I had the extreme pleasure of going to see Harry Styles on his first solo tour on September, 26th at the Chicago Theatre. Let me start this off by saying that I am probably one of the biggest One Direction fans on the planet. I’ve been an avid fan since late 2012 and have watched the members grow up; I’ve also lived through the past 656 days since they started their hiatus and solo projects. So when I heard that Harry was releasing an album and going on tour, I started freaking out. Let’s just say the 1D drought has been more difficult than previously anticipated.
Tickets for his tour went on sale in May of this year and I knew they’d be in high demand. As each time zone went live with tickets on sale, they kept selling out as soon as people refreshed the page; I was pretty terrified that I wouldn’t even get to have a chance to find tickets. I enlisted three friends to help me at 10 am when they went on sale and we all refreshed Ticketmaster and waited for tickets to pop up. Three of us got messages saying they were already sold out, except for one of my friends who found some in the back of the venue. As soon as I saw the confirmation page pop up, I screamed a lot and cried a little bit, to be honest.
Fast forward to this past Tuesday, my friend and I had driven downtown and were waiting outside the Chicago Theatre ready to have an unbelievable experience with one of our favorite artists. I have a fan account on Twitter and I met up with some mutuals of mine and we all talked about how excited and proud we were. The last time Harry had been in Chicago, he and the other members of One Direction were playing a sold-out stadium show at Soldier Field to 60,000+ people. This tour was different, that night he’d be performing in a more intimate way; the Chicago Theatre’s capacity was only 3,600 people.
Once my friend and I were inside, we went straight up to the merch stand and I personally dropped $145 total, on a sweater, shirt, pin, and moleskin notebook. All of Harry’s merch had the phrase, “Treat people with kindness” emblazoned across it and it just reminded me how wonderful and thoughtful of an artist he is. He constantly promotes a narrative of love, equality, and overall kindheartedness so it was so nice to see such a beautiful message all over the merchandise associated with him.
My friend and I made our way to our seats and we were up in the balcony in the back but we didn’t even care, we were there. The band opening for him, MUNA, was an amazing girl band whose lead singer was born in Chicago. They pumped up the crowd for Harry and then we waited half an hour for him to take the stage.
At 9, the lights went down and Harry’s silhouette appeared from behind a pink, floral sheet draped in front of the stage. He started playing the beginning chords of “Ever Since New York” and I instantly started crying. It had been over 2 years since I last heard his voice live and I had missed him more than I knew. He was wearing a beautiful green/blue/pink suit, most likely Gucci, and he looked incredible in it. He sang “Two Ghosts” and “Carolina” and said hi to us, he was just so happy to be there. Then he threw it back with a One Direction classic, “Stockholm Syndrome” and the crowd went wild. He played every song from his album for us, as well as some covers. He also took a minute to talk to us about deep dish pizza and try to decipher what restaurants were our favorites. After playing some more songs from his album, and before his encore, he played “What Makes You Beautiful” and the crowd lost it, myself included. Hearing these old bops made the concert for me; it just really solidified the fact that Harry still loves those songs that rocketed him to fame.
He played 3 more songs for his encore and then proceeded to tell us that he had truly missed us so much which prompted, even more, tears from me. When I say I’ve never cried more at a concert, I’m not kidding. I have loved Harry, and the other members of One Direction, for years and I’ve watched them grow into the talented artists they’ve become. I was just filled with a sense of overwhelming pride the entire night and that resulted in an ugly crying extravaganza.
Watching him leave the stage that night was so bittersweet; I was incredibly sad that the night was over, but currently, I already have tickets for his 2018 tour at the United Center. He put on such a fantastic show and he continues to impress me every single time I see him live. It wasn’t a One Direction concert, but for now, I think these solo tours will be as close as I get. And as long as I always have a concert to look forward to, I’m a happy camper. So here’s to the 275 days until I see him again; see you soon H.