Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco
25th March 2012
Review from our friends over at PoppedMusic
We’ve always managed to miss Sam play when he comes to London. Seeing as we went all the way to LA and he didn’t actually play with Marcus at those shows a gallon of drink later and having enjoyed the man’s company it seemed like a highly logical idea to completely rearrange our plans and change our flights (to the tune of $800, what were we thinking!!??) and do the 7 hour drive to San Francisco. Luckily the very lovely (and somewhat crazy) lady we were hanging with in LA is from, and lives in San Fran so she drove us there and we didn’t need to worry about driving on the wrong side of the road!
The most impressive thing was that we even managed to get there to the show before the guys did, and we’d had showers, drinks hair and make up (of course). We’d pre warned them of our plan so they didn’t seem too shocked. We also spotted some other people who had been at the LA gigs so we knew we were in good company and that right from the off this guy was gonna be worth watching.
Disappointment is only the word I have to use for having never seen him before. Charm, Wit, Charisma, a pocket full of great songs were what I found myself faced with. Spare strings. This should be added to Sam’s next shopping list. His broke (insert old g string joke here) and luckily mate Marcus Foster was feeling generous and lent his guitar so the show could go on. Woman You Crazy pretty much became the soundtrack to our weekend and some noticed a mix up in lyrics but I just didn’t care. I was too caught up in the moment as was everyone else. Sam Bradley has a great following in San Francisco it would seem. In fact when he introduced a new song we were a little surprised to see he had some backing singers. Not officially, but they already knew every single word. Now that is what we call dedication and a fan. Knowing every word to a song no one else has even heard yet. It was lovely to witness and Sam really seemed to enjoy the moment too, grinning away throughout.
In the intimate setting of Cafe Du Nord Sam and his guitar filled every space left in the place. There was nothing awkward, nothing fake and it takes experience and talent to pull this off. This guy has talent and it seems such a shame and a loss to the UK that he doesn’t spend too much time here despite London being his birthplace. Those Canadians and Americans get the majority of his time and they treasure it too, as they should, the UK really disappoints me sometimes especially when true musicians such as Sam Bradley and Marcus Foster aren’t deemed good enough simply because they’re not “popular” enough and not trending on twitter or whatever after 1 single. Since when does that a good artist make? Popped are gonna stick by their guns on this one and tell everyone who will listen that they should support these guys, bring them home, put them up on the bigger stages where they really belong.
Thanks girls, hope you are back on UK time!
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