Music
Review: Sampha, O2 Academy
Rolling up to the O2 Academy, I was giddy remembering my first ever big concert at 14 years old at this very place. The last time I attended was one of my first big club nights out at 18 (shout out to the SideWinder massive). I hear some native millennial Bristolians tag it as ‘too mainstream’ but, call me biased, let’s not take it for granted. It’s a versatile venue so give props were props are due. It holds a special nostalgic place in my heart and here I am, 13 years after my first ever gig to see Sampha. I was pumped.
The opening act came on at 8pm. I’d never heard music by PAULi (pronounced Paul-eye) but he is going to be touring with another artist I like in April, so with his name right up there in the itinerary next to Sampha’s, I was expecting a new artist to add to my Spotify playlists. I’m sad to say it fell short. There were some sound issues as we couldn’t hear him sing. The songs had a strong deep baseline which I normally would really get down with, but it was quite overpowering as that was really most of what I could hear. There was a lot of erratic multi-tasking with him trying to awkwardly play cords on a keyboard while craning his body over to the right side to reach his mic, him fiddling with equipment and at one point there was a weirdly placed electric guitar solo. I mean – it was unanimously awkward as strangers in the audience were looking around at each other with a face saying ‘…..What?’. There was also liberal use of strobe lighting at not very climatic points in the song which was discombobulating. Now I wanted to give dude a chance so I gave him a listen in Spotify and you need to search for ‘PAULi.’ with the full stop – but you still won’t find him. It was a mission to dig him out which I could only do because I had seen what his face looks like but to be fair to him, he did sound a bit better recorded. In the words of the man behind me ‘that was ass’. Not memorable for the right reasons, I’m afraid (sorry dude).
After an awkwardly long 45 minute wait watching stage staff adjusting cables and doing mic checks, listening to very low-volume CD while the venue filled up, Sampha walked on and it was immediately clear how humble and charming he is. He performed a full hour set predominantly from his latest album Process. I was blown away. He had a way of making a relatively big venue feel very intimate. Big dramatic build ups + intimate acoustic renditions + heavy base = happy me. The show itself was 5* and the only let down was the slightly annoying people in the audience. As is the risk of when artists become well known and perform at bigger venues, you start to get people attending who aren’t reeeeally fans but want to say they went, or because other friends are, or whatever reason other than pure love for the artist – you get quantity over quality meaning that no one knows the words, people are chatting away to their friends, are somewhat excited but not PUMPED and I couldn’t (badly) sing along because I could hear my own voice (which should be drowned out by the other HUNDREDS of people singing). I definitely feed off of the energy of the crowd and I normally find that the artist does too. But hold tight Sampha, it didn’t affect his performance.
is needed now More than ever
That aside, the sound production was impeccable and what I really noticed was how he sounded no different live to how he does recorded which really deserves some credit. The entire set was a combination of acoustic and electronic, perfectly blended for amazing beat drops with perfectly timed lighting and effects. There was even a strategically placed single lightbulb that emerged from the ceiling on the dark stage while he sang ‘No One Knows Me’ to a completely stunned and silent audience. Lots of eyes-closed-hands-in-the-air-singing was followed by an excellent encore consisting of himself and his 3 band members playing on one set of drums for a long and suspense-filled build up before breaking into ‘Without’ from his first album. I got home and told my husband (who isn’t a Sampha fan because he clearly has no taste in music much like I clearly have no taste in men – I kid) that even a non-fan would have enjoyed the show as it was an excellent concert. Despite whether you love the music or genre – it was an inspiring performance.
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