Sheeran’s stripped-down set showcases his strengths

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This article was published 12/06/2015 (4117 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s always someone at concerts who wonders what that artist they just saw would be like with just a guitar, a microphone, their talent and their guts.

Stripped of all the rock-star baggage, and without other musicians to lean on, just what could that artist do?

Well, that music fan, if in attendance at Ed Sheeran’s concert on Friday night at the MTS Centre, would have got the answer. If that rock star is someone like Sheeran, that star can do a hell of a lot with just a guitar, a microphone, his talent and his guts.

The 24-year-old ginger-haired British phenomenon, dressed simply in a plaid shirt and jeans, brought his mix of earnest pop and tongue-twisting rap to enthrall a mostly young and female crowd at the downtown arena. But gender and age were no prerequisite on an enjoyable evening.

He occasionally uses a loop box situated at his feet, and taps pedals to add some effects to his performance, but that’s it. No backup band to cover up for any blunders, which were few, if there were any.

An example of how he put all that talent together occured early on during a three-song blender that combined his rap tune Take it Back, Stevie Wonder’s Superstition and the Bill Withers classic Ain’t No Sunshine.

It was a cool mix of 20th and 21st century soul that the 24-year-old Brit had created and the crowd loved it.

It was a similar strategy that Sheeran employed two years ago when he was last in Winnipeg, opening up for Taylor Swift and providing a grand opening for Investors Group Field, the city’s new football stadium.

But Sheeran is more than just an interpreter of classics. He’s got his own tunes, and that’s what brought a sellout crowd to the MTS Centre.

They came to hear songs from his latest hit album, X, and Sheeran delivered. Midway through the show he set the rap aside and sang a rich pair from the record, Tenerife Sea and Thinking Out Loud, which had the audience singing out loud.

He followed that up with another mashup, blending Nina Simone’s Feeling Good with his own I See Fire, which put his collage of video screens to good use. While he played the songs, the screens glowed bright-red versions of Sheeran singing and strumming.

Those screens made him look like a giant ginger superhero.

Prior to playing his first huge hit, The A Team, Sheeran, in the midst of a cross-Canada tour, remarked at the size of Great White North.

“I’m always shocked at how bloody massive it is,” he said, comparing an eight-hour drive on the Prairies to the month-long plans Britishers take prior to making a similar journey from England to Scotland.

He ramped up the energy during the encore, and put that loop box to good use during You Need Me, I Don’t Need You. Once he put the rhythm down, he let it run and run while he let loose with some Mach 2 rapping.

He wound up with another X hit, Sing, which had the audience singing to the finish.

Opening acts rarely get their own light show, but Rixton, an energetic four-piece pop act from Manchester, England, used crowd participation to solve the age-old concert problem. Midway through their half-hour set, they played Hotel Ceiling, a song Sheeran co-wrote. Vocalist Jake Roche solved that problem by directing the young audience to wave their cellphones for a no-cost lighting effect, and most of the crowd complied.

At the end, he then wrapped himself in the Maple Leaf as they finished. Pretty savvy ways to get the crowd on your side.

 

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall