Tonight Mike Rosenberg aka Passenger started his 2022 worldwide tour with a visit to Dublin Prestigious Vicar Street with support from Luke Sital Singh and it was a fantastic display of singer songwriters at their best.
Like Sital Singh was a fantastic support act for Passenger. He took the stage, just him and his guitars and played a series of heartfelt acoustic/ electric acoustic songs in which he poured his heart out to the crowd. Midway through the set he mentioned that his new album is releasing next week and that he was using the Dublin crowd as ‘a bit of an experiment ‘. He then proceeded to play a new song of his album ‘Can’t Get High’ which was somewhat groovier than the rest of the set and was certainly very catchy! The then finished the set with a couple of old songs including the first so g he ever released 10 years ago ‘Fail for You’. It was a fantastic set and I look forward to catching Luke again soon, as his great voice and fantastic sounding guitars was truly singer-songwritimg at it’s best!
Passenger opened with his song ‘Survivors’ and congratulated the crowd for surviving the last few years. He then appreciated whoever pored his whiskey saying ‘that’s the biggest glass of whiskey I’ve ever seen. He then livened up the crowd with an old Passenger classic ‘Lifes for Living ‘, which the crowd immediately knew and sang back every word!
The next song was ‘Table for One’s before breaking into ‘Queenstown’ which he asked the crowd to be as quiet as possible and dedicated it to anyone going through a breakup, which was a nice touch. The next song was ‘Sandstorm’ which was fantastic as the stage went like a night sky! ‘I Hate’ got the crowd going, screaming the Lala lala part beautifully!
The next song was the wonderfully descriptive ‘Young the the Morning Old as the Sea’ to which the Dublin crowd responded beautifully upon the mention of the East coast of Ireland. Throughout the set Passenger threw in loads of jokes about his ‘one hit’ ‘Let her Go’ which was actually really funny but definitely untrue as he has so many great songs!
‘Blink of an Eye’ which was the story of Passengers life was a wonderful look into his life. He immediately sang a cover of Bryan Adam’s Heaven which the crowd absolutely loved holding their flashlights high in the sky for the entirety of the song while screaming back the lyrics!
The next song in the set was ‘Let Her Go’ which definitely needs no introduction. The response from the crowd to this song was definitely one of the loudest I have heard in a while. Although Passenger has probably sang this song thousands of times the passion could still be felt in his delivery, something very rare in a song so popular.
The last song in the main set was ‘Scare away the dark’ before the 3 song encore which included ‘Things That Stop You Dreaming’, ‘ Whispers’ and ‘Holes’.
Overall in was a fantastic night showcasing singer-songwriting. Passengers set was filled with fantastic music and funny stories which made for a very engaging show. Be sure to catch him on his 2022 world tour if you can!!
