Johnny Flynn plays in Philly for the first time in 3 years

“The water sustains me without even trying,” a loving yet subdued crowd sings back to the British new-folk icon Johnny Flynn on Saturday night. “The water can’t drown me, I’m done with my dying.”

For the first time in three years, Flynn passed through Philly playing a sold out crowd packed into North Star Bar. Following a bouncy set by The Melodic, and stripped of his band The Sussex Wit, Flynn got though his first two songs “Lost and Found” and “The Ghost of O’Donahue” before pulling out a small wrinkled piece of paper from his pocket. “I try playing this game with myself,” Flynn explains how he tries to remember the songs on his setlist without looking. “This time I didn’t do so well,” he said as the audience chuckled.

Photo by Elizabeth Mazenko

The rest of the night was the perfect balance between celebrating his 2013 release Country Mile with newer tunes like “Murmuration” and “The Lady Is Risen,” and boot stomping crowd favorites from A Larum and Been Listening.

Playing “The Water,” Flynn got the crowd’s help on the originally dueted song. Getting to the end of his wrinkled list, the crowd groaned at the announcement of his last song. Glad the packed room didn’t want his set to end, Flynn jumped right into “Tickle Me Pink,” which he allowed the audience to finish by repeating the refrain in an almost chant. “Pray for the people inside your head / for they wont be there when you’re dead.”

Check out the setlist from Saturday’s concert at the North Star after the jump.

Setlist
Lost and Found
The Ghost of O’Donahue
Murmuration
Brown Trout Blues
Sweet William
Been Listening
The Lady Is Risen
The Wrote and the Writ
After Eliot
The Water
Country Mile
The Box
Shore to Shore
Einstein’s Idea
Bottom of the Sea Blues
Tickle Me Pink