Since 3pm (5 hours before doors) a swarm of teenage girls had been waiting outside the theatre Joy Eslava in Madrid. With no name above the door nor a single poster plastered around the city, Tom Odell takes to the stage before a crowd of around 800 people.Opening with 'Hold Me' followed by 'Can't Pretend' and 'Sirens' backed by slick harmonies from his 3-piece band, his passion is astounding. "Sorry, we've got technical problems, I usually manage to break the piano," he tells the adoring crowd. A rendition of 'Sense' accompanied solely by a piano has the theatre in complete silence until the roaring sound of applause. After a couple of new tracks giving insight of how album number 2 is sounding, he sang 'Grow Old With Me' which resonated with the Spanish audience who sang along with every lyric.
The 23-year old's charisma goes hand in hand with his on-stage persona, he manages to stay effortlessly cool whilst being utterly charming. He even dared a few phrases in Spanish to which was well received by the Madrid audience.
After performing his highest charting hit 'Another Love', he disappeared off stage for a moment before the whole band returned into perform a 35 minute encore. 'See If I Care' is my personal favourite, the engaging sultriness is much less obvious than his cover of Etta James' 'I Just Want to Make Love to You' yet still incredibly intense. Every song is a high-energy performance from him and his band, guitarist Max Clilverd, drummer Dan McDougall, both amazing, and bassist Max Goff playing electric bass and double bass, vivid pyrotechnics accompany his frenzied piano bashing. The audience were reluctant to let him go demanding more encores until he wrote an on the spot song about Madrid (which he definitely doesn't sing in every city of the tour...) It's not hard to see why music legends such as Billy Joel and Elton John wanted him to open for them at their own live shows.
I was fortunate enough to chat to Tom before the gig. He had just been doing some radio interviews for Spanish press as this was his first time in the country performing and was also feeling a little under the weather (although you wouldn't have known it from his over an hour long sound check). He also took time to pose for photographs with fans on his way in.
If you didn't catch Tom on this tour make sure you get tickets for the next, you won't be disappointed. Also if you haven't already purchased his No.1 début album Long Way Down then I suggest you do so right now, available from iTunes etc.
Facebook: /TomOdellmusic
Twitter: @tompeterodell
Instagram: @tompeterodell
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