It has been almost three years since British singer-songwriter Sam Fender last played a show in The Netherlands. On the 5th of March, the artist finally returned to play a show in Tilburg’s 013, a venue Fender has never played before, as part of his People Watching Tour, named after his latest album. This album only came out a few weeks ago, but the show had been sold out for months by the time his fans got to hear the album. This was evident by how full the hall was; even the hallways were filled with fans.
At 20:00, an hour after the doors had opened, fans got treated to Fender’s support act, CMAT, the stage name of Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson. Not hard to guess how her stage name came about! For this show, Thompson was on stage all by herself, playing an acoustic set on just her guitar. She opened with a little speech, asking how everyone was and introducing herself as a singer “from a magical place called Ireland” who “Sam Fender really likes!” The first song she played this evening was ‘Aw, Shoot,’ a sad country song, and also her latest single. Right away, it was crystal clear how amazing Thompson’s voice is. Her vocals were simply astonishing.
Next on the setlist was ‘2 Wrecked 2 Care,’ which includes the iconic lyrics “I’m a hateful bitch” that she spat out during every chorus. In between the songs, Thompson spoke to the audience quite a lot, spotting someone with a vintage football jersey in the crowd, as well as some girls in the front who had been in the queue for this show since the early morning. When she asked them where they were from, they said “Best,” which led to Thompson asking if that place is indeed “the best”. The crowd did very much not agree with that sentiment, but it did give Thompson leeway to introduce her next song ‘Coronation Street,’ which is an unreleased track about not being able to afford “the best,” let alone “okay” places, and thus having to stay in miserable ones.
Finally, Thompson ended her setlist with the tracks ‘I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby!’ and ‘Stay for Something,’ the latter of which Sam Fender himself has apparently said he wishes he had written—something Thompson will “brag about at every show.” While Thompson’s set was thirty minutes long, she only played five songs, as they were on the longer side and she took a lot of time to interact with the audience. Thompson has an adorable, bubbly personality, and it was a privilege to hear both her stunning music and her opening up to the fans about each song.
Next, Fender mentioned how the fourth song on the setlist is one of his favourites of the new record. He explained how the title came about while on a road full of potholes in America, the driver talking about how this is the sight of a “crumbling empire.” Fender himself, of course, is British, and he wrote this song about England not being able to take care of its working-class citizens. Afterwards, Fender took a moment to speak to the crowd. When someone held up a sign asking for a specific song, he stated how he would stick to the setlist and jokingly said “This is a gig, not a Q&A! Have a dance!” Fortunately, the next track on the setlist was one everyone knew and could, indeed, dance to: ‘Will We Talk?’
Someone in the audience threw stroopwafels on stage, which Fender appreciated—not so much the throwing, perhaps, but definitely the food itself. On the first night of the tour, which was in Zürich, someone had brought the singer a Greggs sausage, so it seemed the food theme continued here in Tilburg! Fender then quickly moved on to ‘Tyrants,’ a B-side that will be on the upcoming Me & My Dog EP, and ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue,’ a heavily extended version that lasted several minutes. It was then time for “the weirdest song on the [new] album.” The song, which is called ‘TV Dinner,’ talks about the downsides of fame and criticises the music industry. He jokes afterwards that this track makes him look like “an angry cunt,” while in the next song, he moves on to adorably singing about his dad. ‘Spit of You’ has the crowd singing along again, right from the start, while baby pictures of Fender and his family are shown on the screen behind him.
There were still people in the crowd requesting songs not on the setlist, which led Fender to mention that he and his band had practised the songs extensively, and that Dean Thompson, his guitarist, practiced the most out of everyone. Fender wondered aloud how Thompson would feel if Fender decided to play an unexpected song, and joked that “if a boy scout could be personified, it would be Dean.” Of course, this meant that Fender just moved on with the setlist, continuing with ‘The Borders’ and ‘Little Bit Closer.’ Before playing the latter, Fender stated that he wrote this song “for everybody who ever had to go to Christian God camp when they were younger against their will” which made the audience laugh. While Fender is an amazingly talented singer and musician—as evident from both his vocals as well as the many instrumental parts in this night’s repertoire—he also loves to interact with his audience, which made the night so much more fun. It surely helped the crowd loosen up throughout the evening. “Thank you so much for being lovely tonight!” he said before shouting out the little moshpit he saw, surely he had not expected that at the beginning of the evening. Fender then played ‘Seventeen Going Under’ and the crowd went wild for those first few notes. They even kept singing the outro of that song when Fender went off stage before the encore.
Fender ended the night with ‘Nostalgia’s Lie’ and, the “song that started it all,” ‘Hypersonic Missiles.’ While it is a little funny playing this in The Netherlands with the first lyric being “Dutch kids huff balloons in the parking lot,” it is also a hugely important track that talks about the many issues going on in the world. While he wrote this years ago, it is still relevant to this day. And for those who still wish to hear this and the other show stopping songs on Fender’s setlist, don’t worry: the singer is still on his European Tour and will return to the Netherlands on the 18th of March to play a show in Amsterdam.
