Harry Styles’ “Love on Tour” Rocks Madison Square Garden
Harry owns NYC now. We don’t make the rules.
By Anna Cuciurean-Zapan, Kashish Bhatia, and Morgan Pryor
Harry Styles has officially taken over New York City this month, after his aptly named “Love on Tour’’ rolled up to Madison Square Garden following a year-long delay due to the pandemic. Since Oct. 3, he has performed at three sold out shows at the famous arena, with two more Halloween shows to go. (In case you need us to do the math, that’s a total of FIVE shows in one city over four weeks. Not that we’re complaining).
Naturally, Local’s resident Harry fangirls were on the scene, and conquered nights one, two, and three, respectively. We danced, we cried, we sang our hearts out, and we collectively lost our minds. Even as we struggle with intense post-concert depression, we have attempted to recollect our evenings for those who weren’t able to attend (keyword: Attempted. Some of us may have blacked out at certain points from sheer excitement. Don’t judge.)
Night 1
The first time I saw Harry Styles was at a One Direction concert when I was 14 years old, all overfilled eyebrows and crooked teeth. On Sunday, Oct. 3, I saw Harry for the first time in seven years, sitting in the second row of one of his sold-out shows. Sure, getting such a good seat may have meant arriving at the venue as early as 4:45 a.m., only to then stand in a line for several hours, shivering in the streets of Midtown, but the end result was obviously worth it.
The show kicked off with Styles introducing himself to that evening’s crowd with a warm, “My name’s Harry. Welcome to Love on Tour. It is an absolute pleasure to be back at Madison Square Garden.” He was met with the screams of 20,000 loyal fans, all dressed as if they were attending the birthday soiree of an 80s pop star. Boa feathers floated through the air and neon suits could be seen on practically every other attendee. The “Love on Tour” shows have come to be known as the “Met Gala of concerts,” where fans gather to dance and sing like it’s the last time they will, dressed in ostentatious, glam rock-inspired outfits influenced by the bold and gender non-conforming looks that Styles is famous for.
Witnessing the British pop star perform is a sight to behold: he is meant for the stage, a performer who lives to make his crowd happy. From the moment Styles rose up onto stage from the trap lift below, to the moment he made his final exit in a flurry of feathers and blown kisses, he clearly gave his all during the entire hour-and-a-half-long show. Screaming and shimmying his way around a 360 degree stage, dressed in an all black suit jacket decked out with feathers, it was as if he was a songbird who had been set free from a cage to perform (if that songbird had six-pack abs on display).
Forming a connection with a crowd of thousands of people seems like an impossible feat, but not for this man. He at one point went so far as to point out a lucky fan who was celebrating her 22nd birthday that night. The whole arena joined together to serenade her along with Harry, who was smiling at her the entire time; this is the kind of intimacy Styles’ concerts are known for. Later, he ran around during a performance of the joyful “Treat People with Kindness,” a bisexual pride flag in one hand and a Black Lives Matter flag in the other.
If it still isn’t clear, Harry Styles loves his job. During his speech before “Fine Line,” Styles seemed to choke up as he said, “This is my favorite thing to do, and in the darkest times knowing I’d be back on the stage at some point got me through so much.” To think my idol has missed me as much as I missed him… how could I not be touched? As soon as he strummed the first chords of “Fine Line,” I was sobbing into my hands. Ever since I heard the song on its release day, it has given me comfort. It’s Styles’ most emotionally raw track where he sings over and over again “We’ll be a fine line,” meaning one must feel the extreme emotions in life, the highest highs and the lowest lows. Looking up at the screens at MSG and hearing such a vulnerable performance, after everything I’ve gone through over the past year only deepened the emotional impact it’s had on me. This concert was one of my highest highs.
Night 2
It is no surprise that Styles already has a large number of enthusiastic (to say the least) fans from his One Direction days, but five years into his solo career and departure from bubblegum pop, his second album has earned him thousands of new fans (myself included). A year after not-so-patiently waiting to see the album performed live, I finally witnessed Styles in all his rockstar glory on Oct. 4; needless to say, I am even more firmly on the Harry Styles train.
As the lights dimmed, a brief calm spread across the audience in Madison Square Garden. Then, basked in amber light, Styles slowly began to rise from beneath center stage causing the crowd’s shrieks to swell into a mind-numbing roar. Styles took the stage in a sheer, draped Gucci blouse (showing off his iconic butterfly tattoo) and black, polka-dotted trousers.
His confidence shook the room — not for the last time that night — as he launched into his seamless setlist, starting with summery track “Golden.” With relentless energy, Styles ran around the stage giving attention to fans throughout the arena as he crooned hits from Fine Line. However, he also sprinkled in some from his debut solo record like “Carolina” and “Woman,” and even one from his boyband days, “What Makes You Beautiful,” with an added rock twist. He ensured that fans got a taste of their favorite songs, no matter if they’ve stuck with him for ten years or two.
Like many people, I have found great comfort and solace in the lyrics of Styles’ songs this past year, and hearing those same lyrics live felt as if he was talking directly to me, even from my seat in the upper part of the arena. It was so easy to block out the rest of the world and all that was weighing me down. Styles created an environment where everyone could let go of their grievances — tearing your eyes away or getting distracted wasn’t an option — all while screaming and dancing and crying together.
“Your job is to have as much fun as you possibly can,” he told the crowd, a variation of his usual mid-show speech. “If you want to sing, if you want to dance, whatever you want to do, I challenge you to have as much fun as I’m going to have tonight. Please feel free to be whoever it is you want to be in this room tonight.” So yes, I sang, I danced, and I even had multiple out-of-body experiences watching him leave everything on that stage. I remember thinking to myself, “How is this man even real?”
The “treat people with kindness” message clearly resonates with Styles’ fans and was put into practice throughout the night. People complimented each other’s stellar outfits. Friends hugged each other as Styles sang a heartbreaking but glorious performance of “Falling,” which had me in tears. Perched at the end of the walkway, flanked by two members of his band, his sorrowful lyrics and raw vocals echoed throughout the stadium, illuminated by phone flashlights.
It was clear that every person who had made it to MSG on Monday night was there to have a good time, and boy, did Styles deliver. The entire crowd was one family that night. I still feel the echoes of the joy and love I felt in that enormous room, and there is still so much of it left in me days later.
Night 3
I’m not sure what possessed Styles during his final New York City show (for “Love on Tour,” at least. Harryween is two weeks away, as any Harry stan would know), but the energy he was giving off was palpable and electric, more so than I’ve ever seen from him before, including the night one show. From the added “ah-ah-ah” moans in “Carolina” — which I will admit had me clutching the barricade for support — to a frankly criminal note change in “Sunflower Vol. 6,” Styles added so many surprises that it felt like an altogether new performance. (Ha, I told you it wouldn’t be the same show over and over again, Mom and Dad!)
Styles’ “Love on Tour” entrance theme flashed and glowed neon from the JumboTron, and over the shrieks from basically every attendee, I could make out the Charles Bukowski poem sound bite: “To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art.” Styles seems to take the message to heart, as everything he does has style in spades, and his performance that evening was no exception.
Styles, who was a tad more tame in his attire with a black mesh shirt unbuttoned halfway down his midriff and cream trousers, seemed to vibrate with enthusiasm right out of the gate with “Golden,” and his inhibitions appeared to fly out the window. For reference, during “To Be So Lonely,” when the crowd chanted the lyrics, “I’m just an arrogant son of a bitch,” he responded cheekily: “Oh, spicy.” (I did transcend right then.)
A stark contrast to when I saw him at his first solo tour in 2017 when he mostly stuck behind the microphone, Styles has grown leaps and bounds in terms of his stage presence. And it’s no easy feat to command a stage such as the one at “Love on Tour,” which requires endless movement to address the crowd on each side. Styles maintained a sense of sureness, yet there was a sort of urgency underneath his leaps and spins, like it was the last performance he would ever give.
Aside from the more upbeat, joyous anthems like “Adore You” and “Treat People With Kindness,” which had the crowd jumping in tandem to the beat as per his request, there was something more raw and energetic in the emotional ballads like “Falling” and “Cherry.” There was a moment of pure anguish when he let out a scream during the crescendo of “Fine Line”; Styles seemed to be feeling everything a bit deeper on Saturday night, and every corner of the arena seemed to feel it as well.
Maybe it was his love for the venue — he did say Madison Square Garden was one his favorite places to perform in between songs — or perhaps the people in the crowd — he pointed out Columbia Records owner Rob Stringer during an interlude, saying that because of him and the fans, “This is my favorite thing to do.” Styles was, as Anna Cuciurean-Zapan said during the car ride home, “absolutely feral.” He shook the venue to its core (seriously, the building was actually shaking during “Kiwi”). I don’t remember the last time I was surrounded by such an electric atmosphere; I can’t wait to return to it again, come Harryween at the end of the month.
