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Flicker Sessions - Niall Horan - Nashville, Tennessee - November 13, 2017


Wow let's talk about another insanely late review of a show (and that super washed out picture above) shall we? I wanted to pop my opinion of Niall Horan's Flicker Sessions up on here since I will be attending his show in Nashville on July 23 for the Flicker World Tour. Needless to say I really look forward to comparing my experiences of the shows. I have also figured out a couple tricks for film, and photos at concerts since this one so hopefully my photos will be a little bit better!

If you are unfamiliar, Niall released his album in late October which was a few weeks before my show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. He had been playing the album in its entirety during the previous shows, so the crowds in the first venues were able to hear the songs live for the first time aside from the singles that had been released, 'This Town', 'Slow Hands', and 'Too Much To Ask' and the cover of 'Fool's Gold'. By the time the tour made it to Nashville, videos of all the songs live had been uploaded onto YouTube, and thankfully the album had been released. Since I had attended Harry's show at the Ryman weeks prior, I assumed that this show was going to be similar in regards to the intensity of the crowd singing/shouting the lyrics; however, we were pleasantly surprised that everyone was incredibly respectful. The only songs I found that the crowd really shouted the lyrics were 'This Town' and the more appropriate jam 'Slow Hands'.

I'm going to start this review by talking about the process of purchasing the tickets. Just like the process for the Harry Styles show, Ticketmaster sent out a process for the Verified Fan. All I had to do was enter my details, and which show I was planning on getting tickets for. After that I received my confirmation email, and got the code on the morning that tickets went on sale. The tickets for this show went on sale at 10 A.M. at the venue's local time, and much like the last time I had both my phone and my computer running in order to score the tickets. My computer wouldn't load any of the ticket options; however, so I had to go through the Ticketmaster app on my phone. The only ticket options that would show for me were the "obstructed view" tickets, but I managed to grab two (the maximum number for purchase per code). When they said "obstructed view" they really weren't kidding. The photo on the right was the view from Jon's seat. As you can see he had two poles in his view, and he was kind enough to give me the better of the two seats, so I had a clear view up the aisle to center stage. Also luckily a few people didn't show up in our row, so he was able to shuffle around and find a clearer view, but that old saying of "there's not a bad seat in the Ryman" definitely isn't the truth.

I was particularly excited for Niall's opener, Gavin James. I can still recall the exact moment that I heard Gavin for the first time. I was driving home from work on a particularly sunny afternoon with the windows down while I listened to Niall's Spotify playlist. I vivdly recall the way his voice put me back in my seat, and brought chills to my arms as I listened to him belt out '22' from his Live at Whelans album. Since I was already the most familiar with Gavin's voice from the live album I already knew what to expect going into this show; however, his sense of humor was a wonderful surprise.

Gavin's setlist for Nashville (in the photo above from his Instagram page) was completely picked by Niall, and I can honestly say that I am thrilled that this was the result. Gavin told a quick story during his set about how that situation came to be. I can't fully remember the details, but from what I can recall Horan insisted that he wanted to pick a setlist for Gavin somewhere on the tour, and it just happened to turn up at the Ryman. The songs that were included in his set included '22', the first song I heard from the Irish singer, along with several of his other songs that appear on Horan's Spotify playlist. The fourth song in his set was his latest release (at the time) 'Hearts on Fire' which was released around the same time as Horan's album.

Be sure to turn up the volume when you watch the video above. Gavin asked the crowd to be as quiet as possible as he stepped away from the microphone to perform one song from the set which was incredible live. If you have ever attended a show at the Ryman you will know that the floors of the floors under the pews are old hardwood. In the silence of the crowd it was stunning to hear the combination of Gavin's voice and the creaking of those old floors.

At the moment Gavin doesn't have any dates announced for the United States; however, if you are in Brazil he has a few dates at the beginning of May before he tours around Europe through the summer. If you are interested in catching any of those dates, you can see those on his website.

Now let's talk about the man of the show, Niall Horan. If you are unfamiliar, Niall came from the band One Direction along with Harry Styles who I had the pleasure of seeing in late September (you can see the review of that show here). As I have mentioned previously, Niall's solo debut album was released just before our show, so I had a chance to hear the songs in their studio version prior to attending the show. However, I made myself avoid as many of the videos that were posted from the previous shows as I could. I wanted to gather my own thoughts and opinions on these songs in their live versions in person. To me, there is nothing better than a live show to really showcase an artist's talent, especially when you end up in small venues like the Ryman. With all of that said Niall did not disappoint, which is quite a good thing because I purchased my tickets for the Flicker World Tour long before this show at the Ryman.

As I previously mentioned, I went into this show fully anticipating the crowd to be just like they had been at Harry's show, but I was definitely surprised to find that the crowd was much different to the previously mentioned show. For Harry's show my friends and I had gone to dinner prior to going to the venue, and it was no different for Niall's show. We showed up to the Ryman about an hour before doors, and for Harry's show the crowd was lined up around the block. You can imagine my surprise that when we showed up for Naill's show that this wasn't the case. We showed up at the same time and the lines were rather short, and the energy of the crowd already seemed a lot different. Everyone was obviously excited; however, it was definitely a different atmosphere which begins with Niall's brand of music. While his tunes still technically fall under the category of 'pop', the soft rock of the tunes definitely lend for a calmer atmosphere than Harry's high energy rock.

Let's talk about the setlist for a second, shall we? Niall opened his set with 'The Tide' which was a perfect opening song, in my opinion. The song is definitely a great sing along with a fantastic beat, but the best part is the opening to the song has the lyric 'Oh no, Get ready' . You can't open with a much better lyric, right? It seems this year he has been opening with On The Loose, which is his most current single, which he was ending the main part of his set with during the Sessions. As you can see he played his solo album in it's entirety, with the addition of a cover of a One Direction song, 'Fool's Gold'. Through the show Niall didn't have nearly the same level of crowd interaction that Harry did; however, I was fully expecting that since Harry has a next level of interaction that occurs through the entirety of his set, including in the middle of a song. In between songs, Niall mostly told short stories about the song, where appropriate, or would introduce various people that were at the show.

Prior to 'Flicker', the title track of the entire album, I vividly recall Niall speaking into the microphone in a soft voice introducing the song. He told the crowd that it was the song that changed the direction of the album, and made it the album that we hear today. He quickly thanked Jaquire King (the producer for several of the songs on the album), who was in attendance, and then asked the crowd to be as quiet as possible for the duration of the song. Oh how I wish I could have bottled that part of the show up and saved it forever. That song has always been my favorite on the album, it truly brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it. The emotion that is conveyed is so raw, and the way it was recorded captured that emotion well. Hearing the song in the quiet of that old auditorium was something that is almost indescribable. The sound of that acoustic guitar ringing through the vast room with the creaking of the old wooden floors and the occasional creak of a pew was something I will never forget. You will just have to believe me when I tell you about the wooden floors creaking, it's certainly something that didn't pick up in my video but you can hear how quiet it was in the room.

As you can see he followed 'Flicker' with another quite sad song 'Too Much To Ask' which flowed quite well before flowing back out of the sad, slow songs as we moved on to the end of his main set. Like I previously mentioned, he wrapped up the main portion of his set with 'On The Loose' which definitely has a Fleetwood Mac influence in the feel of the song, along with some of the guitar riffs in the solo toward the end of the song.

For the encore, Horan returned to the stage alone to perform the cover of 'Fool's Gold' which he did quite well, and he was definitely assisted by the crowd singing right along with him. He didn't really alter the song from its original version. Toward the end of the song. he took the opportunity to play with the crowd a bit as he stepped to the front of the stage after he asked everyone to be as quiet as possible, and he sang the first note of the chorus before letting the crowd sing it out. I had been seeing clips of this prior to our show, and you can see the joy on his face listening to every crowd across the world beautifully sing that song back to him. As the crowd sang this part of the song, the band returned to the stage and we moved straight from the end of 'Fool's Gold' right into 'Slow Hands', the only song in the set that Niall was without his guitar. He owned the stage as he strutted from one side to the other interacting with the fans in the front of the stage by grabbing hands as he moved along. The song was quite memorable along with 'On My Own', the song he closed the show with. The upbeat song was a fantastic one to close the night with and it definitely emphasized Horan's Irish roots with the fun Irish rock feel to the song leaving us on a massive high note.

Something I failed to mention above that I really enjoyed about Niall's show, and the entirety of the Flicker Sessions, was the fact that most of his openers were Irish musicians. I personally think this was a fantastic way to honor his roots, and his country while promoting some artists that we may have not heard of. However, if you ever listen to Horan's playlist on Spotify you will recognize most of the artists he had opening for him. Wild Youth, Picture This, and Gavin James are all Irish musicians that took over most of the tour, while Corey Harper took two of the dates.

Like I mentioned above, I took a chance (chonce if you are a One Direction fan) and purchased tickets for the Flicker World Tour date before I even attended the Sessions, so I am extremely pleased that this show turned out as fantastic as it did. To be completely honest, I wasn't going to buy the ticket; however, I saw that Maren Morris was opening for him during the US leg of the world tour and I decided that it would be worth it. Niall's show was fantastic, but I really wanted to wait until he had more new music out to see him again. I know he is performing at least one new song on the world tour, along with several covers so the show will be different but we will see just how different it is. However, I don't know that it will ever top the special feeling I got from seeing such a massive artist in this small of a venue with those lovely old floors creaking away during the quiet of 'Flicker'.

Let me know if you are going to the Nashville show this summer! I would love to meet you! As for everyone else, I'm going to get better about posting these reviews faster I promise, so look forward to my comparison of the Flicker Sessions and the Flicker World Tour coming this summer!

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