Two hours of high-pitched squeals. That’s what you get when you go to a One Direction show.
Last night (July 2) at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the British boy band had the crowd screaming at decibels way beyond what’s considered healthy. Fifteen minutes before the show started, a mere mention of their name caused turned the crowd up to 11. The trailer for their upcoming Morgan Spurlock-directed documentary, This Is Us (out August 30), played on the two screens surrounding the main stage. Everyone screamed and screamed and screamed. Oh yeah, and then they screamed some more. Raising their pitch ever so slightly when their favorite member popped onscreen — something the mostly female crowd did throughout the night. Harry Styles seems to get the loudest endorsement, but funny guy Niall Horan is a very close second.
The constant screaming made it more than a little hard to hear the guys sing, which for the most part they do very well. But let’s be honest, a lot of these ladies and a few gentleman don’t really care if they hear them sing. They’ve heard these songs a million times. They just want to get a chance to see the guys in the flesh. Even in the upper level, little girls started to sob when one of the guys waved in their general direction.
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And the fivesome get it. A 1D concert is less about the music and more about the experience. Their show is a variety hour filled not only with their hits like “Live While We’re Young,” “Kiss You” and “What Makes You Beautiful,” but also video skits of the guys having fun in their London digs.
The best clip is The Hard Day’s Night-inspired video that shows the guys in disguise taking to the streets of London to have a little fun with unsuspecting Directioners. Harry and Liam Payne dress up like an elderly couple to wreak havoc on local drivers, while Zayne Malik & Niall pretend to be street buskers singing a very, um, interesting version of “What Makes You Beautiful.” It’s Louis Tomlinson, though, that melts heart with his fat suit and sign asking for “Free Hugs”; he reveals his true identity to a nice little girl, who hugged a perfect stranger (be careful kids, most of them are not in fact 1D members in disguise).
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Though there’s no choreographed dance moves (plenty of spontaneous dance moves though), the guys fill the show with get-to-know-you moments. Amazingly, they take Twitter questions, which ranged from asking them to share favorite guilty pleasure snack on the road and showing off their best evil laugh. This boy band does have personality and sweetly shares it with the crowd, taking turns to thank their young fans for all their support. Connecting with the devotees in the nosebleeds is no easy feat in an arena show. But the guys get there, soaring over the crowd on a floating platform while performing slower songs like “Little Things.”
To anyone presumably over the age of 18 (which this writer is) might think it’s all a little silly to see so many girls balling their eyes out while five guys sing about last first kisses, but we’ve all had our obsessions. That band or movie star who makes you weak in the knees. Those feelings are hard to mock and sort of a teenage rite of passage. So if you are an adult forced to attend a One Direction concert, grab the earplugs and let the fans scream away. It’s only natural.
One Direction’s Take Me Home Tour will be making its way across the U.S. from now until August 10.
