Welcome to the last performance. With a joyful blowout on the last night, Harry Styles completed his unprecedented 15-night run at Madison Square Garden in New York.
After Harry started his “Love on Tour” residency on August 20, the Garden lifted a banner to the rafters to mark his record-breaking run of 15 sold-out performances. It was a festive evening, and the Garden made sure that each seat had a feather boa to designate it as Harry’s House.
Styles’ banner was unexpectedly given to him by Gayle King during the encore, immediately following his performance of “Sign of the Times.” Harry, we don’t want to bid you good night, King informed him. The crowd cheered as the banner was then raised slowly and dramatically as Styles stood by.
He took a tissue from a fan near the catwalk as he sobbed in public. He addressed the crowd, his voice breaking, saying, “Anytime you visit Madison Square Garden and you see that, realize it’s because of you. It belongs to us.
I’m going to return after everyone has left and just sit and gaze at that for a while, he continued.
Styles is the third musician to have a banner suspended from the Garden’s rafters at this time. Billy Joel has two of them—one for the 129 performances he gave there and another for the 83 performances he gave as part of his ongoing, incredibly impressive monthly residency. Joel performed at the Garden twice during Styles’ run, and at the first, on August 24, he began by thanking Styles for taking the night off.
After a record-breaking Baker’s Dozen residency in which they performed for 13 consecutive sold-out nights without repeating a song, Phish received their banner in 2017. Even if Phish’s record has propelled Aaron Judged into second place, let’s hope they get to preserve their banner.
The fact that “And It Was” is STILL the top hit on Billboard’s Hot 100 is only one example of how historically significant the entire run has been. “As It Was” had impressive staying power at the top when he started, but this is absurd.
The song has been at No. 1 for 14 weeks, which is tied for the fourth-longest run ever. The song “Old Town Road,” which was number one for 19 weeks, retains the record. Therefore, it seems that the Harry’s House phenomena as a whole are being crowned.
I only attended half of the Garden performances, but each one had its own vibe. The most poignant performances of “Sign of the Times,” “Matilda,” and “As It Was” took place on Nights 2, 13, and 8, respectively.
The Venice Film Festival’s opening weekend was the most joyful, and the following week was the most frantic, as though leaving the red carpets and returning to his audience were like escaping from a cage. The “Lucky Chris Pine,” “Can I Be Your Caddy, Daddy?” “My Parents Don’t Know I Left The Country,” and “B**** For Mitch” fan placards were some of the residency’s favorites. Last night’s most melancholy fan sign read, “I Found Out Today My Cat Has Cancer.” Harry said, “I’m not going to lie,
The banner presentation served as the emotional high point of a tearful last night. Dev Hynes, who opened all 15 performances for Blood Orange, was brought out by Harry for “Matilda.” According to Styles, he is among the most significant musicians and artists of our generation.
Hynes’ cello playing gave the unpolished ballad more bite. The Fantastic Four Songs EP by Blood Orange, which includes live hits like “Wish,” as well as CDs of each night’s live performance, was recently released last week.
Harry also pleasantly surprised everyone by performing “Ever Since New York,” a standout from his debut solo tour and, as he put it, “a bit of an old one,” live for the first time in four years. With the songs “Music For A Sushi Restaurant,” “Treat People With Kindness,” and “What Makes You Beautiful,” he became happier than ever during the wonderful disco interlude.
While Styles has been away attending film events to promote his future films Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman, other artists, such as Roxy Music, Karol G, Duran Duran, and Pearl Jam, have performed fantastic Garden gigs during the stay. After his Venice weekend, one of the funniest moments at the Garden occurred on September 7th.
That evening, he exclaimed, “It’s fantastic, amazing, wonderful to be back in New York. I just flew over to Venice in a hurry to spit on Chris Pine.
But even by his standards, the final evening was a stunner. His spectacular run came to a cathartic and dramatic conclusion. The concert opened with “Peace Piece,” a jazz piano meditation by Bill Evans, and a quote from Buddhist scholar Alan Watts, who said, “This idea of being a distinct lonely individual is a hallucination.” All night long and during their Garden tenure, Styles and his band embodied that sense of community.