The queue snakes around the stunning facade of Scala from mid-afternoon, waiting to get a spot at the barrier to see Dhruv.
Those who get here early are rewarded as the sold-out venue is packed and those places at the rail are prime real estate in London tonight. Alongside that, they have the privilege of listening to the soulful vocals of opener Jana Diab. A stunning half hour of music taken from her recent EP Season One.
Dhruv is now New York-based, but this is something of a homecoming. London-born, he feels a connection with the city and has recorded some of his music here. His life has seen him grow up in Singapore, and spend a lot of time in India with his extended family and this eclectic upbringing comes through in his music.
His smooth, introspective sound is coupled with a subtle, performative aspect, right from the opening of the show. To a spoken word soundtrack, Dhruv emerges on to the stage, clad in a trenchcoat, which he removes and hangs on a coatstand, stage right.
He immediately engages, some might say ironically, with Ode to Boredom. The mood is anything but bored and the room, now bursting at the seams, vibes with the understated rhythms of Dhruv’s compositions.
Smoke on the stage evokes a misty mood of London, and the trenchcoat makes another appearance as we are taken for a wander in Lonely City Walk. This segues into the affecting Grieving. Rarely these days do you go to any gig without some chatter in the background, but this was a pin-drop silence as everyone hung on each of the storyteller’s words.
Throughout, the crowd are rapt as the emotive tales are sung, sometimes focusing on love, sometimes loss and occasional anger. Trying to build a smooth transition between the upbeat vibes of Grateful and the vengeful Daggers, Dhruv accepts that it’s not really possible, asking instead “anyone ever hated anyone?!”
As the set progresses, we hear the bigger songs in Dhruv’s canon of work. Moonlight elicits one of the biggest crowd involvements of the night and the billion-time streamed double take draws genuine screams from some element of the audience. It’s a song he is rightly very proud of, and he tells us how he had a feeling about it as he recorded it, here in London. “I called my sister on the way home [to tell her] as I felt in my bones I’d made something special”
The fans clearly agree, as again, they sing it back with a billion streams’ worth of enthusiasm.
The night wraps up with the dancier Blur, sending everyone out of this iconic building with a spring in their step.
A consummate performance from one of the smoothest voices around.
