Rising sensation Sombr was my gig of choice last night, although truthfully it was my girlfriends choice, but I was there nonetheless. A pop superstar that sprung up out of nowhere and took over charts in Ireland like it was nothing.
Sombr is a rare treat in today’s music landscape, praised by likes of Rick Beato for his songcraft, he is one of the only people in his genre who still writes their own songs themselves.
I went into the concert expecting a standard enough night of pop music, much like any other of the pop concerts I have been to, and I was very wrong in my expectation.
Sombr has one of the most natural stage presences I have ever seen, very akin to Robbie Williams, knowing how to occupy a stage fully, without taking himself too seriously, the perfect blend of performer and entertainer.
The vocals aswell were astonishing. Towards the end of the concert he announced he would bring out “Irish Music Legends”, and I sighed wondering how he would butcher that term by bringing out some recent pop artist, not expecting him to bring out Noel and Mike Hogan from The Cranberries to do a cover of “Linger”
Stage Setup: 10/10, A stage set up in the vein of a late night talk show, complete with desk, band section and a fake cityscape behind the windows. A well made stage that saw all parts of it used.
Band Performance: 9/10, Sombr himself was near perfect on vocals, a voice the likes of which you see very rarely. The rest of the band too were on top of their game, with very tight playing and a sort of pop funk style very reminiscent of Nile Rodgers.
Support: 8/10, Support on the night was from Charlotte Lawrence, an American singer songwriter, with an incredibly powerful voice and a great blend of clean pop sections, mixed with heavily distorted rock oriented sections.
Merchandise: 7/10, A mostly standard merch selection, with a nice design of t shirts and hoodies, including merch from the supporting band, all at the standard price you would expect from concert merch.
Crowd: 8/10, A very passionate, very energetic crowd who seemed to know all the words to absolutely everything, and also one of the fullest crowds I’ve seen for a support act too, a few points dropped for the absolutely huge amounts of phones in peoples hands for the majority of the concert, which I will not rant about for fear of sounding like an old man.
Overall: 8/10, Sombr cements his stop in the current pop landscape, showing why he has gone from venues of less than a thousand, to instantly selling out the 3Arena in a couple of months. One of the best live performers out there, this man just has something most musicians don’t have, something indescribable but unmissable.
Next up: Waterparks The Academy 22/3/26
Jays Concert Blog 