“I encourage you to dance like an idiot.” With these promising words, Ed Sheeran launched into his set at the Xcel Center Energy Center in St. Paul Minnesota on Tuesday, September 15th 2015. Sheeran’s plaid shirt, casual trope of instruments (basically just him and his guitar for most of the songs), and endearing banter made for a wonderfully laid-back, yet adrenaline inducing concert. It felt like everyone – even the people sitting in the back, like me – were part of the experience.

The enormous screens behind Sheeran had both beautiful song-related visuals (including scenes from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for “I See Fire”) and images of him on stage, which was really helpful since it was nearly impossible to actually see him onstage from the back.

The opening acts, Jamie Lawson and Christina Perri, also charmed the audience with “I Wasn’t Expecting That” (Lawson) and “Jar of Hearts” (Christina Perri). Sheeran also sang two mashup songs, “Take it Back” with “Superstitious” (Stevie Wonder) and “Bill Ain’t No Sunshine” (Bill Withers). He also mixed “Don’t” with “No Diggity” (Blackstreet), the classic mashup song, which felt a little tedious – he probably could have been more creative with that.

Christina Perri reappeared on stage to sing “Be My Forever” with Sheeran; causing the audience to smile so hard their faces hurt from the sheer cuteness of it all. The Xcel Energy center was a fairly good venue for this concert, as there was more than enough room for everyone and the sound
carried pretty well.

However, the music was occasionally much too loud, especially during “Human” by Perri and “Bloodstream” with Sheeran. Attending this concert was definitely worth the terrible parking – most of the songs had the audience on their feet, cheering and dancing along with Sheeran, spellbound by his evocative melodies and vibrant stage art.