Passenger

Passenger is the man.
First of all, his music is great. Live or recorded, I like listening to passenger and so should you. The first Passenger show I went to was at Slims in San Francisco in December of 2012. I actually had no idea who he was until a week before the show when a friend of mine posted "Let Her Go" to my Facebook (then it had maybe 6 million views, tops!). I thought it was great and added him to my song kick, only to find out he was coming to town in a couple of days. I made sure he really was as good as Let Her Go made him out to be, and searched a few more youtube videos, only to find out why he suddenly went from busking in Australia to touring with Ed Sheeran. He is an incredible musician and comes across as someone you'd want to be friends with. $60 and a four of tickets later, I convinced a motley crew of friends to join me at "this place called Slims in San Francisco to see this British guy Passenger." No one knew who he was or what this place we were going to was, and the skepticism from my friends grew as we walked into a strange (yet awesome) venue that was filled but not packed with an assorted crowd of San Francisco 20+'s. Needless to say, the show was incredible. His music, louder than any arena show I've seen (even with just an acoustic guitar, his bare voice, and foot as percussion). His personality presented him as a drinking mate you might go to a show like his with. And he kept the audience on their toes with brilliant music, a few fantastic covers, and a spot on sense of humor. After the show he thanked the crowd and said he'd be at the bar for a drink if anyone wanted to join--Two years later I feel like the biggest idiot for passing on that because of class the next morning (what an idiot, right!!) Fast forward a year, and Passenger plays the same venue. We waited in a line filled with teenage girls and their boyfriends to enter a jam packed venue. Generally not my cup of tea, but it was the same great Passenger, and another fantastic show. It would be a mistake to pass up an opportunity to see him live.

As someone having been a teenager at late 90's and early 2000's, I never thought I would love a 21st century performer as much as I loved my teenage idols. But Passenger is that one performer whose records I buy and whose music is on during my whole waking hours. What is so haunting about his music, is his sincerity and his lyrics that are personal on the one hand and addressing the issues of our generation (people born in the 80's) on the other hand. Although his studio albums are great and worth a listen, attending a live concert of Passenger is a totally different experience. I had the chance to see him live at Tivoli in Copenhagen. Onstage he tells jokes and stories behind his songs. He is honest, emotional, modest and talented. He is totally there for the public and interacts with the audience. There are lots of singalongs during his shows. He enjoys it and the audience enjoys it as well. He changes the lyrics to adjust the audience (for example in Copenhagen singing "I hate Tivoli toilets" instead of "I hate festival toilets.") But sometimes he requests silence and the audience respects it. He goes on singing slower and sadder songs full of emotion. Sometimes he goes acapella and that's when you get goose bumps or even one or two tears in your eyes. In the end he sings "Scare Away the Dark" with the audience singing along. He leaves the stage but the audience keeps singing, calling for an encore. And he comes back and performs few more songs and leaves the stage again, this time for real. Passenger, being worldwide famous now, still busks sometimes, going back from where he started. His busking is different from his stage performance but is no worse. So if you ever hear he is playing in your location, don't hesitate to go to the concert and check his Facebook page, to see if there is any busking coming up!

Passenger started out from busking on the streets of United Kigndom to giant stages on Euroope Summer Festivals, but he can keep the busking feel up until now. The band of one only man, Mike Rosenberg - artistic name Passenger - was the last one to perform yesterday on Central Park Summerstage, and was the perfect closing. The place was packed with people from everywhere, and the excitement was visible. Mike, whose success comes from hit single Let Her Go, was trully overwhelmed for playing at Central Park, since this was something his favorite artists Simon & Garfunkel did - and their live at Central Park was his favorite record when he was a kid. Always changing between slow, sad songs (miserable songs, as he says) to more upbeat songs, the crowd would go from complete silence to cheering, clapping, and singing along with all their might. As a rising star and honest-like artist, Passenger revealed the inspiration behind Riding to New York, a song from his latest album, Whispers, which he sung partially acapella. The song comes from his own struggle with cigarrette addiction, and how he met a man with lung cancer who was heading to New York. Also, he called Stu Larsen - another rising star and Passenger's friend - on stage to duet on Heart's on Fire. Those two powerful voices have made the song even more heart-melting. Another highlighted moment was when he was about to play a song and some random guy screamed "Rolling Stone", another of his latest works, to each he agreed and played. Mixing his old and new work on the setlist, all kinds of Passenger fans were surely satisfied when they left Central Park. When attending a Passenger concert, expect to fully mess up with your emotions - all of them - and interact with him as if he was not a famous artist, but some random musician busking in Central Park for free.

Wow. Thats is the first word I think of when I think back to the Passenger concert last night. To start it off the opening acts where absolutely amazing! Stu Larsen and The Once were incredibly talented and not to mention nice. My friend and I met both groups after the show and they were so gracious when we praised their skills. I will be looking forward to when they blow up and get the popularity they deserve. Back to Michael, or Passenger as he goes by on stage. He was super funny and very personal with us. Being the first stop on this tour was kind of like forming a bond with the performers and how we acted was sure to reflect on the rest of the tour. If we were lacking and unresponsive then thats what they would be expecting. We were far from that. He would make jokes to get us to interact and even took a song request. He warned us that he was a bit rusty with "Table for One" but naturally he rocked it. He told us a very personal story about his song "Riding to New York" that nearly had us in tears. He would have us sing parts of the song and joked about how he knows that when artists ask you to sing you want to grumble and say no but he pleaded so we joined him in singing "Let Her Go" which he wrote in 45 minutes.
I look forward to seeing him perform again and would not hesitate to buy tickets. The performers were amazing, the crowd was amazing, basically everything was amazing. Everyone there was there to see him and I doubt that they would have anything bad to say either.

Hi Mike, I don't know if you or someone else is gonna read this but it's worth the shot.
I wanted to tell you that I went to your concert in Nimes last tonight, where you were feeling bad and I appreciate so much that you went on stage even in your conditions. I am usually the person who relates to music to face their emotions and life experiences and after my grandfather died on the 27 of december lastyear (2018), your music has helped me to grief it.I even cried like 4 times in your concert tonight. I was standing really close, I dont know if you saw me.
So thank you. This is just a little reminder that even though sometimes we feel like we don't do much, our little gestures (like you struggling to play with your naussea) can have a huge impact on some people. Once again, thank you for helping me cope with the lost of a loved one.Btw, I'm from Argentina but I'm studying in England. As soon as I heard you were playing here I bought a ticket to visit my brother in Lyon and came to spend 2 days here just to see you play live. So keep in mind that your fan base is worldwide.
Keep on doing what you love, because you are definitely doing good to others. Hope you feel better.

utterly brilliant. mike is such a fantastic showman, the band were great, he engaged the audience so well, was very funny and told fantastic stories about the origins of his songs. most importantly of course, his music live was completely faultless. as a busker it is to be expected that his live shows would exceed that of artists who are entirely studio based and that is absolutely accurate. his stage presence, live music and ability to engage and audience of 5,000 for and hour and a half, both getting them up onvtheir feet singing and keeping them completely silent, was spellbounding. with minimal lighting, special effects and even backing musicians his performance was utterly captivating. for me it was the best concert i have ever been to. if you get the chance i would absolutely recommend you go and see him. personally i don't feel that venue size makes a huge amount of difference. i saw him at the eventim apollo which is really quite big and yet his music can be scaled right down and work perfectly in a much smaller venue. a hugely versatile, talented and inspirational performer.

Basically the best concert I have ever attended.
I am a huge passenger fan, and I am familiar with every song. So this might make my opinion a bit biased.

Still, the concert was nicely balanced , the mix between depressing songs and up tempo was okay, personally would have enjoyed more misery. The addition of the simon and garfunkel cover was really nice, but I felt that the paul simon cover was kinda out of place and I would rather have seen a song from passenger.

Also the fact that Ed came was really cool. Personally 2 songs with him and maybe a bit of dialogue would have been awesome, but this was awesome too

Furthermore the way Passenger thanked the audience and his sincerity while doing so felt super nice. Also the stories he told we either funny, inspiring,beautiful or all of the above.

The audio could have been better, if he sang louder than acoustic his voice could sound quite too loud and it would lose a bit of the passenger feel.

This was definitely the best concert for me and this will be in my memory for ever

I saw Passenger perform a few days ago, but instill can't get that concert out of my head!! I saw him during his Whispers tour while in Minneapolis at First Ave. The music was absolutely amazing! Huge thumbs up for Passenger for an outsanding performance that was just him and his guitar and still somehow got the crowd to sing and dance along. His songs ranged from the thoughtful "Riding to New York" to the laugh out loud "I Hate" and to the inspiring "Scare Away the Dark." But not only was the music exceptional, but also his ability to entertain the crowd. There was never a dull moment as he was constantly engaging with the audience, telling stories,making jokes, and encouraging us to sing along. Passenger has a lovely charm that makes banter between the audience and him something to enjoy. Overall, that was my most well spent money ever. I will always remember this concert as an amazing event, and I will always be on the look out for when he comes back to a venue near me. Bravo, Passeneger, for a truly amazing experience.

There are few times you can go to a show in general where the audience is quiet and appreciative of the artist playing. Passenger took the audience in his hand from the beginning. The show was sold out, in a 3,000+ venue, so I went in with low expectations of being able to hear and appreciate the music for what it is. Passenger stopped several times before playing asking the audience to be quiet and they listened. It was quite an amazing experience. As someone who attends many shows, there's nothing that irks me more than people talking over performances. Passenger took full advantage of being able to get the audience quiet. During the silence he would go into backstories in his songs, some of which were truly meaningful, emotional at times, and a great addition to the show... instead of having an artist just play songs back to back without much in-between. It was an amazing experience to witness ONE man holding the full attention of a room of 3,500 people. I would highly recommend seeing Passenger in any setting!

I'm not sure words could truly describe how good Passenger was last night in Norwich. The warm up band "The Once" gave me shivers and were a great start to the night. And then passenger came on and blew me away. Admittedly and somewhat embarrassingly I was not expecting him to have such a presence. But on stage by himself and a guitar, he blew me away. The voice on that guy is incredible. But that isn't all that makes a great gig. His stage presence was fantastic and he had the crowd mesmerised. He was funny, anecdotal and charming. After telling the story behind the song "Riding to New York", you could here a pin drop when he played it - it was beautiful. He had the crowd hanging of his every word, which was amazing considering he was on stage by himself. I've seen the likes of London Grammar, elbow, AM, Jake Bugg, Foo fighters, but this was by far the best gig I have been to.