Review: The monstrous scale of Ed Sheeran’s Adelaide Oval show can’t dwarf his talent
Ed Sheeran’s spectacular Adelaide Oval show was equal parts extravaganza and staggering talent – but still intimate, personal and genuine.
Entertainment
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More than a decade ago, an unpretentious British musician fronted a 2000-person crowd at the Thebarton Theatre armed with one album, a loop pedal and tiny acoustic guitar.
Fast forward to Tuesday night, three of those things remained the same.
Still incredibly unpretentious – wearing just jeans and a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘ADELAIDE’ in colourful stitched font – and performing with a loop pedal and a guitar, Sheeran is now armed with four studio albums, a few extra bandmates, more than 150 million records sold and an almost 60,000-person crowd at Adelaide Oval.
While rain and surging crowds could have dampened the spirits of the British megastar’s enthusiastic audience, tempers melted away as the stage’s enormous, 360 degree screen’s countdown ran to zero.
The Brit’s musical style has also changed over time, swapping his folk roots for stadium-stomping earworms.
“I’m going to play some songs that hopefully you know, if you don’t it’s going to be a long two hours for you,” Sheeran joked early in the show.
When commercially-minded tracks like ‘Shivers’ and ‘Bad Habits’ swamp radio rotations, it’s easy to forget why the 32-year-old reached such spectacular heights – he’s a really, really good musician.
Sheeran strums custom guitars like an extension of his own body. His comfort on stage is electric as he tears through a two-hour set – emphatically reminding his audience of the craft behind his pop wizardry.
He’s also likeable. Really likeable.
You can tell Sheeran’s ‘nice guy’ image is powered by genuine modesty and belief in using his extraordinary celebrity powers for good.
Despite having mere hours in Adelaide before the show, Sheeran performed a surprise concert for patients and staff at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital - and even made time to meet courageous young mother Kellie Finlayson in a “dream come true” moment.
He’s supported by two young artists – Coodjinburra man Budjerah, from NSW, whose soulful pop vocals are reminiscent of Ruel and The Kid Laroi, and rising British pop starlet Maisie Peters – whose fan bases have no doubt exploded thanks to Sheeran’s backing.
The 32-year-old knocks A-Team – the song that shot him to stardom – out of the way early, leaving room for a setlist packed tight with hits.
Sheeran’s circular stage harks back to fellow British superstar Adele’s 2017 Adelaide Oval show, but on steroids – with spectacular pyrotechnics, and giant guitar picks ensuring every corner of the stadium gets a front-row view.
Despite the staggering scale of production, Sheeran’s rising and falling, rotating platform operates to deliver the seemingly impossible to his 60,000-strong audience: connection.
Comfort in Sheeran’s stage presence runs deep through the show. In ‘Visiting Hours’, Sheeran’s tribute to Australian music legend Michael Gudinski, he walks his audience through grief - with a nod to Adelaide’s Penfolds winery, Gudinski’s favourite.
In ‘Perfect’, and ‘Photograph’, he invites his audience to love freely and deeply.
Love ballad ‘Thinking Out Loud’ has become a mainstay of first dances and proposals the globe over, and Sheeran delivers his lines like a best man - the moment is yours to soak in.
While some of his newer lyrics and four-chord favourites can feel trite on the airwaves, it’s not so in the stadium. The live strings of rollicking ‘Galway Girl’ are riotous fun, and ‘Sing’ delivers on its namesake as the entire audience shakes off their vocal cords.
Sheeran doesn’t just feel like a performer – he feels like a mate.
The unbearable weight of massive talent does have its downsides in economy of scale, with moments where feedback and audio issues weighed down Sheeran’s soaring skill.
But, as in 2012, all was forgotten when Sheeran closed his set with a rain-soaked ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ – a middle finger to the music industry about his desire to stay true to his roots.
Some of his more recent pop offerings should, in theory, rub the shine off this ‘stick it to the man’ hit. But, in 2023, Sheeran delivers his message with such furious energy that you don’t question if he still believes it. Even when he’s made a few hundred million dollars along the way.
Sheer numbers make the argument that Sheeran is a cultural watershed, if not the most popular artist of this generation. But this show can be reviewed with a simpler statement.
No matter how you walk in, you’ll walk out an Ed Sheeran fan.
SET LIST
Tides
BLOW
I‘m a Mess
Shivers
The A Team
Castle on the Hill
Don‘t / No Diggity
Give Me Love
Visiting Hours
Own It / PERU / Beautiful People / I Don‘t Care
Overpass Graffiti
Galway Girl
Celestial
Thinking Out Loud
Love Yourself (Justin Bieber cover)
Sing
Photograph
Perfect
Bloodstream
Afterglow
Encore:
Shape of You
Bad Habits
You Need Me, I Don‘t Need You
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