It can be daunting for a solo artist filling an arena, but Dermot Kennedy has gone above and beyond demonstrating that as a solo male artist he has the capability to dominate a huge stage and humble the audience.

The last time I saw Dermot Kennedy was on the main stage at Nottingham’s Rock City back in 2019 entertaining a crowd of 2000. But in the four years since then, Dermot’s career has sky-rocketed. Last night he played for a crowd of nearly 10,000 people at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on his world-wide ‘Sonder’ tour where he is playing to thousands of fans a night.

Supported by Noah Kahan, who dubbed himself on stage as ‘the Jewish version of Ed Sheeran’, Dermot riveted the crowd to 90 minutes of poetic ambience. The slanted staging is minimalistic but effective, and with just two backing singers and a three-piece band he didn’t have anything to hide behind.

Opening with ‘Blossom’ from his latest album Sonder, Dermot’s distinctive raspy vocals captivated the crowd from the very start. If you’e seeing Kennedy live for the first time his live vocal performance can take you off guard – he’s minimalistic and leads all the focus onto the lyrics and vocals.

Dermot’s passion and poetic symphony’s radiate to the audience, he’s one of those rare artist’s that doesn’t need a massive production to grab your attention”

Transitioning into Power Over Me and One Life his hip hop influences emerge, before being reigned back in with the epic vocals in An Evening I Will Not Forget.

In 2018 l I interviewed Dermot and asked him about his sound, he described is as:

 “Someone who’s inspired by acoustic music and singer/songwriters, but is also influenced by a lot of hip-hop in terms of production” – “I never get ahead of myself and take it too far and try and be something I’m not – I’m still someone who sings with a guitar and piano, but I try to be influenced a bit“.

Five years later and he’s stayed true to his sound, he’s matured both in terms of live performance but also by staying humble, telling the crowd what each song meant to him and how impactful writing a specific song can have on you at a certain period of time.

He showed off his impressive guitar work in Moments Passed before reigning it in and taking to the stage with just a microphone and piano with Rome and Innocence and Sadness.

It can sometimes be difficult for ‘singer/songwriters’ (I say it like that because he’s more than that) to keep an audience with them throughout a whole headline gig especially when a lot of the songs are of the slower tempo, but Dermot manages to overcome that with his charisma and capabilities.

He rounded up the 19 song setlist with Outnumbered – the real crowd pleaser – followed by Something To Someone.

Even feeling ill (earlier that day he posted to his Instagram he was feeling under the weather) Dermot managed to deliver a special show. It’s not surprising the tour was taking a toll on him, he’s in a different city almost every day and experiencing the crazy industry lifestyle. However, the thing with Dermot is you can see just how much music means to him and how he shines when he’s on the stage. He’s a modern poet that speaks to thousands with his insane vocal capabilities.