GEORGE EZRA
3Arena, Dublin
★★★★☆
It is difficult to sit through George Ezra’s concert without feeling even a little bit more upbeat than you were before he began to sing. As below-freezing temperatures began to descend on Dublin when he took to the 3Arena stage on Wednesday night, the thousands in attendance couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces. Just as Michael Buble has become almost synonymous with Christmas, Ezra and his radio-friendly hits scream summer, sunshine and fun.
A youthful appearance with matching enthusiasm, Ezra can only be described as an English boy-next-door. He stormed on to the pop scene in 2013 when he released his debut EP, and has had consistent bangers since, following his breakout hit Budapest. Having last performed in Ireland in September, Wednesday night’s gig was a result of high ticket demand following the release of his latest album Gold Rush Kid.
“I wish every gig we played was in Dublin because they’re not all this fun,” he told revellers. Though his songs are constantly on repeat on Irish radio, he is a rare breed of male pop singer that seems to have escaped the almost cult-like teenage girl fandom that most are subjected to. A large proportion of the seated crowd were families with relatively young children. One girl, who looked to be about seven, couldn’t contain her excitement of being in the same venue as him: “Do you think he’ll see me, mom?”
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Beginning the high-energy performance as he meant to go on, Ezra opened with fast-paced crowd-pleaser Tiger Lily. Dressed in a denim shirt and coiffed back hair, there was a charisma about the English man as he smiled down at the adoring crowd before him. So much more than just a man with a guitar, his band has brass, keys, drums, tambourine, bass and guitar, creating a lush, layered sound.
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“We’re going to sing together, as loud as we can,” he decrees to the crowd during his second song, Cassy O’. By the time the song has finished, he’s beaming: “When I play in Dublin, I don’t need to say it. You sing from the very beginning.”
Even when his lyrics touched on more serious topics such as mental health and anxiety, the peppy upbeat tones to the music kept the misery away.
The lone exception was his performance of ‘Hold my Girl’. The song, performed only by Ezra with the accompaniment of piano, was the softest song of his set but arguably the most powerful, leaving the previously excitable crowd close to tears.
Flashing lights and on-screen graphics featured heavily throughout the performance, though sometimes served as a distraction to the fun.
Ezra is one of those artists who has an innate ability to cajole those reluctantly in attendance – dragged along by a partner or child – to sway and sing along. His final song, Shotgun, in particular, resulted in the crowd almost completely drowning out Ezra’s own vocals.
Ezra performed with such aplomb that even the biggest curmudgeon would struggle not to have a smile upon their face when leaving the arena.
