Review: Ed Sheeran opens Chicago concerts with a winning uncoolness, and a focus on ‘Subtract’

What happens when one of the world’s biggest pop stars turns Chicago Theatre into the equivalent of a large living room? Sad hour, happy hour, profuse sharing, respectfulness and a few surprises — all courtesy of Ed Sheeran, who Friday played the sold-out venue the evening before headlining Soldier Field Saturday.

Cognizant of the disparity, Sheeran immediately addressed the contrasts between the two settings. The British singer-songwriter explained how the muted nature of his new “- (Subtract)” album doesn’t lend itself to stadium atmospheres. Yet he wanted to perform it live. His solution: Booking a handful of relatively intimate gigs around the high-spectacle performances that would allow him a proper platform to delve into the grief-ridden, stripped-down material. The Soldier Field concert, in turn, was part of his “+ - = ÷ x (Mathematics)” stadium tour.

As for starting a nearly two-and-a-half-hour concert on a downcast note? Sheeran did just that, working track-by-track through the “- (Subtract)” fare in the same order as the LP. He received assistance for the mini-set from a five-piece string section, a backing quintet and challenging circumstances he recently faced. Sheeran framed nearly every song with recollections, stories and observations; cumulatively, he spent almost 40 minutes just talking. The personal approach marked the vocalist’s first area appearance in almost five years — an eternity in the pop sphere, which Sheeran practically cornered.

Even if you think that you’ve never heard Sheeran, you probably have — in a store, via social media, on the radio, on a restaurant patio, in a television show. He’s ubiquitous. In the past decade, he smashed numerous streaming records, established a new tour-sales gross milestone and won Grammy Awards. He appeared in “Game of Thrones,” “The Simpsons,” “Bridget Jones’s Baby” and the Beatles-centric film “Yesterday.”

The pervasiveness extends to the wide-ranging music of peers who seemingly (and in many cases, rightly) believe his commercial magic rubs off on everything he touches. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Camila Cabello, The Weeknd, Eminem, BTS, One Direction, Justin Bieber, Rita Ora, J Balvin, Lil Baby, Burna Boy, Aitch — all have collaborated with the 32-year-old singer-producer in some way. Sheeran’s reach now stretches into nearly every genre aside from heavy metal, and recent reports suggest that might soon change.

If Sheeran is to be taken at face value, that career could have come to a crashing halt earlier this year. As the subject of a high-profile copyright-infringement trial that claimed his tune “Thinking Out Loud” copied parts of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” the hitmaker claimed he would quit the business if he lost the case. Sheeran prevailed. The recent victory followed other plagiarism lawsuits that witnessed Sheeran settle (2017) and win (2022).

In a gregarious mood Friday, he mentioned meeting with lawyers and the spring 2023 trial. Yet Sheeran devoted a majority of his conversations to dealing with the loss of his best friend and the anxiety that surrounded a cancerous tumor found in his wife months into her pregnancy. The relatability, approachability and hope he conveyed in his dialogues went a long way toward understanding his appeal.

Dressed in a black T-shirt and black pants, his red hair slightly tousled and feet tucked into a pair of yellow Air Jordans, Sheeran looked more like a high school gym teacher than a global phenomenon. His disposition — unpretentious, mellow, sincere, with a dash of dry English humor — underscored his seeming normalcy. Sheeran never boasted or vogued; he refrained from irony, praised contemporaries and credited his parents for setting a good example. By traditional rock ‘n’ roll standards, he bordered on anti-cool.

Besides, in an era of incessant posts and instantaneous access to content, what musician says with utter seriousness that he trusts an audience to put away its phones and self-police as he plays three brand-new unreleased tunes — including the first-ever public rendition of “Blue?” Amid that sequence, Sheeran, who revealed the songs will be on an autumn-themed album tentatively scheduled for release later this year, pulled off his boldest moves of the night.

They coincided with the singer’s request for fans to sit down and stay calm for a majority of the encore. That unusual ask received an equally unusual, obedient response. The crowd’s courteous behavior followed on the heels of similar decorum during the “- (Subtract)” portion wherein a pin drop could shatter the breathless quiet. The sound of silence lingered: An emergency-vehicle siren outside the building arose as the lone intrusion to “The Parting Glass,” a traditional Irish-Scottish song Sheeran delivered sans amplification or microphone.

Armed with an acoustic guitar and looping pedal, and flying solo for more than half the concert, Sheeran got people to pause and listen — and be present. The polite tenor matched the overall mildness and tenderness of the music. Basic and minimalist, it didn’t demand much even when broadened with chamber accents or light grooves. Verses and choruses adhered to time-honored patterns; structures tilted in familiar and straightforward directions; lyrics embraced rhymed couplets but steered clear of irony, metaphor and symbolism.

Uncomplicated, accessible, melodic, somewhat repetitive and bland: Sheeran served comfort food for an age daunted by social strife, political malfeasance and climate change. Impending dread be damned. Sheeran’s folk-pop gave bear hugs (“Shivers”), presided over first dances (“Thinking Out Loud”), located soft landings (“Colourblind”) and portrayed idyllic scenarios (“Perfect”).

Though Sheeran flirted with dark places and pained emotions with the introspective “- (Subtract)” selections, his warm deliveries and ballad-heavy arrangements belied deep-seated doubt or danger. He sang with intact pitch and consistency, but would’ve benefited from adding more edginess, soul and personality to his range.

At times, Sheeran’s tattooed arms appeared to exhibit more color than his vocal tones. He could stand to channel less David Gray and James Blunt — two vanilla English artists he cited when discussing a favorite subject, albums — and more Elton John, Van Morrison and Dusty Springfield, heroes he referenced in song narratives.

Sheeran ventured closer to the spirit of the latter legends during a boisterous instance that witnessed him slap the guitar strings, layer vocals and push the pace until it grew swollen (“Bloodstream”) — as well as amid a contemplative moment where he unpacked youthful innocence with evocative detail, vulnerability and joy (“Castle on the Hill”). If mass swooning and sing-a-longs are measures of success, Sheeran can comfortably bask in the afterglow.

Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.

Setlist from the Chicago Theatre July 28, 2023:

“Boat”

“Salt Water”

“Eyes Closed”

“Life Goes On”

“Dusty”

“End of Youth”

“Colourblind”

“Curtains”

“Borderline”

“Spark”

“Vega”

“Sycamore”

“No Strings”

“The Hills of Aberfeldy”

“The A Team”

“Shivers”

“Thinking Out Loud”

“Perfect”

“Bloodstream”

“Shape of You”

“Bad Habits”

Encore

“Castle on the Hill”

“Crashing in Heaven Heels” (unreleased)

“Blue” (unreleased)

“Magical” (unreleased)

“The Parting Glass” (traditional cover)

“Afterglow”