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Ed Sheeran paused to remember how it all began, thinking back to the time when he debuted “The A Team” in an English pub and nobody paid any attention.
Of course, that song turned out to be a true gamechanger for the U.K, singer-songwriter, launching him down a career path that would result in fame, fortune and — on Saturday night (Sept. 16) — the single largest crowd ever to assemble at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
“It’s mad now to have 80,000 people singing (‘The A Team’) back to me,” remarked Sheeran, who said the he was informed by stadium officials prior to taking the stage that his show had set the all-time attendance record at the home of the San Francisco 49ers.
The previous recordholder, in terms of concerts, was set in June 2015 by Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead, which featured surviving members of the Dead and other musicians long associated with the band and drew nearly 76,000 per night over two nights. WrestleMania, also from 2015, held the overall mark with about 77,000 in attendance until Sheeran stamped his name on the record.
Compare those figures with what was seen with the previous two biggie shows at Levi’s — Taylor Swift in July and Beyonce in August — which drew about 58,000 and 50,000, respectively. (Swift played two shows at stadium, so her combined attendance was around 116,000.)
Anyway you slice it, the crowd that turned out for the Bay Area stop on Sheeran’s +–=÷× Tour (aka the Mathematics Tour) was absolutely massive — likely ranking among the biggest crowds to ever see a non-festival concert in Bay Area history.
What makes the turnout even more incredible is that it wasn’t for some legendary rock band with a massive stage production like U2 or superstar pop act touring with backup dancers, costume changes and plenty of bells and whistles. Instead, it was mostly just a guy and his guitar, crooning through well-written songs in a way that would easily translate to a theater setting.
Indeed, Sheeran played a small venue gig at the Fox Theater in Oakland on Friday night and the experience probably wasn’t all that different than at Levi’s. The women’s bathroom lines, however, were probably a lot different.
Sheeran performed on an in-the-round stage, which allowed fans to be seated on all sides of the stadium and, thus, far more tickets to be sold than what you get with a traditional stage setup like what Swift and Beyonce used. The setup was utilitarian in design, offering little beyond a stage that rotated, as Sheeran put it, “like a giant lazy Susan” so that fans could get different views of the star as the night progressed.
He stalked the stage like a cat in a cage, moving simply for moving’s sake, as he chatted up the crowd and sang all his biggest hits during roughly two hours and 15 minutes of stage time.
The show got off to quite an energetic start as Sheeran and his band members — each stationed on their own small satellite stage on the floor of the stadium — kicked off their set with “Tides” and then moved into a version of “Blow” that felt big and dramatic enough to be a the show finale.
Then, just two songs into the set, Sheeran gave his fellow musicians a break and continued on solo. Yet, it sure didn’t sound like there was only one guy onstage, as Sheeran utilized his looping station to simulate a whole band’s worth of sounds onstage.
Knowing that those who hadn’t seen him perform in concert before might be wondering what was going on, Sheeran took the time to explain what how he was able to use his foot pedals to record multiple live samples — a quick guitar riff here, some hand percussion there, fresh layers of vocal melodies — and then live it all together. The end result came across like a mini army of Sheerans working all at once to produce fully-fleshed-out band material.
Some of the best material of the night came during this solo segment — including stand-out versions of “Shivers” and “Castles on the Hill.”
Just as the solo act started to grow a bit tired, however, Sheeran called the rest of the bandmembers back to their individual stages and rolled through such fan favorites as “Galway Girl” and “Thinking Out Loud.”
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