Why I've Seen Ed Sheeran Three Times

Hello friends!

Hope your August is off to a good start. Thank you for bearing with me as I get this newsletter off the ground. It’s been hard getting into a writing routine with a lot of busy-ness going on as of late (Job changes! Trips to NYC! Bachelorette parties!), but I have a clear calendar ahead and some ideas for where I want this newsletter to go, so keep an eye out for fun things (and maybe a potential rebrand?) ahead.

Among my recent plans was seeing Ed Sheeran with my brother and sister. This felt special not only because it was my first show with the two of them since my sister moved back to Boston (We share not only a gene pool, but a taste in music), but also because it was my third time seeing Ed Sheeran.

The first time I saw Ed was in 2014 at the start of my junior year of college. Ed was touring for his sophomore album “Multiply” and “Don’t” had been the soundtrack to my summer as I navigated my first “situationship” (with a guy I went on one date with, no less). I liked scream-singing it in the car as I drove to my summer job at the local outlets. When a friend wanted to buy tickets to Ed’s Boston show, I was in.

Little did she (and I) know until later that Ed was not actually playing in Boston, where we lived, but at a smaller venue 45 minutes outside the city and on a Tuesday night. I booked it from my 4 p.m. class, sweating in my faux leather jacket from Forever 21, to catch the commuter rail train that’d take us to the town where the venue was and from there, catch a ride from my aunt to the venue. We ended up taking a pricey Uber back into the city afterward to avoid similar chaos.

Getting to yell “Don’t” in person (badly) along with other songs that guided me through the chaotic early years of my twenties like “Drunk” and “I’m A Mess” (the anthems of recently dumped 20-year-olds everywhere) was worth the madness of getting there. I was in awe at how this scruffy ginger in a flannel could entertain me for hours, just himself, a guitar, and a loop pedal.

…I was so in awe that I was willing to see Ed again. And again. The venue got bigger each time and I actually paid less to see Taylor Swift on the Eras tour than I did to see Ed in 2017. (I’m embarrassed to say how much I paid, but let’s just say it was more than I ever should’ve been coughing up on an entry-level reporter’s salary, especially to sit in the literal last row of TD Garden.) As someone who got into Glee in the third season (a story for another day) and didn’t start listening to One Direction until their last album, I am hardly on top of trends. So it’s been amazing to see an artist grow. But what’s been even more meaningful is seeing him grow with me.

Ten years after I first got into Ed, I watched the documentary Ed Sheeran did on Disney Plus. I said I was only going to watch one episode, but I ended up watching the whole four-hour thing in one sitting. The series was about how he made his latest album, Subtract, off the back of the worst year of his life. As I watched him cry before going on stage and leave a party cause he needed to be alone, I felt seen. At the time, I was barely two weeks off losing my grandfather and I struggled to get out of the house without feeling raw. I felt the tug of a parasocial relationship tug then, but perhaps, for once, in a good way. It reminded me I wasn’t alone in what I was feeling.

I’ve found my favorite songs of Ed’s are those exploring family, home, and grief. “Castle on the Hill” became my anthem during my first year living in Connecticut when I missed my friends terribly. Another friend recently asked me what it was about him that got me to keep seeing him and I immediately launched into explaining how “Afire Love,” “Supermarket Flowers,” and “Eyes Closed” got me through my grandfather’s death. I don’t know if I’ve found another artist whose work has touched me not over a span of time, but over a span of problems. That feels pretty worth revisiting.

Recommendations

What I’m Reading: Last month, I read Old Enough by Haley Jakobson which I got by winning book bingo at my beloved local bookstore. I had seen it on TikTok and snatching it as a no-brainer when I saw it offered as a prize. It took me a minute to get into because the tone is a lot (It’s narrated by a college student and sometimes the voice got a little too immature). However, it discussed sexual assault in a nuanced way that I don’t encounter a lot and it’s one of the only books I’ve read that captures the awkward dynamics of moving away from home and realizing you’ve changed and the people there haven’t.

What I’m Listening To: I have been in a music rut!! There’s nothing I’ve been listening to on repeat lately, unless you count Olivia Rodrigo’s new single.

What I’m Watching: This is perhaps worth exploring in another newsletter, but I just finished “The White Queen” on Starz and immediately started it again. It follows Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort, and Anne Neville—three women with competing interests—during the Wars of the Roses which is when…You know what, maybe you can read about it on your own and I’ll save the rant for another newsletter.