On Monday night, English singer and songwriter Tom Peter Odell played his very first Lithuanian show in its capital city Vilnius to an excited audience, and we were lucky enough to witness this long anticipated event.
Doors to the venue opened at 6:30p.m. and as time went by, more and more people showed up and filled their seats. At precisely 8 p.m., the lights went down and the audience started cheering as a group of dark figures invaded the stage. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Tom. Instead, the stage was taken over by his supporting act, Lithuanian electronic rock band “The Station”. To tell the truth, the audience didn’t seem to be very pleased with their presence. Music in the background played louder than it should and it was hard to hear the vocalist’s voice at times.
However, after an hour of waiting, at around 9 p.m. Tom Odell finally hit the stage and was greeted with loud, welcoming cheers and clapping. He wore his signature outfit: unbuttoned shirt and a suit, sand-colored jacket and matching trousers. Classy, simple and stylish as always. His stage setup, by the way, was simple too: no jaw dropping decorations, just a black piano in the middle of the stage and drums behind it. But “less is more”, some say.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BR5hv_gDNtO/?taken-by=tompeterodell
Illuminated by white lights from above, Odell sat down at his piano and warmed the night up with “Still Getting Used to Being on My Own” off his latest album, Wrong Crowd. “I Know” from his debut album Long Way Down and “Wrong Crowd” followed right after.
There were many highlights. One of them was when Tom sat down on stage with one of his guitarists during a slow and dreamy “Mystery”, making the atmosphere even more intimate.
“We want to be as close to our audience as possible”- he said before breaking out into song.
Odell’s audience swayed with the music falling more and more in love with the young heartthrob.
“What happens to you? What happens to me?
Who knows which way the wind will blow
Baby, it’s a mystery”
As the concert continued, the artist climbed down the stage and girls in the front row went crazy. Tom energetically sang and danced with the audience before getting back on stage.
Even though Odell spoke more through his music rather than words, after one of the songs he revealed he had a free day yesterday, which he spent touring the city as well as visiting a couple of capital’s bars. His brief chat was followed by “Jealousy”.
“Yesterday was awful, you know what I mean
Yesterday was awkward, you could probably see”
The audience burst out in laughter and Tom’s giggles followed right after.
“Okay, okay”
He started singing again changing the words to “yesterday was fucking amazing”.
After about two hours, Tom left but was forced back on stage by the ear-deafening cheers and claps that made him play again. He finished the evening with “Magnetised” which gave fans the opportunity to sing along one last time. From the very first notes to the very last, the musician’s audience responded by screaming, chanting, clapping, and dancing.
All in all, from slow lyrical songs to rock n roll and even rock, Tom Odell had something for everybody and even though the show lasted almost 2 hours and a half, the time flew by in no time. An extremely intimate atmosphere and the guy’s love and passion for music made it even more awesome.
We can honestly say that Mr.Odell just once again proved the old saying that you don’t need bells and whistles to put on a great show. This one man and his piano made it easy to see why he’s been gaining fans left and right lately.
If we had to describe Tom in three words, they would be:
Unique, powerful, passionate.
And who said Mondays were bad?
Setlist:
- Still Getting Used To Being On My Own
- I know
- Wrong Crowd
- Concrete
- Mystery
- Can’t Pretend
- Sparrow
- Heal
- Jealousy
- Here I Am
- Hold Me
- Entertainment
- Another Love
- Till I Lost
- Grow Old With Me
- Somehow
- Magnetised