Passenger Plays It Sad at NYC’s The Beacon Theatre

Jeff Moses

If there was one thing that Passenger frontman Michael David Rosenberg made blatantly obvious when he headlined a sold-out Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan Saturday night, it was that he did not write or perform the Disney hit song “Let It Go.” The Englishman joked that he is recognized as much for a writing credit that is not his as he is for his own closely titled number one single “Let Her Go.”

There was no case of mistaken identity however for his legion of more than 2,800 fans who packed into all three tiers of the magnificent 88-year-old theater. Many showed up just to hear Passenger play their sad, sad single. In fact, a good chunk of the audience cheered mightily when Rosenberg suggested that he might just play “Let Her Go” thirteen times and call it a set.

The evening opened with 5-piece Australian outfit The Paper Kites – and while they are a folk-pop band at their core, they still have a few songs that veer off into near psychedelia, complete with a neat blue rotating laser light show. Ultimately The Paper Kites were underwhelming. They have all the necessary songwriting and production, but were coming up short in their stage presence.

Passenger definitely did not have any issues with energy or stage presence. Whether it was with the full 4-piece band or just Rosenberg doing his own solo acoustic thing, the stage was alive and the room was in awe. With or without the band, Rosenberg was the show; he kept the beat going by stomping on the stage and electricity in the set with a booming voice and simplistic songs.

The agreeable nature and simplicity of Passenger’s songs attracted a wide range of age groups to the performance. There were entire families out for the evening together, small groups of teenagers snickering and eating popcorn, couples on dates, middle-aged married couples, and a good amount of seniors. Rosenberg’s music is relatable enough to help it to reach a plethora of contemporary pop music consumers.

Rosenberg opened the evening with his tune “Somebody’s Love.” He burst onto the stage, acoustic guitar blazing following the entrance of his four touring band mates. The charismatic frontman charmed the crowd with his accent and wit before going into “Life’s for The Living” before “If You Go.”

The former busker then asked the crowd to stand, and paused the music for a moment to relay a story about his past traveling Europe and playing in the streets while trying to hawk CDs. What came from the story was the origin of his song “27,” right before he played it for an ecstatic audience in the sold-out Beacon.

Following the song, Rosenberg mused about how he didn’t quite know where he was going to end up as a musician busking all over the place. One excited fan reminded him, “The Beacon Theater, New York!”

The show got noticeably sadder after “27,” with the band going into “Anywhere” and then “Everything,” and even though the positive vibes of the beginning of the show were replaced with melancholy ones, the Passenger-faithful continued cheering their heads off.

“Only a Passenger audience claps for misery,” joked Rosenberg as he relayed two sad stories which were used to make up his tune “Traveling Alone.” The singer’s folk roots really took hold for this one – partially because it was his first solo acoustic tune of the evening, but also because it’s a song written in the style of the folk masters like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.

He followed up his own sad folk song with a legend’s take on sad folk, covering the Simon & Garfunkel classic “Sound of Silence.” He took a moment after the song to bask in the glory of playing that classic hit in what is essentially its home, speaking about how significant Simon & Garfunkel live in Central Park was to his own songwriting career.

Next up was his tune about his utter hatred for things, “I Hate,” which was interesting to watch him belt out with an ear-to-ear smile on his face. Throughout the song, Rosenberg decries things he hates, such as the TV show “The X-Factor” which he blames for ruining music (as opposed to saccharine pop folk singers with very little to say).

In the home stretch, Passenger invited his band back out on stage to play the title track from his new record “Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea,” followed by “Beautiful Birds,” and then his breakout hit “Let Her Go,” which the entire audience sang along to. He closed the show with a cover of the Bill Withers funk standard “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Naturally it would not be a sold-out New York show for a platinum artist without an encore, so the cheeky Brit gave his audience exactly what they wanted with rousing renditions of “Scare Away the Dark,” “Home,” and then the set closer, “Holes.”

Passenger performed with opener The Paper Kites at NYC’s Beacon Theatre March 11.