Dubbed ‘Sheffield’s answer to Springsteen’, indie rock/pop artist Sam Scherdel is back with a new single and his biggest performance yet, supporting Northern Irish indie veterans Two Door Cinema Club at the Dome, Doncaster. Standing in the place where renowned artists like Stereophonics, Muse and Blossoms have stood before, Scherdel rocked the stage for a roaring crowd. The qualified building surveyors’ (yes, that’s an actual fact) barking guitars and gravelled voice make for great releases and even better live performances, as I learnt on Wednesday night.
Sam and the band came out clad in their Sunday best, donning 70s shirts and blazers, passionate to get the night going. He said to the crowd what a privilege it was as a “Donny lad” to be performing tonight and delivered greatly with his tracks ‘Don’t really like you’ and ‘Balloon’, an extremely Springsteen-ified track reminiscent of ‘Wrecking Ball’. One of the best performances came with ‘Early Morning Rain’, a soulful, coming of age, Paolo Nutini-esque tune amplified by the rasp of Sam’s voice and the emotional impact of the synths, guitars and drums sounding in the background.
‘The Answer’ and a new track ‘Breathe’ (a loud love ballad releasing early next year) screamed that Britpop is coming back strong, in the wake of guitar music artists like Sam Fender and Gerry Cinnamon getting bigger and bigger. The guitars throbbed, the drums were being obliterated and Scherdel was giving it his all, both vocally and as an impressive stage presence. The band did what a lot of support acts fail to do: prime the audience for a
great show by giving them an equally great one. As well as performing his cracking new single ‘R.E.T.R.O’, a “bittersweet pop record” written originally in 2021, Scherdel covered Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’, twisting the iconic song into a more menacing, aching melody. It started very slow and detached, which didn’t go down too well with the crowd at first, but the band put everything into the solo section, everyone on that stage was beaming with sweat – the mark of a great gig.
Every song that night showed the potential and fight in Sam Scherdel. His tunes are carefully and masterfully constructed, a Stephen Fretwell type, and I’d love to see what he could do with a live orchestra on stage. I guarantee it won’t be long till the crowds are singing every word with Sam; talent like this doesn’t take too long to ascend to success.
