Pop Star Harry Styles Waltzes Into STL For: Love On Tour
October 7, 2021
Surely you’ve heard of singer and songwriter Harry Styles right? Who hasn’t? Being in the big hit boyband One Direction gave him a boost in pursuing a successful solo music career.
As of now, Styles has released two albums, “Harry Styles” and “Fine Line.” His latest album, “Fine Line,” did very well. According to an article written by Joe Coscarelli in The New York Times, “[“Fine Line”] topped the latest Billboard chart with the equivalent of 478,000 in sales after ten days.” Since then, the artist has gotten numerous awards, including the Best Pop Solo Performance for his hit, “Watermelon Sugar.”
After building on such success, Styles planned a second world tour, “Love on Tour.” Unfortunately, this is when the world fell apart with the worldwide pandemic, COVID-19. The singer has since then had to reschedule his tour dates. Fortunately, the rescheduled date for St. Louis on Sept. 15 still stands! His concert took place in the Enterprise Center, a famous spot for famous artists to come perform for their die-hard fans.
Since Styles has already begun his tour and gone to a few cities in the states, we’ve gotten a chance to scope his outfit choices, the songs he chose to sing, and of course, the outfit choices of the fans. Many wear bright colors, pulling outfit inspirations from Harry’s past choices, such as his Fine Line cover outfit and Grammys outfit, and more. One fan even showed up in a watermelon bodysuit!
Let’s start from the very beginning. We arrived at downtown St. Louis around 7:30pm since the Center would start letting people in at around 8 p.m. Finding parking was a nightmare. The parking areas next to the concert required “parking permits” that I was not informed of, and in other parking areas they only took cash to be able to park. Who carries cash anymore?! We risked getting a ticket to park in a close spot (considering we would be out of the center by midnight and it’s dangerous), and made it in on time.
At first glance, the line pouring out of the center seemed ridiculous and we thought we were going to have to wait in it for a while, but the workers worked super fast and before we knew it, our physical vaccine cards and IDs were checked and we were in.
Something that was very inconvenient but also understandable is that we could not bring any sort of bag to the concert unless it was for medical reasons. We did know this ahead of time but it is still a bit inconvenient since we had to carry everything in our hands.
After we were in, we wanted to buy our merch before starting the concert. The lines for this were ridiculously long as well, and we figured we could come back after the concert to buy our stuff.
Finding the entrance to our section was pretty easy and the workers were very kind to show us where to go. Once we were in, we were able to find our seats quickly. We weren’t in the pits, but not in the nosebleed section either. We were actually pretty close to the pits, so I would say we got a pretty decent seat.
Before Styles, his companion American singer and songwriter Jenny Lewis was on stage singing a few of her own songs. Though I don’t know a lot about her or know a lot of her songs, she was an amazing performer! She was great at hyping us up for Harry. She also had spectacular, punky, vibe-y songs and I had a great time.
In the time chunk between Jenny and Harry, the crew played a few songs during the wait, songs that we all knew being former/current One Direction fans, which again, got us hyped pretty fast, such as “Olivia” from the band’s last album “Made in the AM.” A few minutes before 9 p.m, the crew played a voice audio of Harry asking us to take the COVID precautions and wear our masks. I think this is a very good thing that he did because although we are all vaccinated, we are still in a pandemic and the spread of COVID is so easy in a crowded space.
Right before Harry came on, he teased the audience with the intro of Golden and flashes of colors. This, again, riled up everyone and we all began chanting for him. He rose up from under the stage and everyone went crazy. He started out with one of his hit songs Golden, which is such an emotional song and brought that intense feeling of euphoria to every single person there.
The artist played many well known songs such as “Watermelon Sugar,” “Adore You”, “Sign of the Times”, “Golden”, “Lights Up”, and “What Makes You Beautiful.” He also played songs that people who genuinely listen to him would know every word to, such as “Fine Line”, “Canyon Moon”, “Only Angel”, “Two Ghosts”, and more.
Not only is he an amazing singer, but a miraculous performer as well. He’s not just standing in one spot, oh no. The man waltzed, jumped, danced, and blew kisses in every direction. He does not stand still, which I loved. He could also be emotional though. In songs like “Cherry” and “Sign of the Times”, he didn’t dance around, he stood in one spot and let his voice do the job. Overall, the concert was an extremely pleasant experience.
The concert did seem a tad bit too short. The show began at 9 p.m. and ended at about 10:40pm. It might’ve seemed too short at the moment because we all know time goes by fast when you’re having fun, but it wasn’t a big deal honestly.
After we got out, we headed straight to the merch table to see what we could pay a pretty penny for. Or, maybe a few too many. Not only was the merch basic, but overpriced. I’ve seen fan pages on Etsy make better merch, come on Harry! Nevertheless, I bought a t-shirt, a tote bag, a water bottle, and a poster. Hey, I want as many mementos as possible, okay?!
We made it out of the center at about 11:30 (long lines, again). Yes, with a ticket unfortunately, but it was only five bucks more than what we would’ve had to pay for parking, so it wasn’t a big deal.
In conclusion, if I had to rate this concert as a whole, I would give it a 9/10. The performance was phenomenal and emotional, just as I expected it to be. Harry Styles is an amazing performer and knows how to keep a crowd entertained. He would often crack jokes or just be silly which got a laugh out of us. The concert lost a point because the parking was ridiculous and the merch was mediocre. Other than that, one of the best nights of my life for sure. I will 1000% be attending his next tour if he decides to revisit the Arch.
Quiz time! Do you think you know Harry? Let’s find out!
1. When did Harry release his first single, “Sign of the Times”?
a. December 2nd, 2017
b. April 7th, 2017
c. June 14th, 2018
d. April 7th, 2018
2. Harry Styles has written multiple songs with the names of fruits in the title. Which of these fruits has he NOT put in his song titles?
a. Kiwi
b. Papaya
c. Cherry
d. Watermelon
3. Ever since rising to stardom, Styles has gotten many movie deals. Which of these movies has he starred in?
a. Dunkirk
b. Call Me By Your Name
c. Everything, Everything
d. The Book of Henry
4. Let’s go all the way back to the biography stuff. What is Harry’s full name?
a. Harold Edward Styles
b. Harry Edward Styles
c. Harry Austin Styles
d. Harold Adam Styles
5. Let’s finish this off with a super duper hard question. Harry used to work in a bakery before coming onto the X Factor to audition. What was the name of the bakery he worked at?
a. John’s Bread and More
b. W. Mandeville Bakery
c. J. Richardson Bakery
d. L. Adams Bakery
Answers: 1. B 2. B 3. A 4. B 5. B