fitf vancouver

[adevyish]

kicked off a busy week with louis’ concert in vancouver monday night!

i was anxious the week before the concert due partly to my regular pre-concert anxiety, but also the disaster that was the red rocks concert. (fans were pelted by hail the size of tennis balls and several ended up in hospital. venue staff were unhelpful; louis’ crew including his bodyguards and his manager ran into the hail and pouring rain to bring fans to safety.)

thankfully we were treated to the sunniest weather vancouver could provide. thunderbird arena, being an ice rink, was nice and cool, and security provided a constant stream of water to the GA pit.

i met up with another fan outside first, so i could get the paper slips i needed to hand out for a rainbow fan project another fan was organizing. the lines outside were huge, stretching all the way down to the practice rink and around it. i think it took the non-GA line about 30 minutes to clear. i did the smart thing and did outdoors merch line first — there was a vancouver exclusive i had to grab — then waited for the line to clear before lining up.

once i was in my section i got to walk all the way up to the top handing out papers to each row explaining the project and asking people to pass them down. the majority of people did know what the project was and just asked me which song! like, to someone who remembers when there were no rainbows at any one direction concerts, this is absolutely wild. but solo louis tomlinson concerts have had more rainbow projects than not — the one i went to last year in the orpheum did! it’s still always impressive to see a full arena light up rainbow though: video.

another thing fans did was doing flashlight waves during “kill my mind”, which fans in chile started last year and everyone’s been doing at shows since. i was so ready to do this one and it was so fun! also fun watching the lights spread as more casual fans pick up on what’s going on.

louis’ set this tour is definitely stronger than last year’s. he made an album for touring, and it really shows. even the ballads are made for soaring crowds to sing along to. ballads i dismissed on initial listen, like “chicago” and “common people” (added to the set only the show previous), were perfect for a concert crowd.

i, personally, still find it hilarious that “high in california”, an exclusive for people who’d bought an album directly from louis’ shop, is part of the set, and louis’ team popped it onto spotify just before tour started!

aside: as thunderbird arena is an ice rink, i was sat next to one of the hockey player’s boxes. which is what it turns out concerts use as a vip box. based on the video-taking activity of one of the dads of the group, they were there with one of the band members. the millennials of the group were having a blast and drinking bottled peron from backstage.