Sam Fender, St James' Park, Newcastle. 8/10.
I went to Newcastle on Sunday to watch CMAT, Olivia Dean and Sam Fender at a packed to the rafters St James' Park. I'm not a stadium gig fan - my previous two experiences at Wembley and Old Trafford Cricket were bordering on disastrous - but my partner loves Sam Fender and i love the originally billed War on Drugs, so it was worth a risk for a big day out.
Despite the disappointment (previous post!) of War on Drugs cancelling, the gig, and generally the day out in the Toon, was a massive success. CMAT was, as ever, great fun - high energy pop that was delivered very well and translated well to the stadium setting. Her energy is infectious and had a slowly filling audience up and dancing. Olivia Dean, for me, just didnt suit a stadium setting. She's not my scene and i thought it was very average, but she certainly drew a crowd. Anyway, the main event Sam Fender was a big success. Again, he is an artist i did not envisage myself going to see but he did excellently in a stadium setting, whipping up a home crowd of 50k+ into a passionate frenzy (even bringing on Dan Burn with the Carabao cup, bizarrely).
Fender is passionately Geordie, which is fine by me as he doesn't apologise or hide his upbringing. His music, some of the most 80s/90s Springsteen-esque rock you will come across in today's music scene, is a mix of straight up rock mixed with emotive subject matter. Therefore the big brash rock sound works for a stadium. But not every song came across well, his catalogue has more nuanced stuff that didnt work so well, but overall this was a highly enjoyable gig with a blockbuster ending with fireworks and all the trappings. He has worked a lot on the local boy gone big, he's done excellently from it and fair play to him, as I think he seems like a genuine lad. This was definitely a gig that falls into that magical live music category of "wouldn't usually go to this sort of thing but it was great live".
It also marked my first trip to St James' Park which, coupled with the big day out in Newcastle (and beers after the gig), was a marvellous day out indeed.