Dean Lewis @ O2 Academy Birmingham, 11th February 2025
Australian singer/songwriter Dean Lewis took to the stage with a crowd-pleasing performance of ‘Empire’ – the lead single from current album The Epilogue, released in October last year. There was avid audience participation from the outset, and in many choruses the singing along was so loud that it drowned out Dean completely!
The show continued with tracks from across Lewis’ three studio albums, including favourites such as ‘Waves’, ‘Chemicals’ and ‘7 Minutes’.
On this tour Dean has a three-piece backing band behind him, including a violinist/synth player, guitarist and drummer. The staging was simple but effective – a bit like Dean Lewis’ songs.
Lewis has previously talked about honing his song-writing craft by listening to everything Noel and Liam Gallagher ever wrote, and this really comes through in both the structure of his songs, and the chord progressions he uses. That’s not to say they sound the same, but the methodology is sound; resulting in catchy tunes you can sing straight back.
During the evening, we were treated to unreleased track ‘I Hate That It’s True’, as well as Gracie Adams and Goo Goo Dolls covers.
Dean took a few moments to read some of the banners made by fans – a lot of which were requests to become a human mic stand for him. He also took the time to recount the stories behind his songs, during which the audience hung on his every word.
Dean Lewis’ lyrics are powerful and hard hitting, delving deep into the lows and further lows of past romantic relationships. Songs like ‘The Last Bit Of Us’ and ‘Hurtless’ are painful to hear if you’ve recently been through a break up. The one most likely to bring a tear to your eye though is ‘How Do I Say Goodbye’ which Lewis wrote about his Dad. The main part of tonight’s show closed with that song, and 3,000 people chanting the chorus: “So how do I say goodbye/to someone who’s been with me for my whole damn life?”.
After a quick break, Dean returned to the stage for an encore of iconic break up song ‘Be Alright’. At this moment it’s by far his most streamed track on Spotify, and was number one in Australia for five consecutive weeks. It’s a track that should be included on any breakup playlist worth its salt.
Review: Chrissie Duxson
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