Ed Sheeran blows roof off ACC

The sold-out crowd at the Air Canada Centre Friday night was basically told how it was going to go once headliner Ed Sheeran hit the stage for the first of two weekend shows at the venue.

"He's going to come out here with just a guitar and a pedal and blow the roof off the place," said opener James Blunt, best know for his 2004 mega-hit You're Beautiful.

From one Brit hit-maker to another, that's kind of how it went.

Sheeran, a one man band on both acoustic and electric guitar who uses loop pedals to record his vocals and guitar live to create backing rhythm tracks, kicked off the Canadian leg of his latest world tour with Castle On The Hill from his 2017 third album, ÷ (divide).

The sound was clear and crisp but it was the eye-popping visuals that made the difference this time out for arguably the biggest male pop star in England right now with a trio of hit albums since 2011.

Sheeran played in front of a tall, thin curved screen that resembled a tower-like space ship onto which multiple close-ups of his face, heavily tattooed arms, and striking graphics were projected all night.

Honestly, the singer-songwriter-guitarist, who is a pleasant if earnest presence, didn't have to do much to send fans of all types, young to older women, couples and even a few ultra-vocal male super-fans, into screaming fits.

Song highlights came from all three of his albums — The A Team, Photograph, Thinking Out Loud, Sing, Shape of You and You Need Me, I Don't Need You — plus some notable covers like Feeling Good which led into his The Hobbit soundtrack song, I See Fire, and the Justin Bieber track, Love Yourself, which he co-wrote and went over well with the Canadian crowd.

Certainly Sheeran has come a long way since BFF Taylor Swift had him on her 2012 album, the aptly-titled Red, and brought him along as her opening act on her 2013 tour supporting that disc.

Hit after hit and numerous awards, including several Grammys, later, Sheeran just announced he quit reading Twitter to avoid trolls, and his intentions to make a biopic about his life whose questionable tone he described as "8 Mile meets Notting Hill."

Blunt, meanwhile, put on a decent opening 40-minute set with his four-piece band, handling both acoustic guitar and piano.

He was perfectly comfortable with the fact the crowd hadn't come to see him but rather his friend Sheeran . who he taught to ski, "and he taught me to write songs."

Naturally, You're Beautiful, went over the biggest as Blunt joked: "I believe many of you were conceived to this song."

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SET LIST

Castle on the Hill

Eraser

The A Team

Don't / New Man

Dive

Bloodstream

Happier

Galway Girl

Feeling Good / I See Fire

Love Yourself (Justin Bieber cover)

Photograph

Perfect

Nancy Mulligan

Thinking Out Loud

Sing

ENCORE

Shape of You

You Need Me, I Don't Need You 

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