OneRepublic: Live In Concert World Tour 23/04/2022

Where: SEC Armadillo – Glasgow, Scotland (UK)

Venue Rating: 10/10 (Intimate venue, though some people think it’s an eyesore)

Who I went with: Paul

Where we stayed: Hampton Court Guest House (It was hilarious because it was up the biggest hill ever and the sign advertised “Colour TV” as a main selling point)

How we travelled there: Bus (and then walked from the hotel)

Beverage of choice: Fosters beer! You pay £1 for a plastic glass and you can either keep it or take it back to refill or get your £1 back

SETLIST:

Kids
Good Life
Everybody Loves Me
Stop And Stare
Rescue Me
All The Right Moves
Secrets
Wherever I Go
Love Runs Out
Halo (Beyoncé cover)
Lose Somebody (Kygo cover)
West Coast
Run
Sucker (Jonas Brothers cover)
Sunshine
Apologize
I Lived
Counting Stars (Encore)
Future Looks Good (Encore)
If I Lose Myself (Encore)

I was ridiculously excited for this. We booked it a couple of years ago but it kept getting postponed due to COVID. I think the date changed twice. I was talking four times my regular speed all day and my heart was pounding because OneRepublic is one of my favourite bands and I have been listening to them longer than anyone else. It was an uncharacteristically sunny day in Glasgow, which made the day even better. It didn’t get very hot but the sun was shining. We weren’t in too much of a rush to queue at the venue because it was all seated. Paul got our tickets as soon as the pre-sale went live. I can’t remember what the conditions were for the pre-sale but we managed to be a part of it. I was at work, so begged him to get them. He was working too but had access to a computer! He got the best seats he could in Row C but they were brilliant as the A and B rows were short, so we were off to the right-hand side but didn’t have anyone in front of us except for security guards I tried to avoid making accidental eye contact with. Paul told me one of the staff members was headbanging to the music but I didn’t notice. I’m sad I missed out on that but was too busy hyper-focusing on the band.

I liked the venue a lot and didn’t find any problems with it. The majority of staff were very friendly and clearly knew what they were doing. I was wearing my OneRepublic t-shirt I got on their website and two people stopped to ask me if they were joining the correct queue, as there was another one at The Hydro for Andre Rieu. I guess my t-shirt is more subtle than I realised. A woman jokingly asked security if this was the queue for One Direction and her question threw him for a second before he laughed and said, “You’re about five years too late!” I went straight to the merch stall and splashed £95 on the tour t-shirt and ‘Human’ hoodie. I would have bought more but thought I should try and control myself a little. The prices were a bit higher than they would be for UK bands as they had to be imported from the US but I didn’t care about that.

The first opening act was Dan Caplin, though his name was nowhere to be seen. Usually the support acts have their names on the screen behind them, so we know who they are. He sang a couple of songs I hear a lot on the radio at work – ‘These Days’ and ‘Paradise’. I am not a huge fan of either but he has clearly had a lot of success with them and it was fun to put a face to the music. It was also good to hear them live, as they sounded different from the studio versions. A lot of new songs sound over-produced to me and sometimes that can give me a headache – if there’s too much auto-tune etc. But that seems to be the done thing at the moment and people seem happy to listen to songs like that. He was struggling to engage with the crowd but it was probably because of his lack of introduction. I don’t like when musicians try and encourage you to sing along, especially to songs you may not know because you didn’t come to the event to hear them but he did his best. Greg Pearson came on next and we enjoyed him a lot more. Paul was interested in how he looped the music and played it back throughout his songs. He was funny too, apologising to the Glasgow crowd for being from Edinburgh. We have listened to him a lot more since. He doesn’t have a lot of original material but all of his songs are catchy and of a high standard. I was getting restless by this s point, as I don’t like when there is more than one opening act. I think these two were well chosen and fit OneRepublic’s style reasonably well. It’s nice when bands choose local musicians to open for them too. My eyes started watering before OneRepublic came on stage because I’ve been in love with them since I was fifteen. The whole thing seemed to pass too quickly. They had less songs than other concerts I’ve been to but that’s probably because Ryan Tedder chats to the crowd so much. He is really funny, so I don’t mind. He had us laughing out loud a few times, like when he called the venue “A giant mental armadillo”. We stood up after ‘Kids’ finished and the first set of confetti cannons went off but I never know what to do at seated gigs, especially if you are at the front like we were. Standing up meant that everyone behind us had to stand too but it just felt disrespectful to remain seated after such a great performance. RT said he never drinks on tour but they went to a whisky distillery earlier that day. They asked him how long he had to sample the drinks before the show and he said “All day!” before checking his watch and correcting himself, “Twenty minutes!” He mentioned how beautiful a day it was but how the entire band were running around in hoodies since they still felt the cold, being used to a lot hotter weather than this in California. It was only about sixteen degrees and it was significantly cooler in the shade. He praised Scottish women for managing to go out in shorts and t-shirts and joked about how our skin must have stopped working. It is so true that as soon as we get a reasonably warm day everyone goes out in their summer clothes. I suppose it’s not worth having them if you never get a chance to show them off.

He joked about how Scottish people drink a lot and asked us to “pretend” we are all drunk and having a good time, knowing 90% of the crowd were most likely already drinking. He also belted out the lyrics to ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston when preparing to sing ‘Halo’ (which he wrote for Beyonce) to trick us. He said, “If I wrote that… I love you guys but I would be on a yacht. I wouldn’t be here!” He builds up to playing ‘Halo’, talking about how he has written dozens of songs for other musicians throughout the years in between OneRepublic songs. Whitney Houston is not a celebrity he was written a song for, however! Not yet, anyway. He also talked about how lots of Scottish people are amazing songwriters. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of great Scottish musicians. He talked about how he called up Lewis Capaldi to see if he was in Glasgow at the moment but he was busy in London. He also spoke about Dua Lipa performing at The Hydro the following night but not a lot of people seemed to be aware of that fact, as he didn’t get much of a response. He asked us to sing ‘Apologize’ and split the venue into three parts to create a choir. I didn’t sing, although I felt guilty for not being brave enough to participate.

At the end of the show, he sang their biggest hit ‘Counting Stars’, jumping off the stage and running up to the second and third levels of The Armadillo – still singing perfectly in tune. He high-fived/fist bumped people in the first couple of rows but missed us out because he only went from the middle of the stage to the left-hand side. We were disappointed by that and so was the woman next to us, as we were close enough to the front to interact with him. Paul said it looked like he considered coming back our way at the end but he had no way of getting back up on to the stage. I think he was just running out of time, after spending so long weaving in and out of people in the higher levels. It was funny watching from the stage since we couldn’t see him, just people’s phones following him. He apparently bought everyone a beer in the balconies for hanging out up there. I was a little jealous, as they were probably the last people to buy tickets. But it’s fine… I’m fine. My favourite performances of the night were ‘I Lived’ and ‘Halo’. I usually find I prefer different songs live to my typical favourites. I knew I would find ‘Halo’ mesmerising and was highly anticipating it because he sings it so gorgeously and it also shows off his piano skills. I used to listen to that song all of the time before I even knew it was written by RT. I think I enjoyed ‘I Lived’ so much because he explained he wrote the song for his son, after writing so many songs for others – he wanted to write one for him. He also talked about a scary experience they had in Alaska (I think he said) where they thought their plane was going to crash and it made them appreciate life more. I was also a huge fan of the pretty blue microphone they used for ‘West Coast’. I am so glad we got to hear that live, as it is one of my favourites of theirs. I joked with Paul I would walk out in anger if they didn’t perform it. Of course, it would be the end of the show by the time I knew that anyway. I wasn’t sure if they would include it as it was only released a couple of months before the show. It got very theatrical right at the end when they brought out the massive drums for ‘Future Looks Good’, which transitioned into ‘If I Lose Myself’. I think they normally end with that song. I can’t wait to see them again as soon as I am able. I am so happy Paul is now a big fan of them too, as we don’t normally share music taste. We both had an incredible experience and think they will be very difficult for anyone to beat.

We watched the live-stream of their show in Poland a few weeks later, thanks to Live Nation. They took out ‘Everybody Loves Me’ and ‘All The Right Moves’, replacing them with a short medley of songs RT has written for other musicians. I think we got the superior set list as it was incredible to hear songs from their first albums which they don’t play very often. I used to listen to those two songs all of the time. I don’t know whether they made the change because RT came down with laryngitis and had to cancel a few of their shows, or if they just felt like mixing things up. He drank tea throughout the live-stream and hilariously called it “Polish tea”, which people in Poland wouldn’t do as it is just tea to them. He was still recovering from laryngitis throughout this performance, not that you could tell because he sang each song perfectly and still showed off his incredible vocal range during ‘Halo’. We managed to save the live-stream and it acts as a reminder of the first night we saw them since the set-up and songs were very similar. I kind of wish we went to the Manchester and London shows too but I think that would have detracted from the precious memories of this night. Some fans also waited outside the venue to meet the band afterwards and doing such a thing never even crossed my mind. I think it would have been a good idea, as I don’t know if we will get the chance to do that again. I would hate to bother them, if they were trying to sneak out and get to their next destination. I’m impatiently waiting for them to announce their next tour, so I can snap up tickets and try to get to the front again.

GALLERY: