Every boy band has an expiration date. One Direction have always understood this. The record-breaking British group has made the most of their window, whipping out four albums in as many years, with a fifth on the way. The group is still doing mammoth numbers and still landing hit after hit, but the cracks are beginning to show. Founding member Zayn Malik split from the band this spring to become the first to launch a solo career, and the remaining four members, currently in the middle of a long stadium tour, don't seem keen on letting him get too much of a lead. This week they spooked the hell out of fans by confirming rumors they're planning an extended hiatus to focus on individual projects. They’ll be back, they promise, but then again, they might not. These guys are in their early 20s now; one of them has a kid on the way. They probably don't want to be singing sexless songs about being good guys with good intentions forever.
All traces of Malik were scrubbed from the band's tour stop at a nearly full Miller Park Tuesday night. Every T-shirt, concert poster and picture in their tour pamphlet and on their video display—this band takes so many photos—depicted them in their current four-piece incarnation, and the group made no mention of their former bandmate. They didn't allude to their plans for a break, either. Though the group has benefited plenty from tabloid interest, they’ve always kept their personal lives out of their act, careful not to undermine the bland fantasy of their songs, where everything's always alright and happy thoughts always conquer all.
Unlike the boy bands of America’s past, One Direction don't do choreographed dances, and they show little interest in contemporary dance and R&B. They all sing like they grew up in homes were rap music wasn’t allowed. They have toughened up their act a little over the years, though, moving away from the bubblegum pop-rock and Lumineers-lite strumming of their early singles toward edgier arena rock that hides their G-rated lyrics behind PG-rated guitars. They don't play down their '80s influences. “Midnight Memories” so blatantly rips its sticky-sweet riff from “Pour Some Sugar On Me” that Def Leppard might want to consider getting Marvin Gaye's lawyers on the phone. With thousands of teens and tweens singing along, “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” and the band’s first post-Malik single “Drag Me Down” made the Brewers stadium sound like a Bon Jovi Kidz Bop album.
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Each member got plenty of time to address the cheering masses between songs, though mostly they used it to recite platitudes about how the crowd was one of the loudest they’ve ever played for and how they’d be nothing without their fans. Harry Styles proved the least scripted member of the group. He draped a Green Bay Packers flag over his shoulder, donned a cheesehead and led the crowd through a round of “Go Pack Go.” While his repeated demands for the crowd to make some noise if they like cheese began to feel a little patronizing, he was apparently sincere in his Packers fandom. He hosted a moment of silence for “Jordy Nelson’s injuries” (“a travesty,” he called them) then roused the crowd to “make some noise if you like Aaron Rodgers.”
They did, of course, but they were already making plenty of noise for Styles without the prompting. Tuesday night One Direction proved that four guys can do the job that five used to. Pretty soon they’ll find out whether just one guy can, too.
