“It felt like I was fifteen for like ten years” Tom A Smith jokes half way through his sold-out headline show at Manchester’s Deaf Institute on Thursday night. What is clear though given the crowd’s ecstatic reaction is that his time is here and now.
The Deaf Institute is packed out, full of young and old who Tom has picked up along the way on his exhausting seemingly never-ending tour schedule. It feels telling that we’ve observed crowds slowly growing for his shows - he recalled an opening slot for The Mysterines here to ten people and just two years ago he played to a half-full room downstairs in The Lodge - but the numbers have exploded in such a way that tonight, and many of the other shows on this tour, sold out in advance and it would take no great extrapolation to see this set in a much much bigger venue.
His set takes heavily from last year’s Say What You Want EP and his forthcoming Put A Record On Tommy EP. What both records demonstrate is an artist who’s found a skin he’s comfortable in, resulting in an ultra-confident showman performance, losing himself in the music, throwing himself around the stage and encouraging audience participation without losing his innocent Mackem boyish charm.
Songs like opener Let’s Go Dancing, Little Bits, recent single SFX, Fashion and the impressive earworm Our Song are thrilling adrenaline rushes with no little hint of groove and funk that stand him out from your run-of-the-mill indie lad. The Only One shows a softer, more tender side and set-closer The Band hints at more epic ambition and a more widescreen sound built to fill the biggest rooms. I Don’t Blame You has him playing call and response with the audience whilst single I Don’t Want You To Have To Remember Me For Longer Than You Ever Knew Me is as anthemic as its title is long.
He’s joined mid-set by Rowetta who provides vocals on new single and EP title track Put A Record On Tommy as well as early single Toronto, which he explains was his teenage self writing a song influenced by Manchester.
As the show finishes, the hour going by in a flash, Tom and his band (Katie on bass, Dylan on guitar, Frazer on drums and new addition sister Hannah on synth and guitar) take their well-deserved bows before heading to the merch stand. If the queue is any indication, and it usually is one of the best barometers as it’s where people put their money down, then this tour is just a stepping stone and these shows one to catch before opportunities to see him at such close quarters are consigned to the past.
Tom A Smith's website can be found here and he is on Facebook and Twitter.
His tour continues at Sheffield Hallamshire Hotel (April 3), Leeds Key Club (4), Newcastle Cluny (5), Southampton Heartbreakers (9), Oxford The Bullingdon (10), Bristol Thekla (15), Norwich Waterfront (16), Lincoln Southside (18), London The Lower Third (22), Birmingham Sunflower Lounge (23), Nottingham Bodega (25), Aberdeen Cafe Drummond (May 7), Dunfermline PJ Molloys (8) and Galashiels MacArts (9) before a summer of festivals and outdoor support slots.
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