Music
Review:Passenger Live at 3Arena
On Saturday 22 November I had the pleasure of going to see Passenger aka (Mike Rosenberg) Live at the 3Arena as part of his 2014 world tour.
Doors opened at 6.30pm and 6000 people flooded into the 3Arena filling up seats and the standing area by 8pm.
At 8pm the Canadian Folk band – The Once, (Geraldine Hollett, Andrew Dale and Phil Churchill) came on stage and opened the show. The crowd loved the trio’s gorgeous harmonies and the spirited acoustic instrumentation supplied by Dale on mandolin, Churchill on guitar and Hollett with the bodhran.
The crowd where delighted with songs from their album, along with the cover of Elvis Presley “Can’t help falling in love with you” which resulted in the whole crowd singing along! On finishing their set The Once thanked the crowd for listening and getting involved with the support act. They left the crowd wanting more and sad to see them finish! It was great to see a new band taking the stage and I can see them doing very well in the future.
After a short break, the show resumed. Just before 9pm Passenger came onstage alone with his guitar to the cheers and applause from the crowd.
Passenger kicked off the show with a slow song “Rolling Stone” – from his latest album,”Whispers”. Not your usual way to start a show but he really got the crowds attention. In between songs random bursts of people screaming “I love you!” came from the crowd with Passenger responding to one “I love you too, but maybe we should meet for coffee first!”. Passenger was great at handling the crowd.
Throughout the show he livened up the night with songs such as “I Hate” and he continued to surprise the crowd when he broke into Aviici’s “Wake Me Up” in a cheeky introduction to his number one hit “Let her go”. Passenger got his support act The Once back on stage towards the end and they played an upbeat medley of Passenger’s “Light A Fire”, Van Morrison “Brown Eyed Girl”, Bruce Springsteen “Dancing In The Dark” and Fleetwood Mac’s “You Can Go Your Own Way”.
He finished on a high with one of my favourites “Holes” and had the crowd singing along with him. Mike Rosenberg got a well deserved standing ovation and a thunderous applause from a very happy 3Arena crowd.
Personally I had a great night at the concert and I would definitely go to see Passenger live again.
