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Icon of many’s teenage years and the fourth-funniest member of the Eboys (R.I.P.) James Marriott hit the road with his debut album to start 2024, and one of the venues blessed with a show was Cardiff’s own Student Union.
Forgoing the Great Hall, it was Y Plas that hosted the ecstatic crowd as James and his band put on a fantastic show.
Before the audience got to see their favourite YouTuber go from their screens to the stage in front of them, four frontmen and one drummer known as Soft Launch got the crowd in the mood with an admittedly lengthy but fun-filled set.
With four different voices all vying for the attention of the audience, Soft Launch’s sound was serenading and sometimes operatic, before the boys would launch the energy in the room up when they let their instruments do the talking.
With all the generic UK indie band charm you could ask for, Soft Launch were a solid choice to open for the object of rabid fandom that is James Marriott, and seemed to revel in the comedy of that on stage. I would recommend something of theirs to listen to but their presence on streaming services is non-existent! Very niche and mysterious of them.
Shortly after, James was welcomed to the stage with thunderous pre-pubescent applause and opened with a dynamic duo of ‘Over My Head’ and ‘Him’ (the latter being a personal favourite).
The weirdness of seeing a man who you’ve watched make his entire friendship group cringe with his awful jokes suddenly start pouring his heart into a genuinely solid rock ‘n’ roll style performance was interesting to process. But once that was out of the way, Marriott made quite the frontman.
Debut album ‘Are We There Yet?’ of course made up the better half of the setlist, with Marriott’s highest streaming songs off the album like ‘Don’t Blame Me’ and ‘Romanticise This’ sending the audience into raptures.
The audience were a highlight of the night for me. Although it was obvious most of them were gasping more to see their favourite internet guy rather than their favourite artist, the love they clearly had for his songs was crystal clear.
Marriott is a rare case of a YouTuber-turned-musician, in that his music is actually competently made. Not quite Joji, but deserving of his flowers. That wasn’t the case at the start, however. His debut single, ‘Slow Down’ in 2020 was, if anything, turned into a bit of a meme on that corner of the internet. The song was poorly received to say the least, but turning it into a joke allowed for the fans to scream for it to be played in Cardiff, and James obliged.
It felt like what the fans had come all the way for, which I guess is the nice difference between internet personalities like James and others who have no other fandom outside their music. The audience clearly wanted to have a laugh with him, and he answered.
The band behind Marriott were all beautifully on board with the energy in the room as well. A daffodil hat passed up from the audience was passed round the band members like a newborn baby at a family function, with all of them calling it a sunflower before angry Welsh cries corrected them.
James and his drummer even enjoyed a brief place swap.
While he was leading the crowd, I had another giggle to myself that the man telling everyone to jump and show some energy is the same man whose other career highlights included getting a £1000 takeaway order spent on him and putting himself through several series of Love Island with WillNE. However, as I said, he made a grand frontman, and I found myself impressed with his voice throughout the show.
James Marriott is continuing to make his musical presence felt, having been to Europe with the tour already at the time of writing. This concert showed his newfound confidence after the positive reception to his debut album and prior EPs, and very much got me excited for what comes next.
Favourite Song Performed: Grapes
Vibe: Wholesome, energetic
Overall rating: 4/5
CUTV and MoveOnUp thank the events manager of the tour for allowing our representative photo access.
Words & photos by Ivy Morris
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