Sam Fender brought his first headlining show to Chicago’s Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom as part of his People Watching Tour.
Sam Fender had tour dates scheduled for Chicago in both 2019 and 2022, however, both were cancelled. The first was due to illness, and the second was due to his needing to take a mental health break from being on the road. Until this show, the only time his Chicago fans had been able to see him live was at Lollapalooza. It’s been a long time coming, but finally the wait was over for a headlining show in the Windy City.
The previous scheduled tour dates for the city were for Lincoln Hall. However, his fan base has outgrown the venue, so this show was held at the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom instead. That is one impressive transformation from a venue with a capacity of 500 to one with a capacity of 5000. To top it off, he sold it out and could easily have filled an even bigger location. There was a line of fans stretching the entire length of the block and then some, eagerly waiting to finally see Fender live.
The sold-out crowd was more than ready for this show. The moment Fender and his ample-sized band stepped out onto the stage, the roar from the crowd was deafening. He has his own personal hype-man in Joe Atkinson, who, throughout the show, would whip the crowd up, encouraging them to cheer, not that they needed any encouragement.
There was a sea of black and white Newcastle United shirts being donned by fans in solidarity with Fender. At one point in the show, he asked if there were any Geordies in the crowd, to which he received a cheer from his fellow countrymen.
Although he reportedly doesn’t like being referred to as the “Geordie Springsteen,” you can’t help but draw comparisons between the two, given the subject matter of his songs, which are very much a voice for the working class and disenfranchised. Since this is termed the People Watching Tour, it’s not surprising that a big portion of the set included songs from this album, such as “Arm’s Length,” “Wild Long Lie,” and the title track. However, the majority of the set comsisted of songs from his hit album, Seventeen Going Under. This included what Fender called the stupidest song he’s ever written, “Howdon Aldi Death Queue.”
Sam’s band is made up of Dean Thompson (guitar), Joe Atkinson (keyboard/synth/guitar), Tom Ungerer (bass), Drew Michaels (drums), Johnny Davis (saxophone), Mark Webb (trumpet), and Brooke Bentham (backing vocals). This is an impressive-sized band in anyone’s book. Each of these talented musicians added so much to the overall sound, but a particular shout-out must go to Drew, who more than made his presence known behind his kit, often looking like Animal from The Muppets.
Fender told the excited crowd that there will be a deluxe version of People Watching coming out later this year. Since the album took three years to make, there was a lot of material left over. Therefore, the deluxe version will include eight new songs. There will also be another new album to follow that. They went on to perform “Talk To You,” which was one of the songs he had wanted on the original album.
It’s fair to say Fender received an extremely warm welcome from the Chicago crowd. His career is definitely on the up and up at the moment, so who knows which venue he’ll be playing at the next time he performs here. Looking at the size of this crowd, he has already outgrown the Aragon Ballroom.
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