"Dublin!" says Niall Horan, "I'm home." You can measure the intensity of a boyband gig by the screaming, and One Direction concerts pretty much make a mockery of even the very idea of decibel levels. "They can hear us in Cork from here," Horan says, interrupting a chorus of "Olé Olé Olé".
One of the biggest brands in music ever, 1D began a weekend of gigs at the 3Arena on Friday night, all sold out of course, considering a gig in the biggest indoor concert venue in the country is an intimate one by their stadium-sized standards.
On this tour, One Direction are now a four piece - Harry, Niall, Louis and Liam - since the departure of Zayn amid a flurry of controversy and broken hearts.
The band is at something of a crossroads. Already a hiatus is scheduled for 2016, after relentless touring around the world.
They’ve grown up too. The hair is less floppy, the clothes a bit more rocky, the voices that bit gravelly.
With brooding Zayn departed, the remaining personalities are the endlessly chirpy local lad Niall Horan, the hipster-y Harry, cheeky Louis - who has more than a bit of an edge and is soon to be a father to his first child - and the rather introverted Liam, who on Friday night was turning into the most charismatic.
Ahead of the gig, the band released their new single Perfect, which according to fans, is just what they are.
Karen, from Hartstown in Dublin, got her daughter Kayleigh (8), a ticket to a gig for her birthday.
Who's Kayleigh's favourite? "Niall," she says, struggling to open a bag of Maltesers, "because he's from Ireland. " And what does she think of the band as a whole? "They're good," she nods sagely.
Harry might have the celebrity cachet, but Niall Horan adds a musical finesse playing acoustic and electric guitar throughout, blazing through Midnight Memories.
The best performance comes from the crowd, beautifully in tune, dedicated, and impeccably behaved kids with their parents in tow.
For a band that works this hard, even the title of their tour - On The Road Again - sounds a little jaded. The pop slog has paid off, making them multimillionaires in their own right.
There’s a physical toll tonight too, Harry arrives with a moon boot to indicate a foot injury, and Niall is wearing a more subtle one.
What’s unusual about 1D gigs is the lack of production. There is no giant set, no army of dancers, a barely visible band. This is emphatic minimalism: all that matters are these four young men.
An intense question hangs unasked tonight: when One Direction’s fans wave goodbye to them through the screens of their iPhones this weekend, who knows when they’ll see them next, and in what form?
“Jaysus, I’ll have no bleedin’ ear drums left,” one mother mutters descending the stairs to the smoking section. That’s the sound of fandom. And long may it live.
