FROM THE FRONT ROW
// Harry Styles // One Night Only // Electric Ballroom Camden // 19-12-19 //
Yesterday evening, Camden’s intimate Electric Ballroom saw Harry Styles, his band of musicians and 1,500 fans celebrate the release of his sophomore album, Fine Line, with a one night only special performance.
Despite waiting inside the venue for almost two and a half hours for the singer to start the show, the crowd’s energy was high from the minute he came on stage and only grew as the night went on. Kicking off the evening with new release, ‘Golden’ and continuing to play ‘Fine Line’ in its entirety, the singer glowed on stage with smiles between lines and effortless confidence that could only come from a natural entertainer.
Switching between guitars and effortlessly parading across the small stage, Harry radiated positivity during performances of tracks he’d previously described as being “all about having sex and feeling sad”, and although briefly tearing up during an emotional performance of ‘Falling’, the musician sang beautifully throughout. Alongside more relaxed performances of ‘Cherry’ and ‘She’, Harry bantered with the audience about bringing a Kindle to the show and sung “the world’s fastest happy birthday” to a pair of concertgoers.
The hour and a half long concert consisted of an 18 song setlist, where after closing the show with Bon Iver-esque title track ‘Fine Line’, Harry disappeared for mere minutes before coming back on stage for an encore performance. This saw a handful more songs, including a cover of Lizzo’s ‘Juice’, a rockier version of ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, a surprise performance of ‘Vossi Bop’ with Stormzy and an insanely energetic performance of Kiwi, where Harry encouraged the crowd to go as crazy as possible and added to the energy by spraying water into the lively audience.
Stripping back a huge amount of his production and still putting on a performance fit for arenas, Harry yet again made his mark as an artist who will surely become an icon in years to come. The evening could not have gone any better and fans left the cosy venue with huge smiles on their faces and looking forward to his next London show at the much bigger venue of the O2 Arena in April of 2020.