Ed Sheeran in Odense
I don't have a lot of artists that I would call my favourites but Ed Sheeran has been up there for years. I first found him shortly after he published his second album, X and that album quickly became sort of a safe, comfort album to me. I remember checking out his early EPs and the first album and becoming hooked. It's only become deeper with the release of new albums but I had still never seen him live despite being a big fan of his music since 2014. Until last week.
It's always a little bizarre when huge names release tickets for their international tours and you buy tickets months and months in advance. I remember how I and two of my closest friends hunched over our respective laptops and mobile phones as the tickets went live. I actually managed to buy tickets, until the site crashed and said that the order hadn't gone through. But thankfully, my other friend got through and secured the four tickets. It was probably a good thing that we were sitting ready since the tickets sold out within two hours.
That was in the autumn and I was so excited and brimming with energy. Obviously, it faded over the months and months, to the extent that I almost forgot it was about time to see Ed Sheeran just a couple of days after I came home from summer holiday. But once I was reminded, all that excitement came rushing back. The four of us piled into a borrowed car and made the drive to Odense to Tusindårsskoven last Sunday.
The first thing I noticed about the venue was the sheer size of it. We arrived just as the first of the two warm-ups were about to head on stage and there were just people everywhere. We managed to snag a good spot for our blanket by a stroke of luck and we settled down to hear first James Bay and later Zara Larson. They were both wonderful performers and I've heard their music before and hearing them live was a pleasure. There is something wonderful about live music, even when you're sitting meters and meters away from the stage.
I kept feeling a bit of festival vibes, even if I don't have any particular festival experience. It just felt like it regardless. I have never been to an outdoor concert with the exception of seeing some artist in Tivoli on and off. This was another scale with 45,000 people piled onto the grass in front of the stage.
Promptly at 9 PM, Ed Sheeran went on and the crowds went wild. We gathered up us stuff a bit, but we kept the blanket folded out and no one in our section pushed forward, which I really appreciated it. It was like we had our little bubble where we could sing along and dance to our hearts' content. I certainly did to every single song. I knew all of them, well, except one of the new ones from the collaboration album. He brought up a lot of older songs from his early days and I felt oddly nostalgic.
I was a little surprised that only 6 out of the 16 songs from the % album made it onto the set list but undoubtedly, some of them had been pushed aside to make room for four songs from the new collaboration album. I've seen clips of Ed Sheeran playing life but I don't know if it properly prepared me for watching him stand on the stage with just a guitar and his loop box. We got to see him build up the songs, from the beat and the backing vocals before he started to "properly" play. It was truly like watching an artist work. The girls and I would try to guess the name of the song just from the music before the song started. We didn't do particularly well with it since the names of titles often escaped us but we most certainly had fun. We also smiled and laughed as we saw how often he got his guitar swapped around. He must have had five or six different ones in rotation.
Since it's still the middle of the summer, we had the pleasure of watching the sun go down around the concert gradually. It created almost a cosy vibe in the crowd of thousands and thousands of people. However, I suspect that it's partly due to Ed's effect. There is something about him that just screams cosy to me and he seems to invite you in. A couple of times for the slower songs, he either asked us to stay quiet and bask in it or hold our lights up and swing them back and forth. I will tell you that seeing the sea of lights from the perspective of the middle of the crowd was a moving experience, so I can only imagine that it must have been tenfold up from stage. Ed did almost shyly admit that it looked cool and we were really doing it for him, both with the lights and when he asked us to bop out hand up and down.
All too soon the concert was coming to a close. It's a common feeling for me when I go to see a concert because I just want to say and here more but I don't think I've ever felt it this strongly. It might have something to do with the fact that I have 71 of his songs saved on my Spotify and hearing 21 songs still left out a lot of my favourites. It would always have to be that way but I could easily have stayed and listened to a four or five hours long concert, if that had been the option. Ed got us to sing along to Sing the last official song before he ran off stage. Obviously, the crowd kept singing and within a couple of minutes he came running back out onto the stage to do the encore. He'd changed and was now adorned a Danish Hummel shirt and he was also handed Danneborg.
He ran around with the flag, careful not to let it touch the ground. His very last song, You need me, I don't need you was dragged out and he clearly played around with it and had a lot of fun. He also told us that he'd had a lot of fun performing for two consecutive days here in Denmark and I hope that means that Denmark will be put on the tour dates some time in the future because I would not mind seeing him again one bit. Though, the current tour has lasted two and a half years so I suspect he's going to take a big break after finishing it up this month.
I don't mind going to concerts alone because it often lets me immense in the music and just focus on myself but I also can't deny what I love going with my friends, especially when they also know the lyrics and enjoy the songs as much as I do. We danced and sung to each other and just had a goddamn good time. The whole thing left me with a warm and cosy feeling in my chest that lasted all the way until I finally arrived back at my flat.
Before I left to meet up with my friends that afternoon, a tiny part of me said that I should just stay home and that it would be too much for my bad brain space and how my anxiety can spike around crowds. I'm so glad that I smothered that destructive thought because I had such a wonderful time. My friends were wonderful, Ed was wonderful and the whole experience was (you guessed it) wonderful. For five years, I've listened to the man's music and it was amazing to be able to see him perform so many of his incredible songs live and I hope I'll be able to see him again in the future.
It's always a little bizarre when huge names release tickets for their international tours and you buy tickets months and months in advance. I remember how I and two of my closest friends hunched over our respective laptops and mobile phones as the tickets went live. I actually managed to buy tickets, until the site crashed and said that the order hadn't gone through. But thankfully, my other friend got through and secured the four tickets. It was probably a good thing that we were sitting ready since the tickets sold out within two hours.
That was in the autumn and I was so excited and brimming with energy. Obviously, it faded over the months and months, to the extent that I almost forgot it was about time to see Ed Sheeran just a couple of days after I came home from summer holiday. But once I was reminded, all that excitement came rushing back. The four of us piled into a borrowed car and made the drive to Odense to Tusindårsskoven last Sunday.
The first thing I noticed about the venue was the sheer size of it. We arrived just as the first of the two warm-ups were about to head on stage and there were just people everywhere. We managed to snag a good spot for our blanket by a stroke of luck and we settled down to hear first James Bay and later Zara Larson. They were both wonderful performers and I've heard their music before and hearing them live was a pleasure. There is something wonderful about live music, even when you're sitting meters and meters away from the stage.
I kept feeling a bit of festival vibes, even if I don't have any particular festival experience. It just felt like it regardless. I have never been to an outdoor concert with the exception of seeing some artist in Tivoli on and off. This was another scale with 45,000 people piled onto the grass in front of the stage.
Promptly at 9 PM, Ed Sheeran went on and the crowds went wild. We gathered up us stuff a bit, but we kept the blanket folded out and no one in our section pushed forward, which I really appreciated it. It was like we had our little bubble where we could sing along and dance to our hearts' content. I certainly did to every single song. I knew all of them, well, except one of the new ones from the collaboration album. He brought up a lot of older songs from his early days and I felt oddly nostalgic.
Castle on the Hill
Eraser
The A Team
Don’t/South of the Border (mashup)
Beautiful People
Bloodstream
I Don’t Care
Tenerife Sea
All of the Stars/ Hearts Don’t Break Around Here/Give Me Love (mashup)
Galway Girl
I See Fire
Thinking Out Loud
Photograph
Perfect
BLOW
Sing
-
Shape of You
You Need Me, I Don’t Need You
Eraser
The A Team
Don’t/South of the Border (mashup)
Beautiful People
Bloodstream
I Don’t Care
Tenerife Sea
All of the Stars/ Hearts Don’t Break Around Here/Give Me Love (mashup)
Galway Girl
I See Fire
Thinking Out Loud
Photograph
Perfect
BLOW
Sing
-
Shape of You
You Need Me, I Don’t Need You
I was a little surprised that only 6 out of the 16 songs from the % album made it onto the set list but undoubtedly, some of them had been pushed aside to make room for four songs from the new collaboration album. I've seen clips of Ed Sheeran playing life but I don't know if it properly prepared me for watching him stand on the stage with just a guitar and his loop box. We got to see him build up the songs, from the beat and the backing vocals before he started to "properly" play. It was truly like watching an artist work. The girls and I would try to guess the name of the song just from the music before the song started. We didn't do particularly well with it since the names of titles often escaped us but we most certainly had fun. We also smiled and laughed as we saw how often he got his guitar swapped around. He must have had five or six different ones in rotation.
Since it's still the middle of the summer, we had the pleasure of watching the sun go down around the concert gradually. It created almost a cosy vibe in the crowd of thousands and thousands of people. However, I suspect that it's partly due to Ed's effect. There is something about him that just screams cosy to me and he seems to invite you in. A couple of times for the slower songs, he either asked us to stay quiet and bask in it or hold our lights up and swing them back and forth. I will tell you that seeing the sea of lights from the perspective of the middle of the crowd was a moving experience, so I can only imagine that it must have been tenfold up from stage. Ed did almost shyly admit that it looked cool and we were really doing it for him, both with the lights and when he asked us to bop out hand up and down.
All too soon the concert was coming to a close. It's a common feeling for me when I go to see a concert because I just want to say and here more but I don't think I've ever felt it this strongly. It might have something to do with the fact that I have 71 of his songs saved on my Spotify and hearing 21 songs still left out a lot of my favourites. It would always have to be that way but I could easily have stayed and listened to a four or five hours long concert, if that had been the option. Ed got us to sing along to Sing the last official song before he ran off stage. Obviously, the crowd kept singing and within a couple of minutes he came running back out onto the stage to do the encore. He'd changed and was now adorned a Danish Hummel shirt and he was also handed Danneborg.
He ran around with the flag, careful not to let it touch the ground. His very last song, You need me, I don't need you was dragged out and he clearly played around with it and had a lot of fun. He also told us that he'd had a lot of fun performing for two consecutive days here in Denmark and I hope that means that Denmark will be put on the tour dates some time in the future because I would not mind seeing him again one bit. Though, the current tour has lasted two and a half years so I suspect he's going to take a big break after finishing it up this month.
I don't mind going to concerts alone because it often lets me immense in the music and just focus on myself but I also can't deny what I love going with my friends, especially when they also know the lyrics and enjoy the songs as much as I do. We danced and sung to each other and just had a goddamn good time. The whole thing left me with a warm and cosy feeling in my chest that lasted all the way until I finally arrived back at my flat.
Before I left to meet up with my friends that afternoon, a tiny part of me said that I should just stay home and that it would be too much for my bad brain space and how my anxiety can spike around crowds. I'm so glad that I smothered that destructive thought because I had such a wonderful time. My friends were wonderful, Ed was wonderful and the whole experience was (you guessed it) wonderful. For five years, I've listened to the man's music and it was amazing to be able to see him perform so many of his incredible songs live and I hope I'll be able to see him again in the future.
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