Nick Waterhouse is standing on stage in a burgundy shirt unbuttoned to the chest, dark trousers with creases, loafers and glasses à la Ray-Ban Clubmaster – and for a moment the 50s are back. The 37-year-old American presented his new album “The Fooler” at a sold-out private club in Berlin on Tuesday. At the entrance, things get backed up, a look at those waiting reveals: on average, the audience is older than the musicians. The location is small, cozy and flatters its retro look with its furnishings.
The band consisting of drummer, keyboarder, double bass player and guitarist enters on time. Waterhouse comes from backstage. “It’s nice to be back in Berlin,” he murmurs into the microphone and opens the show with “Looking For A Place,” the first song on “The Fooler.” Without wasting many words, he plays the other eleven songs on the record. They pay homage to the city of San Francisco, where he lived for a long time, and deal with reality and deception, temptation, dreaming and forgetting. “Love is a gamble,” says the singer before “Play To Win,” in the next song, “Was It You,” listeners follow him down an imaginary road – and the title track, “The Fooler,” is a song over all of us.
The melodies and arrangements sometimes sound like country, sometimes like rock’n’roll, but above all like soul and R&B. The album “The Fooler” ends with “Unreal, Immaterial” – but not the concert yet. Two songs follow: “Is That Clear,” released in 2012 on his first album Time’s All Gone, and – because he’s been “feeling sentimental lately” – “Very Blue” from 2021’s Promenade Blue. . The band is going wild, the fans don’t want to go home yet. Waterhouse comes back on stage: “I don’t want to say ‘good night’ just yet!” He rewards the fans with the feel-good hit “La Turnaround”. Everyone bellows along, even if the effort isn’t always right. Nick Waterhouse concludes the concert with “Song for Winners”: “See you soon!”
Nick Waterhouse at the private club Berlin 🎶 pic.twitter.com/ipNvxpft6g
— Amélie (@frommmelie) May 2, 2023