Passenger & The Paper Kites
March 26, 2017
Showbox Sodo – Seattle WA
English singer-song writer Michael David Rosenberg, better known by his stage name Passenger, has been touring all over since the release of his album Young As The Morning, Old As The Sea (via Black Crow Records) which came out on September 23, 2016. Fast forward nearly 6 months to March 26th in Seattle, WA where Passenger is nearing the end of the tour and performing to a sold out show thousands of miles away from home with support from Australian natives The Paper Kites.
The Paper Kites made their way on stage around 8pm and fans who braved the rain and long lines becoming ecstatic when they began with Revolater Eyes. The set was short, only about six songs long, mainly off their latest album Twelvefour but one off of an older album Woodland. The band still made time to talk and interact with the crowd. When a fan a screamed out “YOUR ACCENT IS HOT” lead singer Sam Bentley told the crowd about going through border control and how the officer thought they had said their band name was The Apricots which had the whole crowd laughing. The band did a fantastic job and there couldn’t have been a better a band to open up for Passenger on this tour.
After a short set change, the lights dimmed and eager fans lit up with excitement; most had been awaiting this moment for months and were stoked that the moment was finally here.
Passenger’s touring band came out and found their way to their instruments as they began to play their first song Somebody’s Love shortly after Passenger walked out. Although this tour was to promote Passenger’s latest album, he played a diverse set list that consisted a mix of new and old songs along with some songs that weren’t even his! Passenger is definitely a chatty guy on stage but he knew just the right time to talk and connect with his fans. The longest story of the night was about his song Traveling Alone off one of his older albums Whispers II. The crowd was quiet while he talked which is a little surprising considering half the crowd had to of been drinking alcoholic beverages. He told another one his stories about busking in Copenhagen and Switzerland and meeting two different people in those countries that told him about their lives. Passenger went on to say that the stories were sad enough for him to write a song about, and how the song is a combination of those two peoples stories. You could instantly tell everyone felt a little bit more connected to this song than before.
One of the funniest songs I had ever heard live was Passenger’s song called I Hate off his popular album All The Little Lights which involved a lot of crowd participation. He also played his hit song Let Her Go from the same album which had the entire crowd dancing and singing at the top of their lungs! After playing a few of his old songs Passenger decided to play 2 covers, one by Bill Wither and one by Simon & Garfunkel. Eventually it was time for Passenger to leave the stage, but of course the crowd wanted more so the encore consisted of the songs Home and Holes which were both crowd favorites which left the fans satisfied with smiles left on their faces as they left.
Review by: Sarina Solem
Passenger
Paper Kites
