Harry Styles has been touring around America for ‘Love On Tour’ these past few months. However, for the last two days of October, he took a break from that tour and went to Madison Square Garden for a two-day-only ‘Harryween’ concert special.
These concerts were extra special, because Harry had informed the fans when purchasing their tickets that this was a “fancy dress party;” he had expected all of us to have our own costumes ready to celebrate the spooky nights alongside him and his band.
Arriving at the venue you could see the massive amount of fans taking pictures as his name was on display alongside the two words that made all of us incredibly proud of him: sold out.
Once we had gone in and people had gotten settled with their merch, drinks, and food, it was time for the show to begin. For these performances, Harry had two opening acts: Madison Cunningham and Orville Peck.
Just like Harry, both of these acts too had come in their Halloween-ready attire. As the acts exited the stage and subtle Halloween music started to play, we felt our nerves start to increase. As time passed, our hopes started to rise as predictions of his outfit were passed around like stories at a campfire.
His band took their place as the last song played before the clock struck 9:30. Finally the telltale sign that he would be coming out started.
The intro to “Golden”, accompanied by the flashing lights and the outline of a bunny, started to play, pausing every few seconds when Harry’s voice came over the speakers, introducing us to the tour.
Finally, the beat picked up as the song began and Harry appeared on stage in a full clown costume inspired by Pierrot. He wore white gauchos with a ruffle down the frontline. This was paired with a loose fitting white long sleeve top that had a black design of a crescent moon, with small stars surrounding it and a large neck frill topped off with white lace up studded ankle boots.
He sang and danced his way through “Golden” running up and down the stage looking at all of us. When “Golden” ended, he paused and welcomed us to Harryween. Then, he did what every Harry concert must include: fan interactions.
Looking around the arena, he spotted someone dressed in a spectacular costume so he went closer to inquire about it. After some back-and-forth banter between the fan and Harry, we figured out they were dressed specifically as the hand that is used in his album cover. Once that was settled, he continued on with the show.
During my personal favorite, “Only Angel,” a fan had thrown their angel halo onto the stage since it was a part of their costume. Harry, being who he is, picked it up and continued the song whilst wearing the halo. Around this time, he spotted a fan’s sign that got his undivided attention so he had to investigate once finishing the song.
This specific sign stated “I came with my ex for you”. Harry went over and talked to the fan first questioning them, “How is this for me? It seems like this is for you.” He continued to interrogate the ex-couple about when they met, how long they’ve dated, and how long they’ve been separated. He then went on to give the ex his own advice: “But for tonight, just for tonight lets take it back all the way to those days…my point is, let’s reminisce on the night seven months and two weeks ago when you two looked at each other deep in the eyes and you thought ‘yeah you’ll do’”.
He continued on with the show, and during “Treat People with Kindness”, he did his iconic pride walk. During this song he grabbed whatever pride flags fans may have thrown on stage, or one he may have brought himself, and danced, waving it around before tossing it back into the audience. This night specifically, he had grabbed a transgender pride flag to parade around the stage with.
Keeping the upbeat tempo, he began to sing “What Makes You Beautiful”, the first song to start his career back with One Direction. Right before ending this song he paused and said to the crowd “If you haven’t been dancing so far, it’s absolutely no problem. But for the next two minutes I want you to dance like nobody’s watching you, sing like nobody’s listening to you and I need you to have as much fun as you can possibly have in two minutes.” He then went on to finish the song as the crowd danced and screamed louder than we had before.
It was at this time we started to chant the word medicine.
“Medicine” is one of Harry’s unreleased songs that he used to perform on ‘Live On Tour’ in 2018. Following a leak of what may have been the setlist for this concert, we were excited to see if it was true about him bringing back this iconic song for the Harryween special.
As we chanted, Harry ignored us and went on to thank the band, the opening acts, the security guards, and everyone else that helped make this show possible. He then went on to sing “Sign of the Times” before leaving the stage for a short minute, as he usually takes a bathroom break at this time.
Less than three minutes later, he arrived back on stage ready to sing his Grammy Award-winning song, “Watermelon Sugar”.
It was when that song ended, however, that the audience became still.
According to the leak, “Medicine” should be played right after “Watermelon Sugar” and the anticipation was eating at every single one of us.
Then it happened; the unmistakable intro guitar to “Medicine.”
Everyone screamed louder than I possibly could have imagined as Harry made his way up to the mic stand to sing the fan-base’s favorite as-yet unreleased song.
While we danced and sang the lyrics to the song, Harry had more in mind for this concert than we had expected.
As the outro to the song was about to play, a sudden stop in the music happened and instead the intro to “Toxic” by Britney Spears took over.
Harry covered “Toxic” and added in many note changes, causing the crowd to roar louder than thought humanly possible, as he pranced around on stage doing his iconic dances, somehow pulling them off even in his costume.
Finally, for his last song, Harry began to perform “Kiwi” but subsequently stopped it right as it began.
He exclaimed to the crowd: “If this is gonna be the last song of the night, I’m gonna need a little bit more from you. There’s no tricks. There’s no gimmicks. There’s no more songs after this.” He then went on to try starting “Kiwi” once again, only to stop and throw in a quick joke, “That was much better. This is called edging,” before giving it a final go and finishing the night with one of his more rock-style songs, throwing water at the crowd and dancing like nobody was watching him.
Harryween may have only been a two-night experience, but it is one that will live with me forever.
