Review of Lewis Capaldi’s concert in Prague’s O2 arena

“I never realized I had a fear of heights. Except on this tour,” he says after finishing the ballad Bruises with just a piano. It’s Friday night, Lewis Capaldi is sitting on a high platform resembling a stairway to heaven, looking down awkwardly. “God, when I come down, my pants might not be so white anymore. I normally screwed up here,” he disarms the moved audience.

Just a chamber ballad Bruises she made him an unexpected star. When he self-released it in March 2017, it quickly amassed nearly 28 million listens on the Spotify streaming service. Until then, no artist without a contract with a record company had achieved this.

But it was only the first of many triumphs. Debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent became the best-selling record in the UK in 2019 and 2020. Even before its release, Capaldi sold out the indoor tour.

Popular music has few musicians whose work and performance are in such stark contrast. Capaldi composes brooding love songs, vaulting, radio hits built around a shrill and powerful voice. At the concert, in the media and on social networks, he jokes, often off the edge.

Thanks to his charisma and a certain nonchalance, the twenty-six-year-old Scot does not seem like a product of the music business, which adds authenticity to his music. It balances out the pathos of candy songs with “stupid” humor and it works. End of first track Forget Me the packed O2 arena sings in a dedicated multi-voice, white confetti falls on the heads of the audience.

His concerts are sometimes compared to the performances of stand-up comedians, but Capaldi is more of a ready showman. He reacts to the audience in a flash, he has fun, his speeches do not seem learned, even if he repeats some. Like when in Prague he encourages all the singles in the hall to boo those who came in pairs. “How dare you be happy in this place, here to be sad, that’s today’s modus operandi!” he gets angry at the sight, but at the same time balances the heaviness of his lyrics with similar moments.

He came to the Czech Republic for the fourth time, last time in 2019, the Prague club sold out Sasaza. There the audience consisted of two groups: teenage female fans and a bunch of Capaldi’s compatriots who chanted “Scotland, Scotland!” with the gusto of football hooligans. or the name of your hero.

In the O2 arena, there was no turbulence this time. Even thanks to items from the upcoming second album Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent, which will be released on May 19, it was a classic pop concert.

Capaldi has swapped clubs for stadiums, and with more space on the volume, so do his songs. But he was also able to sell the new ones in Prague just as well as the internal ballads.

Although he otherwise presents himself as a guy with a guitar, he enters the scene opulently, through an opening from the ground. He appears in the middle of the stage surrounded by smoke.

The accompanying band is set up on four illuminated plinths, which will not leave the whole evening. The drummer, bassist, keyboardist and guitarist also have a designated space within the compositions. They play sparingly, without solos and frills, all arrangements are strictly subordinated to the song. Their sound is enhanced by a transparent sound, you can clearly hear every beat on the drums. Lewis Capaldi proves that even the often cursed O2 arena can sound great.

The atmosphere is enhanced by a simply created scene – a giant cube serves as a projection surface on which motifs of water and clouds are repeated. Dark blue alternates with red.

As much as his songs are full of grand and touching gestures, you can tell that he composed each one alone with a guitar. It proves that pop doesn’t have to sound calculated, as it has in recent years, for example, with Ed Sheeran. If this first man of the British music business has competition anywhere, it is probably in Glasgow, where Capaldi is from.

His Prague concert lasted just over an hour. About half of the thirteen songs were well-known hits, and the tempo did not slow down even with new releases. It may not seem like much, but not everyone needs to spend three hours on stage like The Cure did last year at the same venue. Lewis Capaldi played a perfect concert at the O2 arena, leaving people wanting more.