Review: Sampha Live In Brisbane

Following the release of his debut album, 'Process', earlier in the year, Sampha played his first Australian show last night in Brisbane as part of his national Australian tour.

The British singer songwriter opened with 'Plastic 100℃', the opening track on 'Process', to a packed Max Watt's House Of Music in West End. Initially scheduled to play The Triffid, the gig was moved to Max Watts due to overwhelming demand and there was certainly a turn out.

Sampha used his opening track to lure the audience in by changing the lyrics of "Housten, can you hear?" to "Brisbane, can you hear?" From that moment on, he had the crowd eating out of his hand.

His setup on stage consisted of him behind a couple of synths with an electronic drum kit, acoustic drum kit and another synthesizer set up behind him. Sampha not only impressed us with his deliciously smooth vocals, but also his talent on keys as he tickled the ivories and threw a few extra arpeggios in here and there. 

Obviously a massive highlight of the set was when he brought out 'Blood On Me' which really gave everyone the opportunity to get their dance on and sing along. He also mixed it up a bit with an extended, percussive instrumental breakdown midway. Sampha then followed this up with another one of his most-popular tracks, '(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano', which was a complete contrast from the previous high-energy moment but gave everyone the warm fuzzies.

He was mesmerising.

It was at this point where he had to reluctantly leave the stage but was welcomed back to play one final song where he and his band started off a little more acoustic as they made beats on a few tom toms before breaking into 'Kora Sings'.

With such a positive response after his most recent album release, it's easy to say Sampha obviously has something working for him and from last night's live show, it appears he has everything working for him.

Catch Sampha for the remainder of his tour across the country in Sydney and Melbourne from this weekend.