Punters piled up under the Forum’s dreamy mock-night sky for a performance that, if you are familiar with Sampha’s work, know is set to be deeply emotive. After releasing his debut album Process in February, he has been touring relentlessly to showcase everything the record has to offer.
When Sampha took the stage he was front and centre with his keyboards, his band forming a triangle around him. He opened with Plastic 100ºC, the first track on Process, it’s a song that oscilates from measured self-reflection to feelings of impending anxiety, and one that perfectly encapsulated the subtelty of Sampha’s impact as a performer.
He greeted the crowd warmly and humbly, and going on to introduce Timmy’s Prayer, one of the most impassioned songs on the record. “You asked me what am I waiting for – I’m waiting cause I fucked up,” he admitted earnestly near the end of the song; the combination of his band looking like shadows against the sunset coloured projection, and the intensity of Sampha’s own expression was viscerally chilling.
The set list ran through every song on Process, highlights included Sampha leaving his keyboard to dance and sing to the audience during mercurial R&B banger Reverse Faults, a fascinating rythmic re-work of Happens – a song from 2013 that is originally a tear-jerking piano ballad, and of course, Blood On Me, the most propolsive, unrestrained pop single from the record. It’s vocal hook in the chorus may be one of the best things to sing (or yell) along to, and everyone came together in doing just that.
It would be criminal to not mention Sampha’s encore of No One Knows Me Like the Piano. Sampha’s finesse as an artist, a singer and a composer were epitomized in this performance, leading to the most heart-rendering, honourable musical experience that fans will carry with them for a very long time.
Highlight: The whole band joining together for ahuge percussion intro into Without.
Lowlight: Drake not being there for Too Much.
Crowd favourite: Blood On Me.
