Tour of The Week: Niall Horan
I was shocked and absolutely elated to find out the Friday before the show that I had won a competition to not only gain access to Niall’s soundcheck but that I would also be getting the opportunity to meet him.
His soundcheck was short but intimate, with only around 100 other people in the room Niall smashed out chart topping hits “This Town” and “Slow Hands”, along with a song that he has yet to release called “On The Loose.” Niall both opened and closed this short set by proclaiming his immense love for Australia and as the only Melbournians in a room full of Sydneysiders, my friend and I ensured to fight the case for our city when Niall expressed his desire to potentially move to an Australian city someday.
For this tour, Niall took the unique approach of performing an album that he has yet to release, his reason for doing so he later stated during the show, saying “I wanted a chance to play the album live to you guys before it was released and I get to see all the reactions to the songs in front of my own eyes.” So that the album would be a surprise and I would be able to hear it for the first time live as Niall intended, I made sure to avoid any videos of his previous shows. When meeting him I expressed my excitement to hear the album and told him I had yet to see any footage of his previous shows. Upon hearing this he seemed happily surprised, as he probably thought his endeavour to get people to hear his album live for the first time would be a lost cause after a majority of the people in the crowd of his first show and those since had posted a plethora of videos of his songs across various social medias. He told me that I “was in for a shock” and boy was I.
While I expected the rest of his album to sound much like his debut single, “Slow Hands”, which is quite upbeat and would be classed under the genre of pop, the rest of Niall’s album would fall into the singer-songwriter/indie folk category. If I were to compare him to another artist I would say the sound was reminiscent of Passenger however Niall definitely did well to create his own sound that I immensely enjoyed.
As I looked around the theatre, every single face seemed to be beaming with joy in reaction to the new songs, so either they were taking Niall’s advice of “if you hate it, don’t show it on your face” or the more likely scenario, they were loving the album just as much as I was.
With only the one album to his name it was quite a short set, however Niall didn’t forget his roots and included a fan favourite of One Direction’s songs, “Fool’s Gold.” The love for this song was crystal clear as there was not a single person in the theatre who didn’t know and sing every single word. It was quite the experience as I can honestly say I’ve never heard a crowd sing a song so well, Niall himself even calling it “incredible” and saying he “had to hear it again”, which lead to him playing the chorus an extra two times once the song was meant to end.
His debut album “Flicker” will be released on the 20th of October and I for one cannot wait to hear it again.
The Flicker tour will also be returning to Australia in June 2018, which you can purchase tickets for here: https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=NIALLHOR18