Review: Sam Fender at Kings Park
Sam Fender at Kings Park
w/ Holly Humberstone
Friday, November 28, 2025
There are few experiences that signal the impending heat and festivity of a summer in Perth quite like a sold-out Friday night gig at Kings Park. It’s a venue that capitalises fully on the city’s proximity to the river and the vantage point proffered from high above, a stunningly impressive sight that never ages.
Backing up from a headline show at Freo.Social the previous night, Holly Humberstone took full advantage of playing to a crowd that was ready to unleash. Her energy and polish facilitated a positivity that didn’t relent.
Being hemmed in at the front of the stage, as support bands often are, only served to bolster the connection between the band and those in front of the stage. She was also served well by tracks such as Falling Asleep at the Wheel and Scarlett, which have pace and strength and no shortage of lyrical melody. Humberstone has clearly forged a strong relationship with her three bandmates as well, and they tore through an impressive set that would have commandeered a raft of new fans.
With a mercifully short wait between acts, Sam Fender took to the stage without a word and launched straight into Angel in Lothian, eschewing the usual full band beginning and kicking off with just his guitar and that compelling voice. Despite that initial lack of interaction, it was immediately evident this was a night of revelry. With multi-instrumentalist Joe Atkinson playing a pseudo Happy Mondays’ Bez role, revving the crowd up and generating great energy, there was a tangible feeling of celebration that was hard to ignore. Similarly difficult to miss was the substantial Geordie contingent, with Newcastle United strips out in force both on and off stage. It would be easy to cast this off as an aside, but this sense of camaraderie and togetherness leached through the performance, with Fender engaging naturally and repeatedly through the show with both his band and the crowd.
Memorable songs came thick and fast, with each track only serving to prove the strength of the arsenal he has to hand. His setlist pulled fairly evenly from across his three albums, with favourites from Seventeen Going Under, such as the title track and Getting Started, generating massive crowd singalongs. As arresting a performer as Fender is, it would be negligent not to mention the colour and complexion the seven other members of his band bring. The trumpet and saxophone are employed judiciously, helping to lift the songs to higher planes and adding an emotional crescendo that is utterly captivating. The recent album People Watching was covered generously, with the beautiful Crumbling Empire taking on significantly more gravitas in a live setting.
Roughly halfway through the set, Fender responded to a young fan’s sign asking to play guitar on stage, and he willingly obliged as the ecstatic Will joined the band to perform The Borders from the debut, Hypersonic Missiles. That Will’s playing was barely discernible was a moot point—it was yet more evidence of Fender’s innate ability to shape an environment where the barrier between performer and crowd is non-existent. In this, almost more than his incredible ear for melody and flawless vocals, he has a rare gift.
A short break was followed by a three-song encore, whereby he invited Humberstone back to the stage to perform Something Heavy before sending punters into the night with the anthemic Hypersonic Missiles ringing in their ears. Having declared earlier that this would be his last show for a substantial amount of time as he heads back into the studio, it was clear that this gig was a signing off of sorts—of a tour, of an album, of a period etched in time. That there was no room for the wildly popular Rein Me In was merely a footnote. Tonight, Fender reminded everyone that great performances should not only be centred on musical prowess but should also be this exuberant, this energetic, this free.
RICK BRYANT
Photos by Adrian Thomson
