Welcome to the first concert review of 2022!   This is one of my most anticipated shows and spoiler it did not disappoint!  If you have been around here for a minute you will know that this is the third member of One Direction that I have seen live at the Ryman Auditorium as solo artists.  

The Louis Tomlinson World Tour was announced in the late fall of 2019 and I bought my two tickets during the presale.   As you can see from the photo above, my tickets were in the far corner of the balcony of the Ryman, and honestly those were the only tickets available when I was making my purchase.   The original show date was in June of 2020, but as we all know, the shows from 2020 were postponed and cancelled.   This particular tour was rescheduled a couple times and postponed for a while due to COVID restrictions, but this date finally was announced and stuck.   

Let's talk a little about getting into the show, shall we?   The Ryman is always one of my favorite venues to catch a show.   It's typically an easy venue to find parking and get in and out of, not to mention the history of the venue.  We noticed that the line to get in the doors for the venue were pretty long when we arrived, so instead of standing in the cold we decided to pop into the new food hall across the street at 5th and Broadway and keep an eye on the line moving.   The line did move fairly quickly, and I have no idea what time everyone started lining up, but knowing the dedication of the One Direction fans I'm sure many of them had been outside the venue for hours prior to the doors opening. 

 
The one nice thing about the Ryman is that it is entirely seated, so you really don't need to show up early to shows in order to get a good spot for general admission.   We definitely took advantage of this situation and waited until we couldn't see the line from the window at 5th and Broadway before we made our way over to the venue.  Overall getting in was just as easy as it was at Bridgestone for Love on Tour, just a quick proof of vaccine status or the negative test and the normal scan of the mobile tickets.   Once inside it was a little bit of a different story.   The merch stands were upstairs in the lobby, so the line for that was stretching into the auditorium and snaking back down the stairs which was causing a back up for people trying to get to the balcony seating; however, we made our way in and to our seats with little problems.  

The openers for the US leg of the tour is Sun Room which is a four piece ensemble of Southern California rock group that embodies the feeling of a group of surfers making fantastic music in their garage.   According to a couple other articles I have read while digging for information on this band, it seems Sun Room was formed within the few years; however, I can say that it felt like this group had been together for much longer.  

Despite being a fairly new band, Sun Room has over 300k monthly listeners on Spotify with their most listened to song being Sol Del Sur.  This four piece band has had a song featured on Outer Banks, a Netflix drama series, and on the show's Spotify playlists.  

The four piece band consists of Gibby Anderson, drummer, Ashton Minnich, guitarist, Max Pinamonti, bassist, and Luke Asgain, lead singer/rhythm guitarist.   As you can see from the photo to the right, the band didn't have any fancy lighting which really accented the garage rock band.  The group definitely had a good group of fans dancing in the middle of the room, and quickly had everyone on their feet while they showcased their fun loving summer sound.   

I genuinely loved the sound of Sun Room and the charisma of the group, and they were an interesting addition to this show.   I can't wait to see where these guys go in the future!   Sun Room will be on tour with Louis Through March 13 before taking off on a European tour with Inhaler in April. 

Louis and his band took the stage at 9 after a quick stage setup to a room full of energy.   The casual swagger that Louis took the stage with was very reminiscent of his former bandmate, Niall Horan.   It always floors me a little bit when these mega stars take the stage at a small venue, like the Ryman, when they are used to playing stadiums.  There is just something that is truly special about watching them interact with everyone in the room and knowing that they can see the back of the room.

Louis started the 90 minute set with We Made It, which felt like a fitting intro for a show that had to be rescheduled a few times due to the pandemic.   His set included almost all of the fantastic pop songs form his debut album, Walls, along with three One Direction songs that had the crowd singing along as loud as possible.  

Personally, I loved the three One Direction songs in the set.  It is always a treat to see how the boys make the old group songs fit their individual styles.   In addition to the three One Direction covers, Louis and his band played 7 by Catfish and the Bottlemen and Beautiful War by Kings of Leon.    

Let's take a moment to talk about the band, shall we?   His backing band is a five piece band with Michael Blackwell on lead guitar.   Michael was really the only band member I could see from my seat other than Louis, and he was fantastic!  According to LTHQ, Michael Blackwell previously played guitar for Lewis Capaldi and Amber Run.  The band also consists of Steve Durham on drums, Matt Dinnadge on bass, Isaac Anderson on guitars, and Zak Craner on keys.  There was one point where Louis left the stage and the band kept playing and it really brought the attention to how talented this band really is.  

Louis has some of my favorite songs of the last few years, I love the lyrics and the choices made in his songs.  I loved some of the few Brit-Pop bands that made it to the states growing up, so I love that he's bringing that sound back.   Not to mention, you know a songwriter really has something special when they can make a room feel the emotions, and Louis can do just that.   He had the room hugging, and wiping tears away with his emotional song, Two of Us.

Speaking of the crowd, it is always fun to see the fan projects that happen at the shows of these One Direction boys.   Before the show started there were little sandwich baggies passed around the sections that had a little piece of colored paper and a note.   During Beautiful War and Only The Brave the crowd lit up a rainbow with their phone lights and tiny pieces of paper.  

It goes without saying that Louis and his band absolutely rocked this show, and it's going to be a highlight show for me for a long time to come.   It's going to be interesting to see what Louis does as a solo artist.   I don't know that I see him doing arena shows on his own, but you never know.    If you have a chance to catch Louis on this tour, I would highly recommend!   If not you can catch his debut album, Walls, streaming everywhere!