It’s 10 to 8 on a cold Sunday night in November and there’s still a massive queue for the main room of the o2 Academy. First act of the night is Tommy LeFroy, a female duo with a hippy pop sound that make for a great start to the evening. After a less than impressive response to the question “are you having a good night tonight?”, Tessa & Wynter make it their mission to ensure the crowd are fully warmed up and enjoying themselves. Their set goes by quicker than most and this female heavy crowd lets out sizeable cheer for their final song which is introduced as a song about feminism. Lizzo’s ‘About Damn Time’ hints to the beginning of the show and this is where the audience warm their voices up; as the lights dim, the crowd get louder and a cheer rips through the audience as Sigrid & band step on stage.
By the time we get to ‘Sucker Punch‘, even the boyfriends who have been dragged along are joining in and giving us their best dad dance moves. As you head to the back of the room, the sound seems slightly more distorted but they may just be because of the sheer volume of what’s happening on stage. The Norwegian singer-songwriter is effortlessly elegant on stage and whilst the production level of the show is simple, it’s very well done and everything paired together makes for a beautiful show. There are no gimmicks tonight but when you have a voice like Sigrid, you don’t need any. The first note of ‘Head on Fire‘ receives a cheer from the crowd and this is where we start to hear the crowd really joining in. From here, we’re given the first of two (attempted) ballads of the setlist. ‘Dynamite‘ is introduced as one of her favourites which makes it sad to see that she’s starting to lose the attention of the crowd; there is a lot of talking over her and not a lot of singing.
Between ‘Dynamite‘ & ‘Bad Life‘ we’re given a little story of how, when she was little, her parents would give her the option of entertaining the family or doing the dishwasher and she would always pick the entertainment option giving her the motivation to carry on with her singing. ‘Bad Life‘ – her song featuring Bring Me The Horizon – brings this crowd back to life until an emergency interrupts about half way through. You can hear shouting from the centre of the room over Sigrid and she stops the song to get security to person in need. A cheer erupts from the crowd, letting us all know that she’s back on stage; she’s quickly checks the crowd are still into it (which they definitely are) before starting again. We get a little further this time before we’re back in the same situation. This crowd are less than impressed as a problem is escalated to security for the second time during the same song but this time, a small group of people leave the venue.
Her third entrance of the evening is started with a welfare check on the audience before she gives up on that song and swiftly moves on with the show with ‘Mistake Life You‘. Whilst that is a personal favourite of mine for the evening, ‘A Driver Saved My Night‘ seems to be the crowds favourite until ‘Plot Twist‘ comes along. ‘Plot Twist‘ is introduced an oldie, but a goldie and with the air conditioning blasting, the rest of the night seems to go off without a hitch. Sigrid & her incredibly talented band are a force to be reckoned with. The professionalism they display during what I’m assuming is a more difficult show for them is something to admire and they still managed to put on an awesome show.
Note: High Five and Everybody Says They’re Fine were both on the setlist (just before Plot Twist) but got cut due to issues in the audience
Live Review: Sigrid – o2 Academy, Birmingham 06.11.2022
