I think I first heard Dermot Kennedy in 2018 or 2019. The first song I ever heard by him was “Glory.” His voice grabbed all of my attention instantly. The song has a longing quality to it. Someone filled with regret singing about a love lost. but his lyrics stuck around in my head for a long time after the song had faded: “I guess I’m tired of talk of hope. I’ve learned that doves and ravens fly the same.” That line would’ve killed in the Tumblr era, and to be honest, I thought about getting the doves and ravens quote tattooed on my body.
Over the last 6 or 7 years I have watched Kennedy rise steadily and all the time he kept releasing music that demanded you listen. In 2020 right before the pandemic, I got to photograph his first show at Radio City Music Hall. I remember being mesmerized. Over the next 2 years I got to photograph him when he was in Washington Square Park busking for charity for the holidays. After 2022 or 23 he got too famous to be able to do that. The last show was packed with a few hundred people all clamoring to hear him while he played acoustic in the middle of the park. That was the last time I was able to see him play. Last time he was in the NYC area it was to headline The Garden and tickets were too expensive for me to see him play. But a few months ago he announced a small run of intimate shows, and I was able to be in the relatively small room on October 27 to see him play.
I didn’t know who the opener was going to be — I saw a couple TikTok videos with him but I purposely didn’t check the music out. I wanted to be surprised, and surprised I was. Kennedy brought out HAFFWAY by way of Nashville to open this run. HAFFWAY, aka, Sam, was absolutely incredible. He came out and let us know that he “was going to play some sad songs. Then he would play some more sad songs. Then at the end, a couple more and then he was going to fuck off.” That pretty much sums up his short set. Sam stood the stage on guitar accompanied by his friend Jesse on keyboard and he proceeded to blow me away with the power of his voice. A lot of his songs started as him quietly strumming on the guitar before Jesse helped out with keys and some backing vocals. His songs may have been sad, but his banter was not. He joked around a lot between the songs. At one point he talked about being in New York, saying New Yorkers were “mean but nice.”
At some point in his set he stepped in front of the microphone with his guitar alone. He then proceeded to play with no amplification. The place was really quiet except for a couple voices in the back. Then suddenly someone shouted, “Shut the fuck up!” — in true New York fashion. Sam stopped playing, started laughing, and then someone yelled “Remember we’re mean but nice!” He finished the song and the set, and he made a bunch of new fans that night, me included. He has a brand new album out and he just announced a tour, and you should 100% check out both of these things.
There was about a 30 min changeover but right around 9 Dermot Kennedy stepped out onto the stage alone. The stage was dark except for 1 spotlight and 2 lamps in front of the backdrop that consisted of a open book. A tree on the right side, and handwritten lyrics to “A Promised Return” on the left. He came up to the microphone with an acoustic guitar and opened with “Lost” which transitioned beautifully into “Swim Good” by Frank Ocean. Kennedys’ voice is always powerful, and it is never more pronounced than when it’s just him and a guitar. What a way to open the show.
So listen, I am a fan, clearly. And I know this is a review. Typically I would talk about the setlist, but you can literally look that up on line. I will say he played all the songs you would want him to play: “Moments Passed,” “Power Over Me,” “Innocence and Sadness” and more. He even treated Brooklyn to an unreleased song called “Endless” and I need him to put this out ASAP. His set was 16 songs and 2 hours long and except for the fact that he didn’t play “Glory” I could not come up with a single complaint if you paid me. We got that settled. Every song he played sounded better than it does on record, somehow. Accompanied by his band on cello, violin, and piano, it truly was intimate and spectacular.
I am going to talk a bit instead of how it feels to be at his show. How this magic has stayed with me all week to the point where I think subconsciously I think writing this review will release some of that feeling I want to hold on to. Maybe that is why I have been marinating on it all week. He’s a really successful singer/songwriter, and he should be. Selling out places like Madison Square Garden in all corners of the world. But having him in this room with the lucky few thousand who were able to get tickets, it was so special. And he knew it. And he spoke on it. He told stories in between songs. He spoke about how “love knocked down the people in his life” and how courageous that is that they went out to “pursue the most beautiful version of life and love” afterwards.
Before he played “After Rain” he said:
“I have a feeling that if you got a ticket to this show, you know this song. But even if you don’t, you can sing. The only words you need are, ‘You won’t go lonely.’ There’s a point at the end of the song where we just sing it over and over again…just belt it.”
He played this solo for most of it before piano and violin kicked in towards the end. Goddamn. I can’t even tell how the power I felt in that room when a few thousand people belted it out with him. The person next to me was crying, and I had a little blurry vision too.
I think that music is healing, I have always thought that. But I also think certain music has more healing power than others. Certain singers have medicine in their voice and just hearing it can cure most things. Dermot Kennedy has that voice. It is magic and medicine and all the good things in this world. That doesn’t come around very often. The hours I have spent listening to Kennedy sing and making every one else in my life listen to him are countless. To see him grow over the last 5 years into what he has become while never losing that thing that made him special to begin with. That is rare. It doesn’t feel like he ever let the success go to his head. Every time I have seen him he seems genuinely grateful that we keep showing up.
This run is over. “A Promised Return” was lightning in a bottle and I am not sure if he will do something like this again. He doesn’t have to. He can sell out any place he wants and people will pay hundreds to see him play. I feel so fortunate that I got to be there. That I got to stand with NYC, packed in, asses to elbows, and sing every word along with him. I know that I got to see something that people will be talking about for a long time. These shows are going to be felt for a long time even though this tour is done. And on the worst days we can go back and watch the videos on TikTok, singing along with strangers.
“And when your heart hurts days like today are the antidote”
GALLERY: Dermot Kennedy with HAFFWAY at Brooklyn Paramount in New York City
