stretch of ballads from X culminating in current hit, Thinking Out Loud. For the uninitiated, this is Sheeran’s You’re Beautiful, the song destined to soundtrack a billion bridal waltzes.
Either side of the balladry, Sheeran chatted amiably with the masses but blotted his copybook by committing one of the worst sins any white boy with an acoustic guitar can make. He rapped.
After five-times platinum smash Lego House brought the arena down, Sheeran unleashed his first rap during a mash-up of Don’t and Blackstreet’s No Diggity.
This was bad enough but then Take It Back, off the deluxe version of X, saw the blood-nut rap some more.
This wasn’t the nadir. That came during the encore when bouncy 2011 single You Need Me, I Don’t Need You segued into 50 Cent’s Da Club and Iggy Azalea’s recent Fancy. ‘Twas like bad karaoke, guvnor.
Fans at Ed Sheeran concert last night. Picture: Duncan Barnes
Fans who sang along at full voice to Drunk, The A Team and other more traditional sappy pop fare would forgive Sheeran for his hip-hop transgressions. Many would think him rather clever for being able to sing, strum and occasionally bust out a rhyme or three.
But it seemed more a party trick or some sort of gourmet busking than something at which he excels. The ginger prince of pop should stick to tugging heartstrings with the James Blunt end of his shtick.
Sheeran will play Perth Arena again on Sunday night.
