Gigraphy Review - Tom Walker, Manchester Academy, 26/04/24

Review by Jessica Amy, photos by Sophie Ditchfield

It was nostalgic heading back to Manchester Academy to see Tom Walker on his I Am tour, I spent a lot of my younger years coming to this venue and it was a welcomed blast from the past. The audience was filled with people of all ages, parents bringing their younger children, older couples attending together, teenagers in their groups, showing just how well-rounded Tom Walker’s talent is.

Kerr Mercer

Kerr Mercer readied gig-goers for the main act with his strong, raw vocals that carried through the venue and captivated the crowd. Despite being alone on stage with his keyboard, Kerr filled it with his charisma and Scottish charm. He threw in a couple of covers from Ed Sheeran and Tom Odell to warm up the voices of the audience. Kerr took a break from the piano to pick up his acoustic guitar and joked about how the crowd usually goes silent during this portion, eliciting a few laughs from the audience. He continued to say that if they came for a party ‘not on his watch’. His ease on stage, banter with the crowd and natural talent filled me with great hope that his career in music really takes off. Hopefully beginning with his own show in Manchester in October! Keep an eye out for that one, he’s not one to be missed.

Tom Walker

The main event soon came, and the band walked on to strobe lights and orchestral vocals, amping up the energy ready for Tom Walker to bound on stage with electric guitar already in hand. The audience was LOUD for the act they had been waiting to see and gave him a rowdy reception. They headed straight into ‘Holy Ghost’ and it was evident that Tom was already enjoying himself immensely, dishing out powerful vocals backed by heavy drum beats and the smooth voice of his backing vocalist. The way he carried himself and strutted across the front of the stage plainly showed just how born for entertainment he is.

After ‘Rapture’ and ‘Wait For You’, which were raucously received, Tom converses with the crowd and declares he ‘already knew tonight was going to be a boss night’ purely for the fact that Manchester was famous for it’s energetic crowds. He wasn’t wrong. Northerners do it best.

The band head into an instrumental interlude with slight spoken word to allow the audience to regain their composure after the liveliness of the first few songs. Tom continues bantering with the crowd, swearing a couple of times, then remembers that his dad is in attendance and says he hopes that he ‘still loves him’. He pulls back from the rowdiness briefly and announces ‘Just You and I’, telling the crowd that he got married a year ago and had just celebrated their one year anniversary in Dublin. He plays the song acoustically, wanting to sing it with just us, to hear us echo it back. Apparently Dublin were loud for this one and the crowd didn’t like that, booing wildly, determined to put in a shift and take the top spot.

And take the top spot we did, Manchester were now indefinitely in the lead, Tom informed us after our performance.

Determined to keep the audience engaged, Tom and the band head straight into the next song and the night carried on showcasing what an unbelievable artist he is.

The night came to a close with top hit ‘Leave a Light On’ and every single voice could be heard belting this one out.

Having only heard this one song from Tom I wasn’t sure what to expect heading into this show, but I can firmly say I will be taking some time to really listen to his discography and appreciate the talent of his writing and uniqueness of his voice.

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