A Few Reasons Why Every Bro NEEDS to Go to a Passenger Show

1. The music

I mean, duh. But Passenger’s alt/folk/rock sound – think the folk energy of Mumford, the soulfulness and instrumentation of Zac Brown, and some beautiful and delicate UK-accented vocals– is mesmerizing. His performance is simple, the stage bare except for a mic stand, and draws the crowd in from the first song. At one point he even stepped away from the mic and played a whole song unplugged, which even people at the bar weren't talking over.

2. He’s hilarious

From granting the audience permission to sneeze freely during quiet songs to launching into the theme from “Team America,” Passenger is fundamentally a bro, and the low-key hilarious one that you wish would shut the f*ck up in class because the teacher is about to notice you semi-stealthily dying of laughter. He's constantly joking about how things are “depressing enough to be a Passenger song” and at one point whips out a Mr. Burns impression. He tells a girl who shouts that she loves him that he can't marry her because then he'd have to acquiesce to everyone and it'd be and expensive wedding and he wouldn't know who was his wife.

3. Your girlfriend will be crying

Yeah, that might sound like a bad thing, but she’ll be crying because the music is so damn beautiful and not because she knows you think her sister's hotter than her. This is the perfect opportunity to be the supportive, caring man she keeps telling her friends you are over brunch. While the songs are punctuated by Passenger's witty commentary, the music itself can be emotionally intense, and you're gonna score major points for being there to experience it with her.

4. If you don’t have a girlfriend, you’ll get one

The crowd at a Passenger show is babe central. And his lyrics, while often romantic (or, more often, melancholic,) are filled with emotional complexities and poetic nuances. From his most well-known track, “Let Her Go,” “You only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low, only hate the road when you’re missing home, only know your lover when you let her go. And you let her go.” The lyrics his lady-fans relate to aren’t the Taylor Swift-ian musings of a girl thinking something could “seem like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters and make fun of our exes.” Rather than a pool of chicks heavy in neediness and desperation, you might have a chance at meeting a girl worth your time at night that's still worth it in the morning.

5. He’s not full of himself

In between shows, Passenger busks in public parks. First of all, what artists even have time between gigs? You've got to travel, soundcheck, and find food (the finding food thing usually takes me all day as is). But Passenger makes it a priority to go to public parks and play. Also, what artists with fully sold out tours think they're not too good to play music on the street? If you can't make it to a show, check his twitter when he comes to town, since he might hit up a park near you.