X Ambassadors

LOCATION: LONDON,  UK

VENUE: BRIXTON ACADEMY

Photos + words by Sara Salamat

The other week I had the opportunity to go to an X Ambassador’s gig in the beautiful city of London. The show opened with performances by Irish native Ruth Anne, and Nashville born Morgxn from the United States who hyped up the crowd. Then came the stars of the night: X Ambassadors. 

The New York based band opened the set on their Joyful Tour at the Electric Brixton in London with one of their recent singles,  Ahead of Myself. The moment the band’s set began with their single Ahead of Myself the crowd sang along like a unified choir that still brings chills to my spine whenever I play back the video. That connection the band established with the audience could be felt from the front of the barricade all the way to the bar at the back of the venue. The photo below is a photo of band member Sam Harris as the crowd sang back the lyrics to Ahead of Myself back to him in the bridge. This was surreal to watch because anyone could easily see him soaking in the energy from the crowd coming together singing back “Thought I was rock steady, that I didn’t need no help.”  I may or may not have wiped a tear watching the video back.

Immediately following the opening number, the band didn’t spare a second before diving into their bass heavy song, Jungle. And the crowd? They. Went. Nuts. The song turned into a scream off session between the band and the fans shouting “Follow me, into the jungle” back and forth. The song also featured a guitarist vs bassist jam-off between Adam Levin and frontman Sam Harris.   

Towards the middle of the show, Sam took the mic to chat a bit with the audience before introducing their most recent song, Don't Stay which dropped last month. For those who have not heard the song Don't Stay it’s a pretty soulful song compared to their rest of the band’s discography. When asked on it, the band admitted they were excited to dive into this soulful genre. “That is the music we love and grew up listening to. There were hints of that influence on the last album but we wanted to focus into it more on the new album.”

I can’t stress this enough when I tell you that this band really connects with their fans. “We are so lucky to have the best fans in the world and we have memorable crowd moments every night.  Last night in Amsterdam we played gorgeous acoustic and the crowd interaction was amazing.”  Sam Harris of the band wrote.  Now, I have seen the X Ambassadors once before at a festival in the United States and they put on the same show for this intimate show in London just as if it were the festival with a 15,000 audience back in the United States.  

If you haven’t seen the X Ambassadors before, you are really missing out. These boys know how to put on a show and I’ll be kicking myself if I miss them when they tour the United States.