Live Review: City & Colour – 18th May 2025 – Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
4 min read
“Everybody knows what we’re doing here right?”
This was the question Canadian musician Dallas Green aka City and Colour asked the sold-out Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night before thanking the room of fans for allowing him to do what he does over the course of a long career as a solo star and member of his post-hardcore band, Alexisonfire. The audiences answer? A roaring yes!, signaling that the night was going to be a pretty special one for both fans and the award-winning musician.
Green was of course referring to the celebratory components of Sunday’s one-off show in the capital which was aimed at the 20th anniversary of double platinum selling debut album, Sometimes and the rare performance of the album in all its folk-tinged splendour.
The lengthy near 3-hour performance was split into two sections – the first hour was dedicated to the playing of Sometimes in order of the records original track listing, solo and acoustic. Each song on the album was dished up in their original, recorded form from the musician who took centre stage dressed in a grey suit with his shoulder length hair slicked back as he changed between guitars, explaining to the crowd that each song was written using a different key back in the day.
Hello, I’m in Delaware was an early highlight with Green telling the crowd “It’s different than the Barfly” – drawing attention to his very early career shows at the very quaint Camden bar. “There weren’t that many of you there” he confessed as he delivered an exceptional version of the song beneath an array of warm turquoise and purple rays of light that shone throughout the gorgeous confines of the famous Albert Hall.
During a moving performance of In the Water I Am Beautiful, Green admitted to not playing these songs from Sometimes much live over the years. Explaining that he hoped this decision hasn’t come across like he is embarrassed of his work, but it being more about not feeling in the same space as when he wrote them when he was young but feeling more connected to these songs through this show and revisiting them in the lead up to the night. This displayed a very raw and honest side to the multi-talented musician.
After a 25-minute interval where the crowd dispersed for toilet breaks or to grab a fresh pint, the venue filled up again at around 9.15pm for the the second section of the night which was dedicated to some of the musician’s career deep cuts and live rarities. Inclusions like O’ Sister and Blood were played over a shining collection of fairly lights positioned around the singers feet and while the first section of the night was played solo, Green was now joined by Matt Kelly who provided songs with an Americana dressing with his slide guitar work and who the musician had the Royal Albert Hall crowd sing Happy Birthday to as his touring sidekick celebrated his 28th “anniversary of being born”, as Dallas so eloquently put it.
Over the course of the next 90 minutes, the crowd lapped up every song in the set with immense adoration and periodic cheers of “I love you” to the singer who at one time comically responded with “I appreciate it” as he moved through gorgeous renditions of tracks including What Makes a Man?, Things We Choose to Care About and a live debut of Rain.
A lengthy moment of guitar tuning ended in a stellar performance of Confessions while crowd participation was encouraged for the nights more up-tempo and closing duo of The Girl and Sleeping Sickness.
While I am fairly new to the City & Colour movement (it certainly feels like a movement as these fans are some of the most committed and passionate that I have seen at a gig or online since we posted a snippet of the show on our Instagram account during the show), Sunday’s performance was something truly remarkable to be in the presence of. It was a night of pristine and smooth vocals and engaging storytelling within one of the finest live performance spaces the city has to offer and from an artist clearly cherished by many.
Set 1:
…off by Heart
Like Knives
Hello, I’m in Delaware
Save Your Scissors
In the Water I Am Beautiful
Day Old Hate
Sam Malone
Comin’ Home
Casey’s Song
Sometimes (I Wish)
Set 2:
O’ Sister
Constant Knot
What Makes a Man?
Twilight (Elliott Smith cover)
Waiting…
Underground
Things We Choose to Care About
As Much as I Ever Could
Blood
Rain
Confessions
The Girl
Sleeping Sickness
::: RenownedForSound.com’s Editor and Founder –
Interviewing and reviewing the best in new music and globally recognized artists is his passion.
Over the years he has been lucky enough to review thousands of music releases and concerts and interview artists ranging from top selling superstars like 27-time Grammy Award winner Alison Krauss, Boyz II Men, Roxette, Cyndi Lauper, Lisa Loeb and iconic Eagles front man/songwriter, Glenn Frey through to more recent successes including Newton Faulkner, Janelle Monae and Caro Emerald.
Brendon manages and coordinates the amazing team of writers on RenownedForSound.com who are based in the UK, the U.S and Australia.
