Harry Types performs the primary night time of his Madison Sq. Backyard Residency on Aug. 20, 2022.
Lloyd Wakefield
Lately, Madison Sq. Backyard is Billy Joel’s home. New York’s resident “Piano Man” has just about owned the Massive Apple area since he began his month-to-month residency there in Jan. 2014.
However on Saturday night time, MSG was reworked into “Harry’s Home,” as Harry Types introduced his Love on Tour 2022 trek to the long-lasting venue for the primary of 15 — sure, 15! — sold-out concert events that may run via Sept. 21.
In impact, the 28-year-old pop phenomenon is having his personal residency on the world’s most well-known area, doing extra exhibits in only one month than Joel would do in a 12 months.
And naturally, the pop universe has mainly been Harry’s world since he dropped his third solo album, “Harry’s Home,” in Could, celebrating it with a release-day live performance on the new UBS Enviornment in Lengthy Island. However he managed to show MSG into an intimate room the place each considered one of his screaming and squealing followers — decked out in feather boas, sequins and glitter, regardless of the gender — felt seen and heard in a communal secure house.
“Good night, New York. My identify is Harry,” stated the ridiculously charming celebrity — who clearly wanted no introduction — to considered one of many deafening roars. “Please be at liberty to be who you all the time needed to be on this room tonight.”
In that second, you would really feel the Cult of Harry.
He could also be a millennial heartthrob, however he's bringing again the peace and free love vibes of the ’60s. Therein lies the ability of Types, who just isn't the very best singer, not the very best musician, and definitely not the very best dancer. However he can carry and personal the stage with a minimal quantity of the everyday manufacturing bells and whistles — no backup dancers obligatory — required for an area present.
That was obvious from the second he got here out bounding and bopping throughout the stage — along with his forever-floppy hair — to “Daydreaming,” the opener that is likely one of the tracks from the superb “Harry’s Home” that dominated his setlist.
Perpetually skipping throughout the in-the-round stage — the higher for him to work all 4 sides of the Backyard along with his delightfully dorky dance strikes — his infectious giddiness was plain.
However there was additionally extra musical sophistication than you may need anticipated from the One Path alum, who paid homage to his former boy band by transforming and reenergizing their greatest hit, “What Makes You Stunning.” He deepened the funk of his first Grammy-winning hit “Watermelon Sugar” and took the smooth-cruising “Late Evening Speaking” — his present single — into Steely Dan territory.
And there was even a sly little bit of the Village Folks’s “Y.M.C.A.” — which lots of the younger viewers most likely didn’t get — earlier than he swaggered into the horned-up sexiness of “Music for a Sushi Restaurant.”
But it surely was Types’ No. 1 smash “As It Was” — which has topped the charts for 10 weeks this 12 months — that had the Backyard levitating from the collective pogoing taking place throughout.
In the course of Types’ residency — with British alt-R&B artist Blood Orange opening for all 15 concert events — the Backyard will return to being Billy’s home when Joel takes again over for a live performance on Wednesday. However on Saturday night time —and for 14 extra nights to come back — MSG all belonged to Harry.
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