Concert Review: Ed Sheeran Creates Intimate Setting in Gillette Stadium

After a summer of massive, over the top productions; shows that felt like parties; and stadium rock legends, perhaps it was appropriate that concert season at Gillette Stadium ended with a show that felt like an old fashion, traditional concert.

Performing at Gillette Stadium as part his North American tour, Ed Sheeran’s two hours on stage was low tech compared to the previous acts to come to Foxborough. There were no glow sticks, lasers, fireworks, or even a backing band, only a man and his acoustic guitar on a near-empty stage with only some lights and five vertical video screens behind him.

At times, the 18-song set from the British sensation felt more appropriate for a small theatre or unplugged setting, yet the attention of the nearly 53,000 in attendance was fully on Sheeran the whole time, as the singer more or less let his music be the main attraction rather than a portion of a larger spectacle.

“This is a lot bigger than I thought it was,” Sheeran said shortly after jumping on stage, noting that the show was his biggest in the United States.

There was little deviating from what worked for the man with only a guitar, as he opened with I’m a Mess, Lego House, and Drunk. Sheeran did mix it up a little bit, showing off his rapping abilities for Take it Back while mashing up Superstition and Ain’t No Sunshine. The sounds of Stevie Wonder made one more appearance during a cover of I Was Made to Love Her.

Even songs like Don’t and Sing, which represented a push into a more top 40 style of music seen on his second album reverted to his acoustic style rather than the original studio sound.

Don’t was followed by the chorus of Blackstreet’s No Diggity, a cover of Feeling Good from The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, and I See Fire.

Only when surprise guest Chris Martin of Coldplay was on stage did a second instrument appear. With Sheeran on guitar and Martin on piano, the duo sang Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud and Coldplay’s Yellow together, with Sheeran calling Martin one of his influences. Opener Christina Perri also jumped stage for Be My Forever, a collaboration between Sheeran and herself, and one of the happier songs of the show.

The A-Team was the last song before a three-song encore ended the 2015 Gillette Stadium Concert Series. Sheeran rapped his way through You Don’t Need Me, I Don’t Need You and a cover of Drake’s Know Yourself, before ending with Sing.

The evening was a display for Sheeran’s meteoric rise, who only three years prior made his debut in the States in front of only 175 people. The show was also his first in an NFL stadium as the headliner, previously performing at Gillette Stadium as the opener for Taylor Swift in 2013. The last stop on his North America tour, the concert was Sheeran’s largest to date in America.

Opening for Sheeran were Perri and Passenger. Aside from playing a six-song, 30-minute set that was too short, little criticism can be aimed towards Perri. Starting with Shot Me In the Heart from her 2014 album before going into one of her earlier singles in Arms.

After performing Run, the crowd sang along with her perhaps most well known songs in Jars of Hearts, A Thousand Years, and Human, with the penultimate song, most well known from the Twilight movies, receiving the highest of approval from the audience.

The end must have evoked some emotion from Perri, who afterwards wrote on Twitter, “not sure ive ever cried so hard while smiling at the same time. i can’t believe that just happened. thank you everyone at @gillettestadium”

Perhaps to the surprise to the few that was expecting a full band, Passenger’s set was an acoustic guitar combined with self-deprecating humour and misery as described by the singer himself. His 40 minutes had the crowd clapping and dancing as much as one can to songs about depression, things the singer hates, and his most famous song Let Her Go, which he joke was the only hit song he had and was often confused with the Frozen song Let it Go.

After Let Her Go and Scare Away the Dark, Passenger finished his performance furiously stringing away to the song Holes before making way for the headliner.

Courtesy of Gillette Stadium / David Silverman