ED SHEERAN substituted his usual opening act on his Loop Tour for a familiar face when he performed in Atlanta. The singer-songwriter 32 announced at Saturday night’s show at Mercedes-Benz Stadium that Chicago’s The Fray frontman Isaac Slade would be performing before he took the stage after weeks of lineup chaos.
Slade, who departed The Fray in 2022 after years fronting the Denver band whose emotional pop-rock anthems include “How to Save a Life” and “You Found Me, ” played a brief set of hits. The crowd’s response was equally brief for that intro. It was “a natural choice, ” and so much of the stadium already had both known Slade’s solo career when he left The Fray and that he was launching a solo tour, and treated him as a special guest. For many, it was the first time seeing Slade at a big arena since he left the band.
The visual comes after a tumultuous period for the Loop Tour. Macklemore was originally announced as a major supporting act but was ultimately cut from the tour following onstage protests and performances at Sheeran’s NJ dates at New Jersey’s MetLife stadiums during which he called for a free Palestine and performed his song “Hind’s Hall.” Promoters of the tour and some venues said that it was not possible to hold remaining shows with him on the lineup. Sheeran later told audiences the decision had not been his. In the week that followed openers such as Finneas, Aaron Rowe and Lukas Graham all dropped out of support of Sheeran as a gesture of support and looser support acts, including Sheeran’s regular backing band Beoga, also left the tour. Several recent dates including in Philadelphia went ahead with no commercial support act.
A different note was struck by Slade. As he stood under the spotlight for less than a minute he expressed concern with the larger causes of division, and that many people take sides and that what is happening in Gaza is wrong, but that they should be offered a middle way in which people hold onto opposing views that remain united. He kept his words balanced and tended towards finding common ground over picking a side.
This was not the first time the two musicians had both appeared on stage as part of the current tour. Sheeran and Slade previously performed “How to Save a Life” in Toronto; that means it was simply a matter of relocating from the Great White North to the Peach State for this see-saw of a show. It remains to be seen whether Slade will be the opener for other forthcoming shows as well, including the next task in Indiana. Regardless, tonight in Atlanta proved the tour can go onbeyond the opener.