Sutherland Pitches It Perfectly

Kiefer Sutherland

Live at The Adrian Flux Waterfront, Norwich

Wednesday 13^th May 2026

Kiefer Sutherland sets The Adrian Flux Waterfront a Quiver   

This crowd loved Kiefer and his band.  As the set progressed, country turned to rock and songs, expressing sincere concern for East Coast neighbours, family-owned, small-scale farmers, turned to celebrating raunchy Friday night feelings that love is crayoned in the diary, despite this being Wednesday.  The crowd, many of whom would most likely have attended Sutherland’s previous visit to Norwich in this role in July 2023, lapped it up.

 

Sutherland was close to selling out this gig at one of the country’s legendary regional music venues, in a city famous for its love of all things musical.  Is the country facing a cost-of-living squeeze, when a man rich beyond his wildest dreams, is able to ride into town and charge £42.00 a ticket for 90 minutes work?  To be fair, Norwich City sell around 25,000 tickets every game at over £30 a ticket for mid-table second tier football, so there is clearly disposable wealth to dispose of in the vicinity.  So, for Sutherland it was Goodbye California and hello to King Street, NR1.

A successful gig like this is vital to the city.  The Adrian Flux Waterfront is a crucial element in the local music scene and filling up for one of these higher-priced ticket gigs keeps the venue in business.  The punters don’t have to trek across country or catch the train to Town and the O2 for this show, so people here would have seen this as a relatively cheap opportunity to rub up against celebrity.  Witness the thicket of phone camera screens disturbing the eye line, above the heads of the crowd, as Hollywood star came into squared up focus.

Kiefer Sutherland Live On Screen

When students don’t go out much anymore, so worried are they about debt, working flexible hours to pay for their education and actually studying to get the best possible return on investment for their money, who better to replace them in our music venues than their parents’ generation?  Kiefer is the perfect act for such a target audience.  

Who better to bring this audience out of Norfolk’s expanding suburbia, away from their wicker hearts painted in grey, where the cockapoo can amuse itself for a few hours, the deep pile carpet (shoes off, please) and the latest subscription paid TV series, than a star of subscription TV and silver screen?

There is no doubt Kiefer Sutherland knows what he is doing with his music. He works hard at it and has established himself as a credible band leader, regardless of his fame and fortune elsewhere. He has moved beyond Hollywood hobby act status to identifiable band leader, who makes his fans happy, very happy. In fact, they are so happy that they buy t-shirts with the name Kiefer proudly stamped on them, even before the opening act comes on stage.  I do not think I have ever seen a merchandise queue so long before a gig starts than last night!

 

Eager Kiefers line up for
Merch pre-show

Kiefer Sutherland’s tour is definitely an excuse for a night out for the girls, whether collectively or with best friend, sister, mother, even the current bloke.  I asked two men at the bar why they were here tonight and they responded with.  “The wives.”  In reply to my question asking if either of them had heard Kiefer Sutherland’s music before, I was told, “She’s been playing it non-stop around the house for the past fortnight.”  He admitted to not usually doing this kind of gig.  I should have asked if Kiefer Sullivan's fans are known as collectively, Kiefers.

Ray Davies has been known to respond with, “You flatterer!” when heckled unkindly, but Kiefer Sutherland is unlikely to ever need a retort of such sarcasm, as his stays on the front foot throughout.  He sets his fanbase up with a list of his favourite things in music before confessing, “Nothing is better than playing in front of an audience like you.” Cue audience hysteria.  Sutherland has them a quiver.

There is precious time between songs for any audience interjection.  The band leader’s tone is brisk, the back stories introducing songs are simple.  Only once does he stumble over his lines, then swears in frustration at himself for the hiccough, before resuming his personable stage character.  More cheers are drawn from the pit with his expression of relief at being lucky enough to grow up without a cell phone or computer, a feeling which is encapsulated in Simpler Time. 

This reminded me of The Kinks fabulous, hope-filled song called Better Days which clearly would have been more uplifting than a nostalgia number.  Nostalgia is a theme commonly turned to by Neil Young over the years.  Is nostalgia a particularly Canadian thing, or a one running through the ageing Northern hemisphere populations? Whatever, the song was cheered heartily at introduction and conclusion.  Father, grandfather, Sutherland knows personally the demographic of his followers. 

Sutherland takes his chance to cover a couple of his personal favourites, not least of which, Phil Collins Something in The Air Tonight goes down a storm. A tune beloved by people of a certain age and consumers of Cadbury's chocolate.  

 

The opening act on this European and UK tour is a solo singer-songwriter who goes by the name Colin Andrew.  Playing a set at a London hotel one night he was approached by Kiefer Sutherland and offered the opening slot for this tour.  A nice story, showing Sutherland’s largesse.

 

Colin Andrew, a Kerry man, is confident standing alone on stage in front of someone else’s audience.  He was minded to tell the voluble Norwich crowd to respect those who had come to listen to music.  He had half an hour to sing a few of his own numbers and in a nice twist, he chose to sing a song from someone musically linked to the venue.  Chat GBT dealt him the name Dave Davies, so he led the crowd in Sunny Afternoon, which the crowd knew very well, underlining the age profile of tonight’s punters.  The crowd sang it beautifully.  In fact, so beautifully, that I wondered how many members of the local rock choir had showed up. 

Colin Andrew here to play music not listen to local gossip 

 

Andrew’s own compositions were warmly applauded and hopefully he sold some merchandise after his quite original tug on the many maternal heartstrings present by suggesting his girlfriend would be leaving him unless all his t-shirts and stickers were sold on tour.  Andrew suggested that the more talkative people buy stickers to put over the mouth, which again brought about cheers of approval.  By the end of his thirty minutes, everyone understood the class rules and he was able to concentrate on his work, i.e. delivering a pleasant repertoire of self-written songs that paved the way for the band to follow.  I have to say that the man was quite right to give it to the crowd straight, in a city so beautifully provided with for chats in a bar, without music, why bring your chat to a music venue?

 

Why does Kiefer Sutherland go on a tour like this?  I think, it is because he can.  He is at an age when the drive to be creative in his own right, not just interpreting others’ words for the camera, is vitally important.  He emphasises that these are songs he has written on his own, or with friends, (he clearly has a band he loves playing with).  He is playing at medium size venues, has a sensible tour schedule allowing him space to enjoy the travelling, (or perhaps to pop back home to do the day job, the lot of so many musicians).  

This is clearly something Sutherland really loves doing.  This is his thing, his own project and he has an inherent drive to entertain.  How much better it must be to be present with an audience where the response is immediate, the love tangible, rather than only being admired via a remote control and industry award evenings.

Kiefer Sutherland plays his favourite part

The set list builds neatly, Sutherland reveals some of his soul between numbers, he puffs the audience up, he is mercifully brief in his pause before the encore, although the crowd was genuinely keen for more.   The songs are fine, the tunes are based on proven shapes, the musicianship of the band excellent, these guys can rock out with the best of them, comfortably crossing the country / rock line with impunity.

Nothing beats live music for having a good old time.  Sutherland has come  to playing it a little later in life than many, but being the consummate professional performer he is, Sutherland would never let down his audience.  Being a touring rock star is most probably his favourite acting role ever.

Kiefer Sutherland releases his new album Grey on 29th May 2026.  You can pre-order here.

The tour continues across the UK for a while yet before a USA leg. Remaining tickets for the live shows are available HERE.

MAY 2026

14th - Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill
16th - Glasgow, Old Fruit Market
17th - Newcastle, Boilershop
18th - Manchester, New Century Hall
20th - Belfast, Empire
21st - Dublin, Ambassador
22nd - Cardiff, Tramshed
23rd - Exeter, Phoenix
25th - Bournemouth, O2 Academy
26th - Oxford, O2 Academy
27th - Leeds, O2 Academy

JUNE 2026

10th - Patchogue, NY - Patchogue Theatre
11th - Penside, PA – Keswick
12th - Mashuntucket, CT - Foxwoods Casino
14th - Boston, MA – Wilbur
16th - Annapolis, MD - Rams Head Group
18th - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
19th - Charlotte, NC - The Underground
20th - Atlanta, GA - Center Stage (The Loft)
21st - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl
27th - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
28th - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
30th - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up

JULY 2026

1st - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey
2nd - Las Vegas, NV - Durango Casino
11th - Saguenay, Festival Les Grands Crus Musicaux

~

Spencer Ide

Norwich

14th May 2026