Ellie Goulding in Sydney 7th October 2016

Everyone has that one show they went to that they will forever love. It’s a show that stuck out in their mind. It may have been their first concert, or it was simply one that was truly incredible. Like an amazing first date, it was the show that set the benchmark for all future shows.

A few years ago I had a ticket to Taylor Swift’s Red Tour in Auckland. This was just as she was taking the world by storm. I decided I cared about money more than I did seeing Taylor live at Vector Arena.

Well, last year, following the release of 1989, named after her birth year, I decided I cared more about the experience, so I purchased a ticket to Taylor Swift’s Sydney ANZ Stadium tour. I almost didn’t go to the show because I had lost my job just two days before. Like Taylor though, I decided to Shake it Off, and it was a truly incredible show. It was a 5/5 star show, or more, if that’s possible. You get the gist. It was one of those shows, that you will remember as being in the crowd. It was Gen Y’s Madonna basically.

Well, you can imagine that when I saw the next show, I was going to have high expectations following that show.

My next show was of course one of her show biz friends, Ellie Goulding to support her album Delirium which was released in November of last year. It wouldn’t matter who was playing, they were going to have a tough time going out after Taylor Swift. She’d set an incredibly high benchmark.

Because I’m a workaholic, I arrived at the smaller Qudos Arena just after 7:30pm and grabbed my seat. The support act, Australian artist, Asta was painful to listen to. She’d been selected after, UK Electropop trio, Years and Years had pulled out. Asta has been singing for a few years, however despite that, the Hobart singer has not charted beyond 66 in the ARIAs. When you see her live you’ll understand why, but don’t. She has no charisma and doesn’t know how to engage a crowd.

She was the type of artist that you would walk out of a show, or bar if that’s where you were seeing her play. She doesn’t have the talent to support someone like Ellie Goulding.

Like all concerts, there was a break between Asta and Ellie Goulding. The arena, which has a capacity of 21,000 was only half full. The good thing about this though was that if you wanted to get a better seat you could, and so I did.

Ellie started her set with Aftertaste. Her set was minimalist with three back up singers and about eight dancers throughout the course of the show. It was a very low key show. The type that you might see in a local pub. It was very much about the songs, not the fancy staging and performing.

Singing fan favourites like Outside, and I Need Your Love, Ellie gained cheers from the crowd, however, for the most part, it was a very quiet and subdued crowd. That might have been because of the supporting artist failing to engage and warm the audience up.

One thing Ellie can’t be accused of is lip syncing because she sings live for the entire show, and even gets glasses of water, or alcohol during the show, giving her concert a very pub like feel.

She picked up her guitar for You My Everything, and Devotion, which added emotion to the song.

Another crowd pleaser was her latest track which features on the Bridget Jones Diary soundtrack, Still Falling For You, followed by one of Ellie’s favourites, which she introduced with a story about her best friend. It was of course Army, which she sung in a long white gown, reminiscent of a wedding dress.

The next tracks were fillers. When she came to the last track, Burn, she joked about how people go to shows and watch through a lens. She said she couldn’t understand it because she was there in person. It was something to consider however that didn’t stop people still filming on their phones or iPads.

The crowd went silent when Ellie left the stage for five minutes before returning for the encore, which every performer has to do. The encore was the best part of the show as they often are. She sung, Anything Could Happen before once again talking to the crowd and asking us to put our phones away and live in the moment and closing on Love me Like You Do which was excellent.

She finished her set by thanking the crowd and leaving in a stream of confetti.

For me, anyone who came after Taylor Swift was going to have a tough show and was going to have to really impress. One great thing about Ellie is she does seem like a genuinely nice person, but more than that, she actually sings live, and her shows have a pub like environment despite her being an international superstar.

Overall 3.25 stars.

The show would have been better had she had video screens so that people who weren’t right by the stage could get a better view. The next show I'm attending is Australian Artist Delta Goodrem next month. I wonder how she will compare.