Lewis Capaldi Live (2023) - Review

Lewis Capaldi returns this year with the follow up to his debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent with the release of his equally syllable-heavy Broken By Desire to be Heavenly Sent. If the few songs we heard from it last night (18th Jan) at the AO Arena, Manchester are anything to go by, it sounds like it will be more of the same, but with a more developed sound. But that's a discussion for the album review - we're here to talk about the show, and what a show it was.

Supporting the sold-out show was British singer-songwriter RAYE. Opening with acoustic renditions of You Don't Know Me, Secrets and BED - slow and intimate (in fact, opposite in every way to their album counterparts), they were at once familiar, yet fresh. A problem early on was that the staging - which consisted of a wraparound screen hanging over the stage - completely blocked the singer from view whilst she was at her piano (though that was more a problem with me buying the cheap seats and being up in the heavens than it was a problem with the performance), but once the band stepped in to fill out the backing of the as-of-writing unreleased track Oscar Winning Tears, things really started to pick up as she took to the front of the stage. The skittering, slinky The Thrill is Gone, before we were treated to a few more new tracks; preceded by moving, genuine monologues, Icecream Man, Environmental Anxiety, Worth It and Buss It Down are gentle musings on relationships and, well, environmental anxiety, that, even only a half hour into the show, had those around me in tears. Worth It, a livelier track was the highlight, until the hit track Escapism closed out her set.

RAYE's debut album, My 21st Century Blues, is released on the 3rd February.

After RAYE had departed, the screen that had previously hidden her descended and shrouded the stage - ever and again, there would be the occasional movement backstage (which we could see all-too clearly from our vantage point several miles in the air(!)). Then - a thunderous, atmospheric track of fuzzing electronica instrumentals, peppered every now and again by a vocoder-infused Glaswegian voice almost humming the words Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent/Broken By Desire to be Heavenly Sent as artwork from the upcoming album flashed and flickered across the screen - then, it rose, revealing four platforms with a member of the band on each. Rolling mist (which Lewis would later joke was as a result of someone vaping backstage) coiled across the stage, and rising from it came good old LC, waving into the thunderous roar from the crowd. He launched straight into mega-hit Forget Me, during which he name dropped Manchester half a dozen times and strode about with all the ease of a seasoned touring pro.

He followed up with Forever and Lost On You, before spending about ten minutes delivering his trademark humour - first of all seeming to forget that he was performing on a Wednesday ("Wait, what, it's Wednesday?!" he groaned, after going on for a few minutes about how much he loved performing on Thursdays). In a moment of humble self-deprecation, he shouted out "Who's fucking tonight, Manchester?" - when a cheer in the crowd erupted, he claimed us all to be "fucking liars. You're at a Lewis Capaldi gig on a Wednesday night, no-one here's fucking tonight. You've all come here to cry about people who don't love us, I know you. I know you, 'cos you are me." Cue more cheering and laughter from the audience. After pausing for a moment to direct help to someone who had had some kind of medical emergency in the crowd, he resumed. There's something about Capaldi that defies all logic - nowhere does a greater gulf exist between the man and the music than here. He's one of the few people who can have you ugly crying one minute and crying laughing the next. If only he would give us something in between the two extremes.

Luckily, it sounds as if he's going to; the next song, Heavenly Kind of State of Mind, another from his upcoming album, is familiar territory lyrically, but is infused with a new sound that's not quite as upbeat as Forget Me, but shows he's moving in a different, yet familiar musical direction. Fade followed.

As Fade ended, the screen descended once more, and we got some more atmospheric music. After a couple of minutes, Lewis' voice reappeared and it became apparent that he was hovering over the stage on a platform above the screen - for us, in the nosebleeds, he was completely hidden by the hanging speakers, but his gorgeous face was projected onto the screen so we could get a look at him singing Before You Go. He was visibly shaking, as explained by his telling us that he was deathly afraid of heights - he made mention of the bad combination between his all-white outfit, his IBS playing up and the height of the platform... (make of that what you will). Bruises followed.

Another new song, Wish You the Best was played from the air before he descended for Grace. At this point, he explained that there were only "three more songs, but I won't lie, we all know I'll be coming back out". Those three songs were another new song, Leave Me Slowly, latest no. 1 single Pointless and fan favourite Hold Me While You Wait (which had to be restarted due to a clash somewhere in the crowd). Then, true to his word, he disappeared. Then, true to his word, he reappeared (after an "extended piss break", according to him).

For his encore, we were treated to the final new song of the evening, How I'm Feeling Now and for the final bow, what else, Someone You Loved, a staple closer that as the evening wore on became only more inevitable. For this, the screen descended again and he performed on a very very tiny stage protruding from the main stage. It was the perfect closer, and there is no wonder it has been for almost every show he has ever done.

All told, there is nothing to fault with Lewis' showmanship - he's at once funny, humble and honest; even when the fight broke out in the audience, he quipped "what a weird song to start a scrap during", immediately dissipating the tension. His ten-minute stand-up routine never felt as though he was padding the runtime, rather it felt natural and brisk, whereas some other artists would rabbit on and on for ages.

The new music on showcase, however, felt all-too absent - there was roughy an even divide between album tracks, yet the problem of beginning the tour before the new album has even been released seems a little too obvious - the songs themselves are beautifully rendered, but with only two being familiar to us, it seems more like the concerts would be better suited to a series of launch shows before a dedicated tour later in the year (Lewis made mention of this from his flying piano; "By the way, the QR codes either side of the stage, you can preorder my new album if you scan those, but why we started the tour when the album isn't even out yet is a bit strange, but my manager's told me to mention it.").

Pedantry aside, though, the showmanship, stagecraft and the joy of The Guy From Glasgow himself were on par with artists doing this sort of thing for decades; yet here is Lewis after five years acting like he rules the world - and if you ask me, he deserves to.

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Sam's Score: 8

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Tickets for Lewis Capaldi's future shows are available in limited quantities on Ticketmaster