Well who'd have thought, that after all, Frank Turner would wind up playing rooms as big enough as this one?
Granted, the O2 is not fill to bursting, but it is an impressive sign of how much the singer's fanbase has grown through his ridiculous work ethic to the point where he has enough fans to book this room. Not so long ago, Shepherd's Bush Empire was considered a huge gig by this ensemble, yet now, his career has led him to being on this stage in front of one of the biggest audiences the capital can offer.
In a week in which Turner said his ultimate dream would be to one day headline Reading and Leeds Festivals, shows like this are the perfect way to see whether or not he could one day cut it in such in such company as this year's headliners Blink-182 and Arctic Monkeys.
On this example, he certainly looks like he's building something big up.
Its a largely minimal production on display - a tarp of the new album cover and the usual large box of lights. Certainly, there's nothing like the upteem costume changes Taylor Swift managed last night, and nor is there a guest slot from Emelie Sande, though that's not really that bad a thing.
Instead, we get a strong collection of songs from the word go. Turner and his backing band The Sleeping Souls go straight into bat with the pulsing Photosynthesis, one of his biggest-known tunes and one with a majorly catchy hook.
It immediately brings us into the evening's entertainment. There's also early crowd participation as, almost unspoken, the audience crouch down during the song's lull before rising up and dancing madly for the rush into the chorus.
As starts to gigs go, this is an immaculate one. The start keeps going, with a few faster new songs like Plain Sailing Weather and Losing Days interspersed with the oldies Peggy Sang The Blues and the acoustic-punk hurricane of Try This at Home.
Its intriguing to see many people still knowing a number of the oldies, with an early outing for second album song Reasons Not To Be An Idiot getting the bulk of the moshpit moving.
This is followed up by recent hit The Way I Tend To Be, which has still been doing the rounds, and is still a good pop song, or at least the nearest this set strays to such genres.
Following that up is one of the night's highlights, as Turner serenades the venue with a gorgeous solo acoustic version of I Am Disappeared.
That song is an impressive show-off of Turner's solo ability and of his vocal range, as well as providing a good singalong amongst a crowd full of devoted followers.
It also provides a break for Turner's backing band - including two hyperactive fellows on electric guitar/mandolin and bass respectively - who have spent the first part of the show playing their leader's material with lots of passion and energy that helps carry the songs in this enormous cavern of a room.
Their return seems them opt for a double bass - or a wardrobe with strings as Turner quips - for a few run-through of oldies, culminating in a crazy story of Turner being dumped by the subject of the earnest To Take You Home, and a healthy singalong for Wessex Boy.
A few songs down the line sees Turner relinquish guitar during Polaroid Picture, with the string being handed over to understudy Dan Allen, who deputised for Turner on guitar during the 2013 tour after the singer suffered two slipped back disks.
He does well enough to fill in, which also allows for a spot of crowdsurfing and high-fiving the front row during One Foot Before The Other.
And while the heavy-rock version of Long Live the Queen felt oddly flat, there's still big hitters such as The Road, If Ever I Stray and Recovery - the latter of which unites the whole stadium in jumping jacks and dancing - to keep the momentum going.
On paper, the haunting atmospherics of Broken Piano seems a strange choice to end upon, but it works, with drummer Nigel Powell's rhythms bringing the song shuddering to a halt and pyrotechnics also being deployed.
It seemed to have bought the curtain down on a delightful evening, but there's still time for three more songs, starting with a singalong for old tune The Ballad of Me and My Friends and continuing the vocals for the rock n roll salute of I Still Believe.
At first glance, Four Simple Words - a mixture of tumbling piano, heavy rock riff, indie chorus and waltz section - seems a bizarre choice to bring down the curtain for good. But instead, its a wonderful conclusion, and one that suitably bring down the curtain on the evening.
There were certainly a variety of emotions - humour at the odd witty one-liner, empathy, excitement and above all, being impressed Turner has not only made it to a room the size of the O2, but looked at home playing in it.
Certainly, it hints at promise that the rooms Turner books to accommodate his increasing-in-size fanbase might need to be bigger. Or at least that he could completely fill all the seats in this house.
4/5
This show had two opening support acts of long-time friends of Turner. First on was acoustic act Beans of Toast, comprised of a solo singer who regaled the crowd with a brief set of songs that did well to combine comedy, real world facts and interesting political points.
He was followed on stage by Celtic seven-piece Flogging Molly, who bought up a consistently fast tempo and an impressive number of songs that fully utilised their array of instruments to supplement the core guitar-bass-drums configuration. The band certainly get kudos for being possibly the first act to perform a show at the O2 arena introduced by a tin whistle solo.
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