PHOTO BY GABRIELLA CHURCH
Sam Fender on stage. The English singer-songwriter played his first ever show in Boston at Roadrunner Boston, a live music venue, on Wednesday.
After releasing his third studio album, “People Watching,” in February, Sam Fender played to a crowd of 82,500 at London Stadium, headlined three shows at his hometown’s St. James’ Park and even toured a few U.S. cities in the spring — but not Boston.
In fact, Fender had never played a show in Boston before Wednesday, so when the northern Englishman finally announced the New England tour stop alongside additional U.S. dates on May 27, it was to much anticipation: The general sale sold out instantly.
The Roadrunner, with a capacity of 3,500, hosted a far more intimate crowd than Fender has drawn on the other side of the Atlantic. Even still, it was swarmed with black and white Newcastle United kits — an increasingly de facto uniform at Fender’s shows.
He walked out to center stage under darkness and a swell of screams from the crowd before strumming the opening chords to “Angel in Lothian,” a seldom-performed mid-tempo track off the deluxe version of his 2021 album “Seventeen Going Under,” but one that I had high hopes of hearing after it landed on setlists from Fender’s summer festival slate.
Under a single backlit spotlight was Fender, donned in black Adidas Sambas, black jeans, a blue Carhartt jacket over a Guinness t-shirt and his subtle mullet. When the lights came up, the stage setup was just as simple: two tiers accommodating his seven-member band and a large backdrop displaying his name in yellow sans-serif font.
The visuals, lacking any sort of complex ornamentation, gave ample space to — and even helped highlight — the show’s raw lyricism and strong instrumentals as Fender grappled with working-class strife, relationships and his Geordie upbringing in songs sourced from his 2019 debut album to now.
It was with the second and third tracks, the upbeat “Will We Talk?” and “Getting Started,” that the crowd was able to fully release the pent-up energy that had been building since the doors opened at 7 p.m., and it never came back down. Every song either induced collective jumping or emotionally-driven pointing.
Fender took the first break from his music to address and thank the crowd while also lauding the Boston food scene, joking how he thought he had “gained a stone” since being in the city.
And he really isn’t afraid to be self-deprecating, later introducing “Howdon Aldi Death Queue” as the “stupidest song I ever wrote.” As true as that may or may not be, it’s a main fixture and crowd favorite, prompting the formation of a mosh pit where men and women, young and old — but mostly young — ricocheted off one another as the cacophonic musings about COVID-19 streamed from the speakers.
To each their own, I suppose.
More than anything, though, this proved Fender’s ability to hold a crowd through all different types of songs, where even the mellow “Arm’s Length” could be one of the louder moments of the night. The crowd, in unison, chanted the chorus, “Do you have to know me, know me inside out?” with the same level of intensity as “Howdon Aldi Death Queue,” and it just manifested differently.
As if his vocal and lyrical abilities weren’t enough, Fender showcased a keen artistry on the guitar in the long solo at the end of “Wild Long Lie.”
He would prove these talents again in the outro to “Crumbling Empire,” creating a nostalgia-laden mixture of sustained notes and vibrato. As the solo stretched to and beyond the one-minute mark, it increased in density and intensity as the song’s emotional climax.
Though Fender may be the face, his band is what truly completes the show. Nowhere was this more evident than in “People Watching,” the namesake of the album and the tour, which opens with synth tones from keyboardist Joe Atkinson.
Backing vocalist Brooke Bentham’s voice complimented Fender’s over steady playing from Dean Thompson on guitar, Tom Ungerer on bass and Drew Michael on drums. This is all before saxophonist Johnny “Bluehat” Davis and trumpet player Mark Webb came through in the latter half.
Fender took plenty of opportunities to highlight his band as well, rousing the crowd in chants of “Deano!” for Thompson, a long-time friend, and leading thousands in a “Happy Birthday” song for Atkinson, who recently turned 31.
I do have to say, I’ve been to two Sam Fender concerts now, and at each of them, it’s been someone’s birthday. Back in Denver in April, it was Fender’s 31st, and he received the same cake-and-song treatment.
If I had a nickel, right?
Another touching moment came when a fan, with a sign lined in battery-powered fairy lights reading “Can I play ‘The Borders’ with you?” had his wish granted. On stage, the teen was handed an acoustic guitar to strum alongside the band for one of Fender’s most popular songs.
Talking to the crowd again, Fender revealed that a deluxe version of “People Watching” is in the works, then treated the Roadrunner to a live debut of an unreleased deluxe track “Talk To You,” where 80s-inspired keyboard and harmonies from Bentham support poetics that long for the comfort of a past relationship.
Let the Bruce Springsteen comparisons roll in.
The show entered its final 20 minutes with one final track of his current era, “Tyrants,” before reflecting on Fender’s relationship with his dad in his older song, “Spit Of You,” perhaps one of the most emotional tracks of the set.
Before launching into “Seventeen Going Under” — the song that put Fender on the map for me nearly four years ago — he explained that even though he didn’t like encores, he and the band were going to do one anyway.
“Seventeen Going Under” has a special call-and-response-esque chorus, with the crowd taking up a melody of “oh’s” between Fender’s crooning — a perfect false closer.
As the band pretended to walk off, the Roadrunner crowd kept up their melody unrelentingly, and, who would’ve thought, Fender and the band came back for two more songs.
The first, “The Dying Light,” started with Fender spotlit on the keyboard before transitioning to the guitar as the song, and the crowd, built to its huge second verse.
This was the perfect setup for the real finale, “Hypersonic Missiles,” Fender’s near-signature closer. In a way, it’s a love song, though most of the lyrics comment on rising global tensions and a feeling of helplessness in their wake. It somehow feels more relevant in the present day, evidenced by the intensity with which the crowd sang along.
Fender’s show can really be summed up in one of the final lines he belted: “I’ll give you everything I have.”
Though he may write about his own experiences as a kid from North Shields, Fender has a way of connecting with crowds everywhere, and though it may be because a good handful of British fans traveled to the United States to see him, Boston showed out and created one of the best concert experiences I have ever been a part of.
Receiving plaudits from Noah Kahan and Elton John, and often called the “Geordie Springsteen,” Sam Fender can and should be playing to bigger crowds in the U.S., but in a selfish way, I’m almost glad that he didn’t — at least not yet.