Live Review: Sam Fender

HighSchool are originally from Melbourne, but since they’ve been living overseas for the last year and a half, tonight is actually their first live gig in Australia. It’s a pretty special moment for them, and the crowd gets amongst them to start their night off on the right foot. Their post-punk sound is packed with jangly guitars, lo-fi vocals and nostalgic synths to create plenty of indie bangers for the crowd to move along to.

“We never expected to see so many people here tonight,” exclaims Sam Fender. The English singer-songwriter hasn’t toured Australia since late 2018, and since then, his fan base has grown considerably. Tonight’s sold-out show at St Kilda’s Palace Foreshore pop-up outdoor venue is the perfect venue to welcome him back.

The atmosphere is alive with excitement, and spring is in the air. The Melbourne weather gods managed to give us the perfect evening for this show. Before Fender shares his song Mantra, he tells us, “This song was made for playing during sunsets like this, and it feels like one of those nights.” He recalls the last time he felt this way was playing at London’s Finsbury Park. The woozy song is loaded with saxophone solos to melt our hearts and get us grooving along as the sky turns a bright orange. 

Photo Credit Ash Caygill

After a few chilled songs to begin, the crowd is well and truly warmed up and charged to let loose and jump around. Fender encourages the crowd by reminiscing about when he was last in the country, and things got way too out of hand (in a good way). He asks us to implore that same energy and also calls on our voices to help him out, starting with The Borders. His music lifts us up with anthemic choruses, strong vocals and rocking guitars. “Do you do mosh pits here? I’ve never seen an Aussie mosh pit yet,” Fender jokes, knowing full well that the crowd is gearing up to go wild. “Now’s the time if you wanna give it a go,” he says cheekily before they begin flailing their bodies around to the beat during Spice and Howson Aldi Death Queue.

“What a way to end the craziest year of our life,” says Fender as he marvels at the huge audience here to see him tonight. “There’s been a lot of ups and downs, but it’s this shit that powers me through,” he exclaims with humility and pure joy. Get You Down is the perfect song to continue with to summarise his feeling of perseverance and appreciation of his fans. Fender regularly engages with his audience, which makes us feel more connected with his music and its meaning. He shares a song (Spit Of You) about his old man that he loves very much. The emotional tribute is accompanied by a montage of pictures rolling on the screen behind him featuring family photos of loved ones and him and his dad.

Photo Credit Ash Caygill

For Australian fans, it’s the first-time hearing songs from Fender’s sophomore album that came out in 2021. Since then, he’s been busy working on new material and plays a couple of fresh songs that he recorded after the album was finished, including Alright and Wild Grey Ocean with the most epic saxophone solos to give us all the jazzy feels. He then throws it back to the first single he ever released, and he explains it was recorded in his mum's flat with some pretty shitty equipment. This song, Play God, was the one that started it all for him and his band, bringing them all together, and they’ve never looked back since. 

Fender moves to the back of the stage for a solo performance by his keyboard underneath a spotlight for an emotional ballad to start off The Dying Light, before picking up his black and white striped guitar for an explosive finish. His band joins back in for an encore of Seventeen Going Under. “This song went so much further than we ever expected and mental in Australia,” he tells. He explains how much it means to him growing up working class. The crowd continues to echo the “Oh Oh” singalong long after the song ends to show their immense love for the song. “This is the best first night of the tour and the best end to the year,” Fender declares as he feels the love from his fans. He lets us know he’s definitely going to come back next year, and he’ll be back with even more new music. Hypersonic Missiles launches us to skyrocketing heights for a big finish, and we ride the high of the euphoric anthem to the very end.

Photo Credit Ash Caygill