Sunday I found myself back at MGM Music Hall at Fenway. This is one of my favorite venues in New England and last night we were there for none other than Lewis Capaldi. Capaldi is currently on his North American Tour with special guest Joy Crookes. How lucky is Boston to get two stops at this intimate venue? Capaldi is an arena-level act playing at a room capacity of 5,000 for two nights. That’s luck when he should be at TD Garden. This place was PACKED. I haven’t seen this many people at a show there.
Three nights ago he sold out the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York City. I can’t brag enough about this venue. There honestly isn’t a bad seat in the house. The first floor is General Admission and most of the time standing room only. The second and third floor are stadium-style seating. There are no obstructive views no matter your point of view. It’s like when you get a new car and it has that smell. This venue still has the new smell. It only opened in 2022 and is attached to iconic Fenway Park, where the Red Sox lost last night on show day. It has the arena feeling but a club-type vibe, if that makes any sense. Arena-headed artists usually stop off here right before they hit arenas, so it was nice to have an arena act at this intimate venue. It is modern, state-of-the-art, with a great sound system and great sight lines. It was built with fans and the artists in mind. They just didn’t build a building and cram people in to maximize profit. If there is an artist that you like, do not hesitate to go to this venue. With the great lines of sight, you won’t feel like you are watching from a different zip code. I arrived at the venue completely soaked. It was down-pouring here in Boston. I suppose looking back it set the tone for a night of sad love songs aimed to make you cry. Lewis Capaldi said in his documentary that he aims to make people cry with his emotional ballads. You can check out that 2023 documentary on Netflix. I think my Hey Dudes have finally dried out as of this morning.
Opening up the night for Capaldi was Joy Crookes. Again, not much experience with her prior to the show. I did get a chance to meet the London-born Bangladeshi and Irish singer before the show. She was so nice and down to earth. I had bought a ticket for my 7-year-old to attend the show and she was a sweetheart with my daughter. Her personality translated on the stage. I was trying to compare her to another artist and I came up with Amy Winehouse. That is a huge compliment. Her voice and personality give off old-school vibes but with a modern twist.
A lot of the time I see the crowd zone out for the opening acts. This was no different, however by the 4th song the room was silent. I noted that the room was pretty silent and everyone was listening to her with intent. She earned the attention of everyone in that place. She had an edge to her voice that paired nicely with her jazz-leaning melodies. Her voice was super soulful and relaxing. I really enjoyed her short 30-minute set.
I was going in blind to this concert. I recently only heard of Lewis Capaldi from my wife and daughter (7 yrs old), who apparently listen to him quite a bit. I am coming from more of a country and metal background. I hardly listen to traditional radio, so getting me new music can be difficult. After my family exposed me to “Somebody You Love,” it hit me that I did in fact know the song and thus Lewis Capaldi. So naturally I dove deep into everything Lewis Capaldi to immerse myself in his world. I found that I had been living under a rock when it comes to him. That was also apparent when I checked out his tour dates and saw it blasted with arena dates. If you’ve been anywhere near a radio (unlike me), a TikTok feed, or a late-night heartbreak spiral over the last few years, you’ve probably crossed paths with Lewis Capaldi. I hadn’t been subjected to this and I regret it. The Scottish singer-songwriter didn’t exactly take the slow, quiet route to fame. His rise felt more like someone kicking the door in with a piano ballad and a brutally honest sense of humor. More on Capaldi’s humor later.
Capaldi was born in Glasgow in 1996 and grew up in Bathgate, Scotland, where he started playing guitar and writing songs as a kid. By the time he was a teenager, he started posting online and playing at local pubs. His streaming numbers started climbing. He made his way up to the top by having raw talent and not being pushed by the industry right out of the gate. His breakthrough came in 2018 with the single “Someone You Loved” (hey! I know that one!), which didn’t just do well, it exploded. The song climbed to number one on charts around the world, including the Billboard Hot 100, and turned Capaldi into a global name overnight. In 2019, he released his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, which became one of the best-selling albums of the year in the UK.
He built a reputation for being hilarious, self-deprecating, and completely unfiltered, which made him feel less like a pop star and more like someone you actually know. I learned so much from his documentary and I have to recommend that just as much as his concert. His 2023 album Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent showed everyone his growth as a songwriter. Around this time, he also became more open about his struggles with anxiety and Tourette’s syndrome, which added another layer of honesty to his music and his live performances. He touches heavily on this in his documentary.
The lights went off at 8:45, about 15 minutes later than expected, which built up even more anticipation. The crowd went from that silent focused group for Crookes to screaming like John Lennon just walked into the room. That was probably the loudest the crowd would get in an uncoordinated ruckus. Rather quickly, it would turn into 5,000 people singing in harmony. We have to talk about the lighting and sound before we jump in. There were, I believe, 4 or 5 semi-trucks for this arena act. They didn’t hold back on creating a perfect show. The lighting at this show wasn’t just good, it had to have been engineered to perfection. Every beam had a purpose and a personality. Before Capaldi went on, they had a stage hand moving around for about 5 minutes making sure the lights followed him. Lighting was a perfect mix of color and movement that never oversaturated Capaldi or Crookes. The strobes snapped exactly on cue with the music. The overhead lighting painted the stage in these rich, cinematic tones. I’ve seen a lot of shows, but this was one of those rare setups where the lighting didn’t just support the performance, it elevated it. Coming from a photographer’s point of view, it couldn’t have been better. Some of my best color-graded photographs have now come from this show. Despite the lighting setup, the stage itself was very basic. They focused on sound and lighting for this tour. Frankly, that’s all they needed to do. We didn’t need pyro and fire. We had tones and mood. This show was about connection and emotion and not theatrics.
By about the end of the first song, with my camera to my eye, I felt I knew Capaldi personally. I felt as if he wrote and performed these songs just for me. He somehow had a way of wrapping me around his finger and pulling me into his soul. Mind you, I didn’t know any of the lyrics and I was hearing these songs for the first time. I found myself really invested in consuming every note he sang. I didn’t even want to be taking photographs after the first song. I wanted to just watch and listen to the performance and soak it all in. His voice was not only therapeutic but heavenly. I always loved the way James Blunt sang and I had an affinity with him, and I thought that Capaldi took that to the next level. He’s like if a pub regular had one of the best voices on the planet and accidentally became a global superstar. This man deserves every bit of the recognition he is receiving. When I got back to my viewing location, I was locked in. The room narrowed and I only became focused on him. I wanted to hear every note he was singing and every chord the band was strumming. I am telling you that nothing was able to pull me away from what I was witnessing. It was pure magic. His voice was perfect and he proved you do not have to have a “perfect image” to be successful in this industry.
I love and appreciate how candid Capaldi is about mental health and his struggles with Tourette’s syndrome. Him, along with Cameron Whitcomb, are making vulnerability mainstream again. As much as one goes to see Capaldi for his heart-wrenching ballads, I believe they go for his between-song banter. There were spurts of minutes where Capaldi would have back and forth with fans. My favorite exchange was when a fan yelled out that they also had Tourette’s. Capaldi’s response was absolutely hilarious. “Let’s tick together.” I can’t believe how candid and open he is about it. It truly was awesome and inspiring. The crowd was a bit on the older side, but we definitely had a sprinkle of younger kids in the crowd. A few concert firsts were in the building and Capaldi made sure to call them out and thank them.
During the song “Something In The Heavens,” Capaldi truly shined. This song live really showed his range and I was absolutely floored by his ability. I cannot stress enough that this show was perfect. I don’t want to sound like a “fangirl,” but it was. The show was vocally perfect despite Capaldi stating that his voice might be cracking “like his balls just dropped.” I didn’t hear any of it. Perfect lighting, perfect sound, perfect artist. I was really glad to hear that he is feeling the best he ever has and as healthy as he has ever felt. Capaldi deserves to have a long, successful career filled with many hits. We made the right one famous again. He can truly be an inspiration to people that need a comeback story. By the end of the set, after he “faked leaving for an encore,” the crowd was deafening. Of course this culminated with “Somebody To Love.” The crowd roared, including my 7-year-old daughter. I found myself singing along when the piano and Capaldi stopped performing and we all sang a cappella. It was a beautiful moment. He took out his in-ear monitors and soaked the moment all in. We all soaked it in. We all were a part of a special moment in a special man’s life.
Make no mistake. There isn’t a concert that you cannot miss more than this. You have to be here. Hell, I didn’t even know 95% of the songs and I had to be there in hindsight. Don’t make the mistake of not going. Hopefully you can still get tickets to an arena near you. If you are reading this and you are going to a future show, then you shall know that you are going to have the time of your life. You are going to see two singer-songwriters do their thing and do it perfectly. Capaldi is a once-in-a-lifetime artist that shines brighter than just his music. His Scottish quips and banter are just as entertaining as his music. There wasn’t any way this show could have been better. You will not be disappointed. Go enjoy yourself and go BUY. THE. TICKETS.
