Passenger – All The Little Lights

‘Hey. Listen to Passenger/Mike Rosenberg and let me know what you think.’ So went a message that I received two days ago and that would ultimately see me rock up, not totally aware of what I was doing there, at the Hibernian House in Surry Hills, Sydney. Listed as a hybrid arts space and venue, nothing could have prepared me for the vaguely derelict, significantly graffitied building, smack bang in the middle of the city and yet so far removed from anything even close to formal. I wasn’t on the list under my name but the guy at the door waved me in anyway, mumbling ‘It’s all chill’, and inside the cavernous Studio 205, it all was. As the sun set over the CBD and the punters across the road boozed and yeehawed their way through premature Tuesday night trivia, inside 205 the room was strewn with carpets and pillows, Moroccan lamps and potted plants and, as if they moved as a pack, a quiet crowd of Passenger fans had knitted themselves into the scene, a fabric of warmth and salt spray, drinking and chatting and waiting for their man.

Passenger wasn’t always just Brighton boy Mike Rosenberg. Begun in 2003 after Rosenberg met BAFTA award-winning soundtrack composer Andrew Phillips in London, the act ballooned out to a five piece ensemble and toured with the likes of Kate Nash and The Hold Steady before Mike took it back to basics, relocated to our fair shores and struck out to remake the Passenger brand as a folksy singer-songwriter alternative. The results are astounding. Going into a show with no expectations always helps and folk is light enough on the ears not to generally offend but Rosenberg’s obvious talent, both with the guitar and with his voice, were patently obvious in a room in which his music was joined only by the sound of a hundred odd pairs of enthralled eyes blinking in disbelief. As a one-man-band, Rosenberg used his acoustic guitar to full effect, stomping on the ground for bass and working his slightly pixiesh voice so well that the descriptors ‘raw’ and ‘real’ seem to be understatements. There are hints of Mumford and hints of Dylan but the package, often incisive lyrics delivered with emotional intensity and hilarious banter during interludes, was what confirmed Rosenberg’s quality as a performer.

‘All The Little Lights’ was not my first choice of songs to post on but as it was among three on an album sampler Passenger gave out after the show, it’s the best quality track I can get my hands on at current. This context adds to the excitement as I begin to track Mike’s development. In the most traditional sense, Passenger is an ‘indie’ act – the gig was for fans who had pre-ordered his forthcoming album (I was a +1), the security were his mates and extra beers were on offer to all and sundry. That there are a thousand and one acts playing to small rooms all over the city, the country and the world just so is a fact. That all those rooms are filled with such enthralled audiences, happily lending clicks, voices or beats on request, is less sure. ‘All The Little Lights’ showcases the sort of warm tones that won me over last night and tells the tale of Mike’s peripatetic ways over the last few years. It’s a story of change and renewal, typically uplifting and delivered without gimmicks. In a converted crack den on a balmy Tuesday night, it was hard not to feel lucky that he’d chosen to set up camp here for a while.

Passenger – All The Little Lights

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