Harry Styles tells Austin fans: Your body is yours, and 'take care of each other'
Follow the feathers on the ground, and you will be found. A new Austin maxim, at least until next week.
Harry Styles started making history on Sunday night, as he kicked off a six-show residency at Austin’s Moody Center. His Love On Tour concerts are a kick-up-your-feet-and-hang-around kind of event that’s simply not been seen from a major pop star in the Live Music Capital of the World until now. The six concerts, the promotional blitz assured us, would turn our glitzy new arena into “Harry’s House.”
Walking around the 15,000-capacity venue on opening night — stuffed to the gills with likeminded people who shelled out Benjamins upon Benjamins for a look at Harry — it felt more like a very exclusive co-op. You can move in until Oct. 3.
Even with three No. 1 albums and a history of boy-bandery, it sometimes feels like Harry lacks the ubiquity of a Taylor or a Beyoncé. You wouldn’t know it Sunday. The crowd — mostly young, mostly women — queued up in sequined jumpsuits and daisy-print dresses at every pop-up photo opp along the concourse. More than one pair of pants proudly bore an H and an S on the back pockets.
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The House of Styles aesthetic falls somewhere between mod mischief and 1970s variety show. Jewel tones and pastels massed at the bars for Watermelon Sugar cocktails (also available as a mocktail). Who knows what that Magic Eye might reveal if you took your vision out of focus?
Balloons rippled in different colors from the ceiling. Men wore button-ups printed with cartoon Harrys and T-shirts reading, “Dads Love Harry.” Big Chicken, the sandwich stand owned by Shaquille O’Neal, offered a “Harry’s special” – chicken on a rainbow bagel. The cashier said they were moving units, my friend told me.
Of course, boas roamed the earth. The boa has become the sigil of the Styles fan, owing to the singer’s onstage penchant for them. They were chicken feather and they were faux fur, and there were enough of them to claim congressional representation.
And no matter where you walked, a trail of molted feathers in every color led you to their leader.
Now, he’s the biggest proper male pop star in the world, but Styles has long held a whole generation in his thrall. Witness the sonic hydra before the show, screaming the words along to “Best Song Ever,” a hit from Styles' previous place of employment, the boy band One Direction. “And we danced all night to the best song ever,” they proclaimed in a unified prophecy.
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There was little rest for their lungs. Around 9 p.m., Styles rose from a platform beneath the Moody stage, built in the round for Harry’s stay. The fans' volume threatened to drown out the state-of-the-art sound system. He looked like a glam-rock Gene Autry (which might just be Porter Wagoner) in a glitzed-up, burnt orange, Western-style suit. The sparkling fringe was maroon, though; a provocation of war on the University of Texas campus, let’s be honest. Instead of a nice pair of Ariats, it looked like he was wearing … Asics? He’s gotta move, one supposes.
Styles was the consummate Texas cheerleader, hopping, skipping, kissing to opening number “Daydreaming.” He strapped on a guitar for “Golden” and made great use of the stage set-up, with mics on two ends (and plenty of room to hop, skip, kiss on the other sides). He promised later on to spread his face and ass (his words) around equally.
For “Adore You,” he took the vocals down a key, perhaps the self-preserving necessity of a six-night run that’s part of an even longer tour. Styles still cleared a sustained bit of heart-melting falsetto. Melodic particulars, though, were hardly the point, when the man just needed to pump his arms up and down and shuffle side to side — sort of a touchdown dance that fans know — and people literally cried.
“Austin, Texas,” Styles said. “Make some noise!” (Request fulfilled and then some.)
“Good evening. I’m Harry Styles.” (Did not request noise, but received it.)
“Our job tonight is going to be to entertain you,” he said, adding, “I challenge you to have as much fun as I’m going to have.” (Listen, people lost it.)
After cheekily greeting the “people of Austin and surrounding areas,” he exhorted: “They say everything is bigger in …?” The Directioner lung power bellowing “TEXAS” could probably power the state grid.
For the sweet, sad “Matilda,” audience members were given tiny scraps of purple paper to hold in front of their phone flashlights. City of the Violet Crown, you bet. Encircled by purple lights and studding the microphone with chipped pink nail polish, Styles sang a song about finding home wherever love lives: “You can let it go/ You can throw a party full of everyone you know/ And not invite your family 'cause they never showed you love/ You don't have to be sorry for leavin' and growin' up.”
Styles’ charisma is easy and gale-force. Sometimes, like on “Satellite,” he flung his body to the catwalk as if in a woozy haze, before catching himself to the beat and breaking into a strut.
He took an extended mid-set break to work the crowd, reading signs and bantering to the audience as casually as you can when you’re one of the most famous singers in the world. He mediated one fan’s 5-year-long “situationship” like hosting an episode of “Loveline.”
“I don’t know what the situation is, but I don’t like it,” he poked.
Then, Styles played to the home crowd.
“Wind it up for your biggest ‘yee haw,’” he instructed with a lasso motion. “Is this the right move?” he questioned. The invisible rope flew, and the yees were hawed.
“Won’t be doing that again,” he playfully demured.
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It was all party vibes from then on out. Horns and a boa in Pride colors came out for “Cinema.” The strains of “Y.M.C.A.” winked at those who knew, then strangely transformed into “Music For a Sushi Restaurant,” which is like tearing down a gay bathouse to build a Target. (No shade; I love that song, even if it sounds like commercial music begging me to buy the new line of Isaac Mizrahi bed sheets.)
“Treat People With Kindness” captured a brief moment of joyful anarchy in a $338 million temple to Live Nation, "dynamic" ticket pricing and $20 drinks. Fans line-danced on one side of the floor and formed a conga line on the other. The jumbo screen looked like a fresco of an acid trip. The saxophone player threw their body into the riffs, and Styles strutted the stage with a Pride flag trailing behind him.
The setlist made room for a slightly more mature-sounding “What Makes You Beautiful,” a One Direction standard. Styles stopped mid-prance to tie his tambourine player’s shoelace. “You all feeling emotionally stable?” he asked the audience knowingly. He swigged from a water bottle that, at that point, people would have paid good money for.
Disco bubbler “Late Night Talking” paved the way for a predictably triumphant “Watermelon Sugar,” pink and green spotlights briefly making the air taste like Lip Smackers. After “Love Of My Life,” Styles and company feigned their exit, returning for a power encore of “Sign of the Times,” “As It Was” and “Kiwi.”
At times, the music seemed a little beside the point Sunday night. Styles, not a belter by any means, sometimes blended into the hyperstereo of fans singing along. Watching him perform, though — that’s how you know he’s the kind of guy whom investors bet can pack an arena for six nights in one town.
In the encore alone, he raised the whole mic stand aloft like Conan brandishing Hyperborean steel. He did high kicks, and he strutted like the Jagger heir he is. He caught a disposable camera, chucked from the crowd, in one hand, took a snap and returned it like a fastball. The show ended in a spray of water into the air, from Styles’ mouth to the universe, no Chris Pine necessary.
To really understand the power of Styles, though, you have to understand how he taps into everyone else’s, especially that of thousands of young women.
“Take care of each other,” he said, then continued: “Do not let a single person tell you what to do with your body. It’s yours.
“You are more powerful than anyone else.”
All around the Moody Center, staff members pushed stray feathers along with brooms. Boas only hold up so long, but some things you wear forever.
Harry Styles setlist in Austin (Night 1 at Moody Center)
"Daydreaming"
"Golden"
"Adore You"
"Daylight"
"Keep Driving"
"Matilda"
"Little Freak"
"Satellite"
"Cinema"
"Music For a Sushi Restaurant" (with "Y.M.C.A." intro)
"Treat People With Kindness"
"What Makes You Beautiful"
"Late Night Talking"
"Watermelon Sugar"
"Love of My Life"
Encore:
"Sign of the Times"
"As It Was"
"Kiwi"
Harry Styles plays the Moody Center again on Sept. 26, Sept. 28-29 and Oct. 2-3. Go to moodycenteratx.com for tickets and more info.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Harry Styles concert at Austin's Moody Center: As It Was and more hits