Walking into a gig and feeling older than most of the crowd is not a feeling I’m familiar with; the sight of fourteen-year-old girls stumbling up the stairs is always jarring. The usual stench of pints at the O2 Institute was replaced by the unmistakable scent of fruity Wetherspoons’ pitchers, Pornstar Martini or Sex on the Beach to be precise. The crowd screamed post-GCSE holiday, I did wonder whether Aitch was going to be many people’s first ever gig. 

Aitch’s hypeman, DJ Win, opened the night with a collection of feel-good RnB and 90s hip-hop (think ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’, ‘American Boy’ etc, etc.). He ended his short set with Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ – sending me right back to my Year 6 Christmas school disco: not quite the vibe he was going for, I can imagine.

It made me and my ears fear for what was to come when Aitch finally made an appearance

ZieZie, Aitch’s support act, came on to a barrage of glass smash sound effects courtesy of his hypeman, who was noticeably less slick than DJ Win. The first thing I noticed when he came on were the screams. It made me and my ears fear for what was to come when Aitch finally made an appearance. ZieZie’s songs ‘Sensei’ and ‘Fine Girl’ are admittedly really good; his set was made up of catchy crowd pleasers and was a perfectly good support set. What was odd, however, was when he jumped off stage and straight into the middle of a forming moshpit (which he had asked for), accompanied by, you guessed it, screams. ZieZie then proceeded to take off his shirt, (screams), but left on the Gucci scarf of course, nice touch. 

After ZieZie came the return of DJ Win, this time with a much more on-brand set of grime and hip-hop. The organisation at the gig was really good, we weren’t ever left without music for more than 10 or so minutes, which is always appreciated in such a sweaty restless crowd. I stood at the back, surrounded by the other members of the audience who resented teenage moshpits, and audible sighs were heard whenever another massive space opened up. I’m not trying to be a spoil sport, but moshpits for support acts should just be illegal.

Then it was time for Aitch. I have never heard such hysteria in all my life (I’ve seen Justin Bieber live twice, may I add). I genuinely did not spot Aitch on stage until at least halfway through his first song, due to the amount of phones filming him and his every movement. He began, groundbreakingly, with ‘Intro’ off his recent AitcH2O EP. ‘Intro’ is one of my favourite songs from the album, its lyrics are really funny and the recognisable opening helped to grab the audience’s attention, even before he’d come onstage. He took a break from his EP and followed with ‘Miss Me With It’ – also one of my favourites. He played one of his earlier freestyles which I didn’t recognise, but the four girls next to me knew every word. Aitch’s diction was genuinely impressive, he didn’t seem to struggle with any of his lyrics or ever run out of breath. 

‘Already’ was next, also good. Lyrics are cheeky and memorable, it genuinely seemed as if most people there knew every syllable. Aitch’s shouts for ‘ENERGEH’ were honestly futile, the crowd never stopped moving and the vibe stayed good throughout. The bass on ‘Aeroplane Mode’ was insane, and the piano backing track sounded really good blasting through the Institute.

Aitch’s verse on ‘Take Me Back to London’ is the best feature he’s done so far

Aitch’s interactions with DJ Win were good, but seemed too rehearsed at some points. They seem to be great friends on social media, but it didn’t seem like they were having that much fun on stage, which was an odd mix. ‘Take Me Back to London’ came after a brief moment without Aitch on stage, and Birmingham-based Jaykae bounded out unexpectedly and launched into his verse on the song. The combination of them both on stage was brilliant; I think Aitch’s verse on ‘Take Me Back to London’ is the best feature he’s done so far, and it was really well-received. The pair then followed with their other collaboration ‘On The Way Home’ which has a really simple backing track but worked really well with the audience matching every word. 

Aitch finished with ‘Wait’, which surprised me as I assumed we’d hear ‘Taste (Make It Shake)’ last. I’m glad however, as ‘Wait’ more accurately reflects Aitch’s music, it’s almost a shame that ‘Taste’ has gotten so big (it peaked at #2 on the Official Singles Chart earlier this year), it’s catchy but doesn’t seem to reflect the quality of his other songs.

Look, it was a great night but I do feel for the people who had to sit through the two-hour-long Snapchat stories some of the audience must have posted. All in all, it was a really good gig, but in the future I think I’d much prefer to hear Aitch in a club or on Spotify than I would in a room full of his fans.

Tickets for the remainder of Aitch’s tour are available here