Live Review: Zak Abel - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, London 22/03/2018

Zak Abel wrapped up his UK tour and played his biggest headline London gig to date at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire this Thursday evening. Supported by Huntar and Miriam Bryant, the pop artist took on the energy of the crowd and gave an enthralling performance to be remembered.

Huntar began the evening, bringing dance vibes and a lot of crowd participation. Despite being a support act, he got the 2000 capacity venue moving and singing along to his own tracks as well as some snippets of cover tracks. He released a track with Gucci Mane last summer and has since been growing as an artist with over 400k monthly listeners on Spotify with this gig being the biggest crowd that he has ever played.



With a DJ playing between the support acts, the crowd were treated to singer-songwriter, Miriam Bryant. The Swedish-based pop artist kept the crowd energised with her hits. She danced around the stage and held hands with fans in the front row, who seemed to know all the words to her songs and were loving her performance. Those who did not already know her music are sure to have gone away with her performance still on their minds.



By the time that Zak Abel took to the stage, the crowd were excited with anticipation and the venue seemed to be packed to the ceiling. The soulful voice of the London-based singer filled the venue; he didn’t fail to captivate the audience and draw them in to his heartfelt lyrics that resonate deeply with many of his fans.

His album ‘Only When We’re Naked’ was released last year and his track ‘Unstable’ has over 33 million listens on Spotify, almost double his collaboration with Tom Misch has received despite being the track that put him on many people’s radar. It’s no wonder that almost all of his tour dates were sold out.

His set was a mixture of new and old tracks, including two tracks that are yet to be released, and every track was met with excitement from the crowd. With lyrics being sung back and his mother in the crowd, the 23-year-old was smiling all throughout the gig and his happiness seemed to emanate through the venue.

The biggest and final gig of his UK tour, the crowd at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire went away singing his tunes at the top of their lungs. Zak Abel’s performance was nothing less than captivating, exciting and charming and he is one-to-watch now more than ever. Zak is hoping to be playing Brixton’s O2 Academy on his next tour of the UK.



Words and Photography by Max Herridge