Charm, wit and nasally tones
Passenger Michael Fowler Centre, January 31 Reviewed by Jule Scherer
FOR A MAN setting out to play ‘‘a few very depressing songs’’ Mike Rosenberg, aka Passenger , is a really funny guy.
Bouncing onto the stage in jeans that are too tight (he assured us though that when he bought them they weren’t quite so tight) he explained that although Passenger sounded a lot like a band ‘‘it’s just me and the guitar’’.
For the next 90 minutes he had the packed-in audience under his spell.
It was like a church service, he’s their messiah and they laughed at each and every of his jokes, clapped when they were told to, sang along when summoned (‘‘If you don’t sing you’re a racist’’, he quipped).
He’s a very likeable chap, I just don’t quite get his singing voice. His nasal tone makes him at times sound like a comic character, although when he talks he sounds like a normal guy from Brighton I’d love to have a beer with.
A lot of his charm comes from sharing his thoughts and feelings in his songs. Before launching into Riding to New York he told the story about how he finally kicked his smoking habit to rousing applause. After playing Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence he asked the polite audience to ‘‘turn into an obnoxious, drunk crowd’’.
As if it was some motivational youth camp, everybody got up, waved their arms and sung along to I Hate like they were all high on chamomile tea.
As well as from songs from his break-out album All the Little Lights and its follow up Whispers, Rosenberg also played some brand-new material. Then it was time for another serious sing-along with his hit Let Her Go, which catapulted him from a travelling busker to one of the most successful British singersongwriters of 2013.