OneRepublic smashes out ‘all the hits’ at Auckland concert

REVIEW: There is only one sure-fire way to keep an audience entranced at a concert: Give them the hits. All the hits.

OneRepublic certainly had this down pat at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Thursday, where they held the audience in the palms of their hands the entire duration of the concert.

The “songs you know tour”, as lead singer Ryan Tedder dubs it, will end “on a high note” at Wellington’s TSB Arena on Saturday.

But if Tedder’s love of Aotearoa is anything to go by, this won’t be the last we see of OneRepublic.

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“This is, without question, since I was a kid, kind of my dream country to visit and to play … We love it here.”

The band appears on stage amid a delicate purple haze, the crowd roaring as the familiar orchestral sound of Secrets fills the arena. That same orchestral sound would almost make me forget I was at a pop rock concert later on during Apologise.

Tedder promises the crowd they will perform “all the hits we’ve put out ever”.

The band would go above and beyond this promise by dedicating 15 minutes to performing hits by other artists, written by Tedder during his “day job” – or when he was “cheating on” his OneRepublic bandmates.

The crowd is mesmerised during Halo, a ballad which came about after Beyoncé casually phoned Tedder asking him to write her a love song for Jay-Z.

The band also touches on Ellie Goulding’s Burn, Tedder’s first attempt at a dance record, before riling up the arena with the Jonas Brothers’ 2019 reunion single, Sucker.

We swing back into OneRepublic territory with I Ain’t Worried, but I am, as the whistling from the song’s intro is sure to be stuck in my head for the next week.

Earlier, Love Runs Out transformed the arena into a party, with almost every attendee clapping their hands in the air. I found myself wondering how the band could possibly top this energy for the big finale.

Tedder nips off into the wings for a minute, I assume to catch his breath.

Apparently he had a bigger priority.

“I was backstage updating my blog on the All Blacks,” he says, adding that he’s a “super fan”.

All to soon, the guitarist soft launches into Counting Stars, the song we have all been waiting for, and the arena erupts once more as Tedder takes a walk through the crowd.

It was this song that Tedder’s vocal talent really shone. He hits all the high notes while barely relying on the audience to fill in the gaps.

He’s finally afforded a breather when an intense battle of string instruments commences between the violin and guitar players before the final chorus.

Surely that was the finale?

I’m wrong again.

“Believe it or not, we still have another one,” Tedder says.

“Until the day we retire… We’re going to keep coming back to New Zealand,” he adds.

The crowd is brought back down to earth with If I Lose Myself, before the band unites in the middle of the stage and takes a bow.

No encore needed.