[Review] Ed Sheeran – Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON – Sept. 18th, 2014

(with opener Rudimental)

Ed Sheeran's first show at the Air Canada Centre and it was SOLD OUT! Not at all surprising though. One man, many guitar changes (including a rare appearance of his electric guitar), nearly two hours of totally captivating music = one bad ass equation. Seems only fitting since his first studio album + was called “Plus” and his second album X is called “Multiply”.

Although he began recording his music independently back in 2005, his career exploded when his first studio album came out 3 short years ago in Sept. 2011. By the end of 2012 he was already a headliner.

Not every musician needs to make a concert a huge spectacle of a production. Raw and amazing talent is more than enough to make the experience compelling. Ed Sheeran can seamlessly put together vocal harmonies and banging rhythms, moving effortlessly from on-your-feet dance anthems to soft heartfelt tunes to lightening fast rap lyrics.

An unassuming, dressed down, down to earth human being just strolls up to the microphones, straps on a guitar and gets you dancing and singing at the top of your lungs until you lose your voice. He was on fire...at one point literally...well, not physically. No harm came to him while his projected images were on fire though for his song “I See Fire”. His set had the crowd singing along so loudly the sound was all-encompassing and overwhelmingly beautiful. When Ed decided to slow things down, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in this massive arena.

His 18-song setlist consisted of:

I'm A Mess

Lego House

Don't - with a little Blackstreet “No Diggity” thrown in

Drunk

Take It Back

One

Bloodstream

Tenerife Sea

Runaway - with a little Backstreet Boys “Everybody”

Kiss Me

Nina

Afire Love

Thinking Out Loud

Give Me Love

I See Fire

Encore:

You Need Me, I Don't Need You

The A-Team

Sing

[Video] Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love (via hui chen)

The opener, Rudimental, is a band also from the UK. Very good vocally but musically I was a bit lost. I couldn't follow the beat and it seemed like a jumble of musical styles. Instrumentally the bass was way too overpowering so I couldn't really hear the rest of the music besides the drums. It's as if they're trying too hard to put too many elements together to try to be original but it just seemed too muddled. Some people loved it and also sang along but I didn't get it. I did love the vocals though.

[Video] Promo video for Rudimental

[Photo Gallery] Ed Sheeran and Rudimental

Joss Stone & Charles Bradley

Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

Sept. 15^th, 2014

[Review] There are some concerts where you wish you knew every word to every song. Then there are those that you just listen and let the music wash over you. This concert was the latter. Billed as a “Soul Explosion” it certainly lived up to that name and the Massey Hall show in Toronto was their only double-bill together, anywhere.

Joss Stone started things off at first coming across like a shy, demure, down-to-earth almost flower child but once she opened her mouth to sing she had a deep, soulful, powerful presence. She started pursuing a singing career at the age of 13, had a record deal by the time she was 15, and recorded her debut album, “The Soul Session” which was released in 2003 at the age of 16. Now at the ripe old age of 27 she's a seasoned veteran. It's quite evident that singing and music is just a part of her very being.

In her quirky, charming, humorous way she interspersed her songs with little stories that made you feel not so much like a gawking audience member but more like you were sitting around a large dinner table at a casual party. But the real highlight was hearing her smooth yet gravelly voice. It was like she was at one with the music. The only downfall was having difficulty really hearing her over the band but that was just a technical thing. I just wanted to hear more, especially when she really belted it out!

Charles Bradley's performance made me think of what it might have been like back in the down and dirty days of the Apollo Theater. He is soul and has that soul scream down like nobody's business. Even his moves are the epitome of hip gyrating funk. At first though he seemed disconnected from the audience, keeping his eyes closed and doing a lot of that soul screaming. At the point in his set where he left the stage for a costume change, it seemed like a different show when he came back. It was like the show had been started over again with another intro and a fresh start. There were times when the crowd was really into it and I was seemingly missing the plot but was determined to stick it out until the end. Mr. Bradley regaled us with advise about love, lust, sex and how the music reflected all those things as well as some baby-making beats. He got down like James Brown.

[Photo Gallery]