One Direction Comerica Theatre Sunday, June 10, 2012
See also: One Direction: Beautiful Lyrics Meet Breathtaking Photos
See also: Can You Explain One Direction? No, Seriously
Having a crush as a tween girl is sort of like being addicted to drugs: only the object of your affection will satiate you and being around it can induce exhilaration and hysteria. The young ladies who filled up a sold-out Comerica Theatre for One Direction last night were a crazed group, looking to get their fix of five guys who've inspired obsession and longing for about a year now in the States.
See our full One Direction slideshow.
It didn't take much for One Direction to please the crowd enough to throw underwear on stage. They didn't have to dance, they didn't have to play instruments, and they could even tell the fans they were sweaty and smelled bad (blame the throngs for standing in the heat all day before the show) -- the shrieking audience continued to scream with delight every time a member merely did as much as move.
Their performance was reminiscent of the days of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, only this time, instead of packing an arena and performing choreography and aerial stunts, the guys in 1D merely needed to change outfits, walk around, and make dumb jokes with those charming accents. The concert was surprisingly bare bones for a group that's sold 700,000 albums in the United States. The band featured only a drummer, a keyboardist, and two guitarists, and three video screens showed off simple backgrounds as the guys sang -- this show was clearly about One Direction's voices, with some silly comments thrown in, as well.
The group performed most of its songs from its debut album, Up All Night, but with only an album's worth of songs, you're going to get filler. That's where covers came in, as well as a segment where the band read audience Tweets, which prompted them to show off their American accents, talk about pranks they've pulled on each other and play a game of leap frog on-stage (see video). The Twitter part not only ensured more followers on the social network, it also served to show the 1D guys are oh-so-funny and even more irresistible.
Some cheesy videos of the guys heading to the beach, mock-attending college, and hanging out together in a cabin (and in bed together) ran throughout the show. The videos really had nothing to do with the music, just with showing off how tight the fivesome is -- they really love to get physical with each other. The girls in the crowd probably didn't appreciate the clips featuring laughing girls, but other females on display wasn't the only way 1D showed they're not just puppets for their fans. They also threw in a cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" (which mentions "lovers undercover"), as well as made a dick joke and sang about being naked on a floor in a cover of Natalie Imrbuglia's "Torn." Though most of the show was G-rated, it was moments like this that gave people a glimpse into the mature route the band might take in the future.
For now, though, it was evident many of the fans seemed to believe Liam, Niall, Zayn, Harry and Louis might actually become theirs some day. And when you're under the influence (in this case, of lust), that's a pretty positive state to be in.
Personal Bias: I've been a sucker for boy bands since I myself was a tween girl.
The Crowd: 99 percent young girls under the age of 15.
Seen in the crowd: A girl in front of me kept flipping her hair when 1D sang, "The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed" during "What Makes You Beautiful."
Random Notebook Dump: I was amazed at the amount of people without tickets who hung out at the theater before and after the show -- there had to have been hundreds of parents and their girls who hoped to get a glimpse of the band.
Set List:
Na Na Na
Stand Up
I Wish
I Gotta Feeling/Stereo Hearts/Valerie/Torn (medley of covers)
Moments
Gotta Be You
More Than This
Up All Night
Tell Me a Lie
Everything About You
Use Somebody (cover)
One Thing
Save You Tonight
What Makes You Beautiful
ENCORE:
I Want
See more One Direction photos and video from the show on the next page.
See our full One Direction slideshow.
