Gig Review: Loyle Carner at The Level

Through a cloud of pink, Loyle Carner burst onto the more intimate stage of Nottingham’s The Level with Hate from his newly released album hugo. Having returned to the city after his last trip to Nottingham ended in him passing out and being put on a drip, he was clearly back with a vengeance to make the night memorable.

Unsurprisingly, seeing You Don’t Know live left me with a core memory of Loyle grooving around the stage surrounded by hues of yellow and green as the crowd warmly sang along. The crowd really did make the show, being one of the most content audiences I have seen in a while, a calm yet excited aura filling the room and everyone in it.

Loyle further appeased long-time fans with a rendition of Loose Ends that had all attendees screaming along, rounded off with an acoustic rap into another old classic Yesterday. Having released his third album a mere four days before the gig, the London artist of course debuted more tracks from it, a highlight for me being the slower track Homerton.

I was, however, disappointed to see that, whilst his rapping was crystal clear throughout the gig, there appeared to be very little live singing from Loyle. I was even more surprised when half an hour after he bounced on to the stage, he waved his goodbyes and left with his band.

He did, of course, come back solo with another acoustic rap of HGU that felt like being at a spoken word performance, before being joined by his band who he introduced and gave credit to during the final song, Ain’t Nothing Changed.

Despite a brilliant performance, I couldn’t help but feel slightly let down by the short length of it, particularly after he had cancelled his signing earlier in the day.

thelevelnottingham.co.uk