Chronicle written by Arianna Choy – Kifox
English singer-songwriter Louis Tomlinson came back to San Miguel, Peru on May 26th of 2024, after two years of his solo debut concert, for his second album tour Faith in the Future, and even though the place where he played was smaller this time and the field was divided into only two zones, the euphoria, adrenaline, and excitement irradiated from the Arena 1.
There was something different for me too. In 2022 I went as a writer to the venue, so yes, I didn’t have to wait in line to get in but I stood the whole concert in the audience, as a fan, inside the closest zone to the stage, without personal space, a mask (because of Covid) and a lot of girls pushing each other around me. Basically, I was like one of the sardines in the buses of Spongebob Squarepants, sweating, barely breathing, and without being able to move… but really excited for the show. I still have a toddler face as I mentioned in my previous review but, this time, I upgraded myself, yes man, I got in as part of the press and they let me be in the pit with the rest of the photographers, so I could take photos too, but I saved them for myself, sorry. I’m kidding, but this was my first time doing this, so my dad’s pictures are way better.
The doors of Arena 1 opened at 5:40 pm, but there were fans waiting in line way before that time, some of them camped outside of the Arena weeks before, and a couple of ones spent 7 months outside, wanting to be the first ones to get in and be at the front row. When I arrived at the venue, I saw all the parents sitting in the tents outside the doors, some of them alone, others doing social life between them, while their daughters were already waiting in line to get inside. I always get surprised by the power that an artist can have on their fans (and their parents) to make them do that…and the amount of free time that some people can have. One by one, the security let the fans get in, in a line, to have them controlled and asked them not to run… and obviously, all of them listened. They got in so fast that they pushed the drinks of a seller who was standing in the middle of the field but I think the woman didn’t care, she kept selling her half-empty cups as full ones.
At 8:00 pm the special guest for the Faith in the Future North and South American Tour, the German indie-rock band Giant Rooks came onto the stage with a variety of songs from their albums How have you been? and Rookery to their EP New State. For 40 minutes Frederik Rabe, Finn Schwieters, Luca Göttner, Jonathan Wischniowski, and Finn Thomas did an awesome job at warming and hyping up the audience with their energetic presence and really moving music. I could see their frontman Rabe going from one side of the stage to the other and switching instruments from guitar to keyboard to drums; which showed the talent and versatility of this band for making every one of their songs special and having the crowd jumping with them. At their final song, the band and all the Peruvians in the crowd were shouting “Somebody like you” mixed in one single voice.
Giant Rooks Band:
Frederik Rabe – Lead vocals
Luca Göttner – Bassist
Finn Thomas – Drums
Jonathan Wischniowski – Keyboards
Finn Schwieters – Guitars
1. For You
2. Heat Up
3. Bright Lies
4. Pink Skies
5. New Estate
6. Morning Blue
7. Wild Stare
8. Somebody Like You
At 9:00 pm, Louis was supposed to go out on stage but the producers didn’t allow them to start the concert because the audience was out of control. One came out to the stage, twice, to say: “The concert is not going to start until all of you take two steps behind”, while everybody was being pushed and security was carrying girls out of the audience, cause they were crying for air and couldn’t move straight, even some of them were throwing up on the way to the nursery. I was happy on one side of the field watching all this from afar, with the rest of the press, because now I’m 25 and not in the mood for fighting people for my personal space.
Minutes before the show started, his tour manager took all of us to a side of the stage to give us instructions of how everything was going to work. “You only have three songs for taking pictures inside the pit and you are not allowed to record nor use your phone for any reason”. Don’t worry man, my phone was stolen three days ago in a store, so there’s only my eyes, my camera, and my 25-year-old self trying to control the emotions of my inner 10 old self for not ending up jumping on the stage once I see Louis getting in, everything is totally fine. After that, we started walking to the pit. I could feel the adrenaline and excitement (and importance) pumping through my veins, I felt like outer space, I never experienced being this close to the stage to take pictures of an internationally powerful artist. I was probably the only fan-press standing in the pit, cause everyone else was really chill, so I tried to put on my poker face and pretend that I was a grown adult who had been doing this for years. It didn’t work out though, my dad turned to me and laughed cause I was smiling so big like a little kid. Who let the toddler of 25 years old get here? Suddenly the lights went down, all the band appeared, white reflectors turned on and the silhouette of Louis came to the stage with the music intro of “The Greatest” and the audience went wild. My photographer mode switched on and started to take pictures with the rest. In theory, three songs are not enough for taking pictures, they aren’t even half of the concert, but I felt like the time passed slowly. I was less than one meter away from Louis and being considered as one more photographer, life was good. For the second song “Kill My Mind”, the stage turned red and it had the same vibes as the music video of the song that came out in 2019. The stage was different from the one in 2022. It had moving lightning bars and a lot of hanging medium screens facing different angles. It showed a variety of visual effects, such as black and white motion graphics and the live image of Louis from the stage and the members of the band in black and white and slow motion. By the third song, “Bigger than Me”, I noticed that something with the way I was doing this was probably wrong because everybody was moving together to one side of the pit while I was on the other side alone. That’s when I realized they were following Louis and turning to the side that he was heading towards too, while I was just moving on the same spot, but it was a great first experience anyway. The song finished and all of us headed out of the pit to stay in the crowd, with “Holding onto a Heartache” in the background.
“Lima you’re so fucking loud!” were some of the words that Louis said, welcoming us to the show and he wasn’t wrong. At times, it was hard for me to listen to and recognize the song he was playing until the chorus because every single fan was screaming really loud and singing with him. For this tour, the setlist had 20 songs. Most of them were from his latest record Faith in the Future but he also sang “We Made It” and “Walls” from the previous one; non-album songs like “Back to you” and “Copy of a Copy”; a couple of covers like “Chemicals” from Post Malone and “505” from Arctic Monkeys and of course a couple of his One Direction songs “Night changes” and “Where do broken hearts go?”. The fact that he sang these last two was really special for all of us Directioners, because they never got to play that album here in Peru and, just so you know, it is really hard to jump and freak out with a camera and a telephoto lens hanging on your neck but not impossible.
At the end of his final song “Silver Tongues”, the most awaited thing in his concerts for all the fans in the first row (probably the reason why everybody is so desperate for that spot), Louis got off the stage and came down the stage to greet and hug all the fans, I couldn’t say it myself but I bet security had a pretty hard moment. Fortunately, after that, Louis returned to the stage complete and alive to do the final goodbye. With this being one of the last concerts left of his tour, Louis Tomlinson once again had all the Peruvian fans under his spell for probably two hours and made them lose control from even before the concert began to the last second of it.
Louis Tomlinson Band:
Louis Tomlinson – Vocals
Michael Blackwell – Guitar
Steve Durham – Drums
Matt Dinnadge – Bass /Synths
Isaac Anderson – Guitar
Zak Craner – Keyboards
Setlist:
1. The Greatest
2. Kill My Mind
3. Bigger Than Me
4. Holding on to Heartache
5. Face the Music
6. We Made It
7. Night Changes (One Direction song)
8. Chicago
9. Chemical (Post Malone cover)
10. All This Time / She Is Beauty We Are World Class
11. Copy of a Copy of a Copy
12. Walls
13. Written All Over Your Face
14. 505 (Arctic Monkeys cover)
15. Back to You
16. Angels Fly
17. Out of My System
18. Saturdays
19. Where Do Broken Hearts Go (One Direction song)
20. Silver Tongues
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I’m a photographer with extensive experience working for national and international media. I’m also a passionate photography educator with extensive experience working with students of different ages. I love Heavy Metal music and I began shooting concerts in 1992. Concert Photography is my passion. I’m based in Perú but willing to travel anywhere.
