When Harry Styles released ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’ in March, something seemed to get lost in translation. In the few interviews he did in the lead-up to the record, he referenced a newfound love of going out clubbing and transcendental moments watching acts like LCD Soundsystem live. That his fourth album didn’t sound like it would be heard booming around the dark corners of those clubs, though, prompted some criticism – that it was dance music diluted, or not a faithful recreation of the sounds that had inspired him.
- READ MORE: Harry Styles – ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally’ review: pop superstar lets the light in
The Together Together tour, which hosts its second night tonight (May 17) in Amsterdam, clears things up a bit. The name of the run, which will visit different cities around the world for often record-breaking residencies, suggests unity, and during the show, most of the times that Styles speaks to the audience nod to that idea. There’s a focus on community – whether in his words or the crew he’s assembled on stage in band members and dancers – and the positivity and euphoria that comes from being with others, dancing the night away in a sticky, sweaty club.
To get close to his fans as possible on this tour, Styles is performing in the round: on a stage that allows him to move around the floor section and interact with the audience dancing in its various pockets. During the electrifying opener ‘Are You Listening Yet?’, he quickly makes the journey down from the back of the stage, racing over the arches in the runway and grinning into the faces of his fans below. It’s how he spends most of the night – forming connections that feel warm and full of genuine curiosity, rather than a bit in a big pop gig. It feels notable, too, that there are no moments here designed to go viral or celebrity guests introduced via a gimmick – a rarity for a show of this stature right now.
Giddy joy colours the performance from the off, as Styles has front-loaded the set with some of his biggest songs. “Consider this section of the show the pre-game,” he tells the crowd before a stacked run of ‘Golden’, ‘Adore You’ and ‘Watermelon Sugar’. But it never feels like the setlist dips, the pop star maintaining the glee his biggest hits naturally build. ‘Taste Back’ is augmented with a snippet of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ and goes in a more hedonistic direction “for all the ravers in the house”. His backing band migrate to the middle of the runway for ‘Ready Steady Go’, Styles bouncing off their energy as he dances in the centre of the pack, twisting the song into something communal and alive. New song ‘Italian Girls’ is a juddering instrumental that opens with the star instructing, “Put a bell on your bicycle” before getting stuck into its loops and electronic layers.
It all comes to a head with ‘Carla’s (Satellite) Song’ – a mashup of the final song on ‘Kiss All The Time…’ and one of the highlights of 2022’s ‘Harry’s House’. As a preamble, Styles gives more background on the track, its conception in the clubs his friends took him out to, and the need to be open to experiences. “Your life is waiting for you to grab it and waiting for you to let it in,” he explains. The arena doesn’t need telling twice, and they take the song to new heights with chants, clapping and dancing that continues well into the next track, ‘Aperture’.
“The world is in a very strange place, but these rooms make me hopeful,” Styles tells us as the night begins to wind down. ‘As It Was’ closes things out for good and the pop star takes one last chance to indulge in the high, putting his marathon training to good use as he dashes around the perimeter of the stage over and over again. Hope is a weighty word, but for the two hours he’s on stage tonight, it does feel easier to embrace optimism.
Harry Styles played:
‘Are You Listening Yet?’
‘Golden’
‘Adore You’
‘Watermelon Sugar’
‘Music For A Sushi Restaurant’
‘Taste Back’
‘Coming Up Roses’
‘Fine Line’
‘Italian Girls’
‘American Girls’
‘Keep Driving’
‘Ready Steady Go’
‘Dance No More’
‘Treat People With Kindness’
‘Pop’
‘Season 2 Weight Loss’
‘Carla’s (Satellite) Song’
‘Aperture’
‘Matilda’
‘Sign Of The Times’
‘As It Was’