It’s rare when one person can captivate an audience of almost 15,000 people with just an acoustic guitar and a looping station.
Ed Sheeran manages fine.
Sheeran started out Thursday night’s concert at the Amalie Arena with a video montage of his career from 1993 to now. This included footage of his early days performing on the street to a small audience, to recording his first album, to opening for Taylor Swift in 2013.
He then went on to perform his smash hits “Thinking Out Loud”, “Lego House,” and “The A Team” to an audience of swooning teenage girls, who were singing along to every note.
Sheeran also brought back opening act Christina Perri to perform their duet “Be My Forever”, which threw the audience into an enthusiastic tail spin.
What’s so refreshing about watching Sheeran preform is that he does not need to resort to elaborate dance routines or ridiculous costumes to put on a good show. Sheeran preformed the entire show in cargo shorts and a plain black t-shirt. He lets his music do the talking, by performing with only a guitar and looping station.
“Everything you hear tonight is completely live, on-the-spot recorded and looped. It all comes from this guitar and this microphone and this pedal I control with my feet,” said Sheeran.
After that he beat boxed and rapped his way through “Don’t”, “Take it Back”, and “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You”.
He finished off the night with a 10 minute encore version of “Sing”, which left fans wanting more, as they left the arena singing the catchy chorus, “Oh-oh-oh-ooh-oh.”
It’s clear that Sheeran has a one-of-a-kind musical element. As long as he has his guitar and looping pedal, he will continue to captivate audiences everywhere.
Joselle Schaffer // News Editor
