Thousands of fans waited eagerly in line outside the venue, the atmosphere buzzing, waiting to enter. For many of us, it was our first concert since before the pandemic, and it felt great to be back. On April 13th, 33-year-old Korean-American artist, Eric Nam, returned to London to play the sold-out Kentish Town Forum, a stop on his There and Back Again world tour, promoting his latest EP. 

Eric Nam never disappoints when it comes to his stage presence. Supported by two talented dancers, hits like Don’t Call Me, Paradise and Honestly were brought to life with dynamic dance routines, encouraging the crowd to join in. Roughly halfway through, a change of mood came around as Eric began the ‘unplugged’ section of his concert, just him and his guitarist. Here, the crowd were lucky enough to hear covers alongside original music. Eric’s unexpected, seamless switch from fan-favourite No Shame into Coldplay and BTS’ My Universe produced gasps from the audience.  

Much to the crowd’s delight, Eric returned to the stage for an encore after the ‘ending,’ where he performed his penultimate song, mellow B-side track Wildfire. Here, his incredible live vocals came to the forefront. Eric closed the concert with a heart-warming message, to ‘be kind to one another and love each other’ before his final performance, I Don’t Know You Anymore, one of his latest hits. 

The intimate nature of the concert allowed Eric to be open with the crowd, sharing funny stories and experiences, describing his shows as being like ‘TED Talks.’ After asking if we would return to his shows, the crowd cheered in support. Eric then assured the audience that any show we attended after this would be good... but, ‘it won’t be Eric Nam,’ and I am sure he is correct.