Live Review: PASSENGER @ The Forum Theatre

On Saturday the 17th of November, Melbournians were once again graced by the angelic folk derived musings of one Mike Rosenburg, AKA Passenger. Walking nonchalantly onto the stage in jeans and a button-down shirt, if you were unaware of Passengers appearance, you could’ve easily mistaken him for a member of the crew. Introducing himself as simply as “Hey! I’m Passenger, I love Melbourne! And trust me, I don’t say that in every city!”, the singer swiftly picked up his guitar & started onto the first song of the night, an oldie but a goodie, ‘Fairytales & Firesides’. In my many years of being a fan I have seen the man play live 4 times, to which he has always opened with this classic off his third album Divers & Submarines, released 2010. During this song in the line “We’re fucked, but we’ll say that we’re fine” Rosenburg pauses, says “Sorry!” which met laughter from the crowd!

It was during this first song where it dawned on me the unprecedented silence that washes over crowds during all Passenger gigs. I can talk about how haunting the silence of a hugely beautiful theatre is, but until you experience at this level I cannot put into words how loud the silence is!
Passenger makes it a point to bring up his past as a busker, saying “It wasn’t always like this.” Playing to a crowd of maybe 5 people max, to sold out venues across the world. He mentioned busking a lot across the UK, Glasgow specifically. He spoke about staying in a hostel, the Euro Hostel. “There was this homeless man, David, who would tell me his life story every day, and the next day he’d forget he’d ever met me, and tell me the story again. After a week I felt I knew the story well enough that I wrote a song about it. This song’s for David, wherever he is…”

Passenger played out song, after beautiful song. Paired with witty banter involving the crowd. Even his rambling anecdotes about busking, and fan stories were captivating. For a one man show with absolutely zero production in terms of lighting design, background etc. was unwaveringly entertaining. The music really spoke for itself. It was refreshing to see it all stripped back to the bare truth, revealing what makes Passenger such a timeless talent! He doesn’t need or want to hide behind the effects.
The peak of emotions during the show when Rosenburg asked the crowd to be completely silent while he explained about the song ‘To Be Free’. This track is about the singers heritage and his family being Jewish war survivors & their struggles & their lives. It was hard to hear, and very revealing into the meaning behind the lyrics. I know I wasn’t the only one who shed a tear.

Passenger even treated us devoted fans to a brand new track ‘Suzanne’. This is the newest song Mike has written, even newer than the new album! So hopefully this means yet another album is in the works! Without skipping a beat Rosenburg transitions the end notes of Suzanne into the opening riff of ‘Let Her Go’ the singers one and only “hit single”. The crowd went wild when the fans less familiar with the singers newer works heard something they were well versed in!
Passenger rounded out the performance with covers of both Simon & Garfunkel, and Bruce Springsteen. The most memorable part of the entire show for me came during the break between encore when the crowd were singing, impressively in tune the melody of ‘Scare Away The Dark” until his return.
Overall, a wonderful show. Can’t hype this man enough.