On January 20th we start the evening by climbing the stairs to the top floor of the well-known venue TivoliVredenburg, where we find Cloud Nine: A small room with a balcony and a bar that holds a 550 people capacity. Tonight Spencer Sutherland starts his world tour in Utrecht and he’s brought two support acts with him to entertain us throughout the evening.
The first support act was a young lady called McKenna Michels, an American singer-songwriter hailing from Austin, Texas. McKenna began her musical journey performing at local venues and was classically trained in opera during high school. She enters the stage wearing a lilac princess dress and a flower crown, which seems very in theme with her Ep Renaissance, released in 2021. She starts her set with ‘Never Satisfied’, a song about the negative side of her autistic brain. Following that is the song ‘Queen of Venom’. She tells the crowd that this song is “kinda like a love letter to my masking persona to go away.” The next song is the first song on her album Enlightenment, released in 2022. McKenna has been an advocate for childhood abuse and trauma survivors, after experiencing such in her childhood. And that’s also what the song ‘Survivor’ is about. After her performance, a fan gives her a bracelet that has ‘survivor’ on it. It is clear McKenna loves to perform as she loses track of time and has to start her last song ‘I Don’t Know’. As an Iconic finish to her set, McKenna announces that her new song ‘Monster’ will be released on February 14th.
The next support act is Cloe Wilder. An 18-year-old indie-pop singer-songwriter from Clearwater, Florida, who began her musical journey at a young age. At 14 years old, she released her debut EP Teenage Lullabies, showcasing her melancholic, yet relatable songwriting skills. Cloe starts her set with the song ‘Heavy Weight’. After playing her song ‘House By The Water’ she tells the crowd an anecdote about how she doesn’t have to worry about drinking when she’s in Europe because the legal drinking age here is 18. Then, she introduces her song ‘Fake ID’. She tells the crowd how thankful she is to be here and that she opened for Spencer on a previous US tour. Cloe proceeds with throwing some merch t-shirts into the crowd. Throughout a lot of Cloe’s music, you can find her reminiscing on her childhood as fond memories. During her song ‘Five Years’ the crowd holds up their flashlights and creates a beautiful scene for this soft song. The set ended with the song ‘Cigarette’.
And then it’s time for Spencer Sutherland. The singer-songwriter and actor from Pickerington, Ohio began his music career performing acoustic covers of popular songs, showcasing his vocal talent and unique style. In 2017 his song ‘Selfish’ gained national attention, reaching 4 million streams on Apple Music. Later that year he entered X Factor UK and although he made an early exit, it paved the way for an international fanbase. And that’s what brings us here. His first-ever European tour starts tonight in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
The show starts with the last song on the pre-show playlist ‘We Will Rock You’ by British rock band Queen. Following that is an introduction to the modern rock opera show ‘The Drama’ by a British voiceover. The show starts with the songs ‘Alive’, ‘Everybody’ and ‘Let Me Loose’. It is an iconic selection of upbeat songs that get the crowd going. He asks if the crowd is feeling good and if they like his “big red chair”. He also tells the crowd he’s been looking forward to coming back to The Netherlands and that the only rule for this evening is “to have the best fucking night of your life”. The next song he plays is ‘God Save The Dream’ of his new album Drama, followed by the songs ‘Cry’ and ‘B!tch’ of his first album In His Mania, released in 2023.
The song ‘Melanie’ is an emotional song and therefore played acoustic, with Spencer himself playing the guitar. As a little surprise, he leaves the stage for a while and emerges on the balcony to sing the song ‘Modern Heartbreak’ about his struggle within the music industry. A guitar solo by band member Jordan Millisor followed this little spectacle. As he returns from the balcony he asks a fan if she can open his water bottle and compliments her Elvis shirt as he proceeds to do a little Elvis impression. He does a speech about how he’s happy that he sold out three shows in The Netherlands and announces that he has a room upgrade, the MAX, for his Melkweg show on February 8th. He tells the crowd how he moved up as an artist and how grateful he is to have gained such a large fanbase through the internet.
He makes a joke as he starts a cover of ‘Don’t Stop’ by Queen, singing the word tonight and pretending that’s not the song he’s about to sing. Throughout the show it becomes more and more apparent that Spencer was made to be a performer: from his outfits to his vocals to his crowd interactions and dance moves. He pulls a fan on the stage during the song and dances with her. During his song ‘Jealousy’ he gets the crowd to clap and dance along. This continues for the ultimate rock song ‘Baby’ with Spencer throwing karate kicks and turns all over the stage.
Spencer sits on his red velvet throne as the crowd gets teased with an interlude to the song ‘A Tragedy’ which has the crowd snapping their fingers along to the beat of the music and proceeds to lead into the song ‘Put Your Money On Me’. As we reach the end of the set the songs ‘Hater’ and Drama’ get played. For Drama Spencer uses a prop cigarette, as the song’s first lyrics are “I like the look of a cigarette, but I hate the way it tastes”.
He leaves the stage as the crowd chants for more and returns for his final song ‘Place Like This’. As he finishes the song he shakes the hands of his fans, blows a couple of kisses to the crowd, makes a bow and says a beautiful goodbye to an amazing night.
