I wasn’t planning on reviewing the Newton Faulkner concert when I bought tickets a couple months ago. It was simply an excuse to see a concert with my Dad (my usual gig partner) and watch an artist who he played a lot when I was a kid. A pure nostalgia trip. But it ended up being one of the nicest yet oddest concerts I’ve been to in a while.

Faulkner played Junction on Friday evening – “evening” being key because the man started playing at 8pm. I didn’t believe it when I read online that he started at 8pm because that is simply insane. But I discovered, when I arrived at 8:20pm, that the Internet sometimes tells the truth. Anyone who knows me or has seen the numerous setlists that adorn my walls understands that I’ve attended enough gigs to fairly compare. The rest of the show, which I was present for, was one of the most fun concerts I’ve been to.

“He’s a more talented and possibly funnier Ed Sheeran”

For those who don’t know him, Faulkner needs more preface. In the words of my Dad, he’s a more talented and possibly funnier Ed Sheeran. At the end of the day, he’s a solo white man with a guitar. But he’s very good with that guitar. His debut album, Hand Built by Robots, reached number one when it was released in 2007 and the hit single from that album, ‘Dream Catch Me,’ peaked at number seven on the UK charts. He had some chart success after that but, even with my childhood soundtracked by Faulkner, he somewhat faded into obscurity. His visit to Junction was part of the tour of his new album, Interference (Of Light).

Now, I can’t play guitar – or any instrument for that matter – but Faulkner is damn good at it. The way he plucks, strums and switches chords seamlessly and with such speed is what makes his music, which is basically just acoustic guitar, actually fun and interesting to listen to.

The overall mark of a good concert in my opinion is not having to hear the words, “and here’s a new one,” as the old stuff is always better. And I didn’t hear a single bit of that at this gig. Faulkner played the favourites and everyone enjoyed it. The concert itself was very crowd-orientated. Junction is a small enough venue that the artist has a decent chance of hearing the audience if they shout and dear god did the crowd make use of that.

“Faulkner conducted the audience to sing different parts of some songs”

Sometime during the first half of the show, Faulkner stopped to explain that there would be a moment during his set when he would go quiet and people could instinctively shout out songs for him to play. The first song yelled from the front was ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica, a fine choice. This was closely followed by ‘SpongeBob,’ which triggered Faulkner to compose a mashup of the two, singing “who lives in a pineapple under the sea” to the accompaniment and vocal style of heavy metal.

There were several moments during the concert when audience participation was encouraged. Faulkner conducted the audience to sing different parts of some songs, splitting the room into three groups and triggering the muscle memory of every British person who had to sit through a singing assembly at school.

Other odd moments included the fact that there was an interval which, when you turn up 20 minutes late, provides an excellent opportunity to grab a drink. Faulkner also discussed one of his “party tricks,” which was essentially just an excuse to sing the entirety of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. And, during the final song, to encourage the arguably older audience (I might have been the only person under 30) to have a jump around, he orchestrated a very strange make-believe which pitted the two halves of the audience against each other, one being Vikings, the other pirates. Why do they hate each other enough to have a jump-off? Well, because the Vikings kissed the pirates’ mum, of course.

The whole concert seemed very off the cuff, which it wasn’t actually. I have the setlist as proof. From begging the audience to let him play one of the five songs he wrote for The Terminal because it was too quiet in the film to returning to the SpongeBob-Metallica mashup when he had a more appropriate guitar, Faulkner never allowed a dull moment. Overall, the gig was very relaxed, extremely funny and just a great time. And the best part: I was back home and tucked in bed by 10:30pm.