LIVE REVIEW: Hayden Pedigo, Kit ZUDZ Endean @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle (06.09.25)

Image by Michael O’Neill

I’ll keep on saying it until I’m blue in the face, but the Lubber Fiend have consistently established themselves as a vital vanguard in bringing incredibly singular and innovative artists to the Toon, and this glorious gig from six-string innovator Hayden Pedigo made for a phenomenal testament to this.

An opening set from local artist Kit ZUDZ Endean was a phenomenal tone-setter for the night. A charming presence on stage with a phenomenally powerful voice and a marvellous approach to the craft, Kit’s set veered between intricate acoustic fingerpicking and gnarly waves of distorted blues guitar, all shot through with glorious, powerful songs rich in vivid imagery in the wonderful rock and roll tradition. Despite some forgivable nerves (the venue was both packed and boiling) Kit was an arresting and welcome presence on stage, setting a fantastic precedent for Hayden’s headlining set.

Hailing from Amarillo, Texas, the 31-year-old guitarist has, particularly since 2021’s marvellous Letting Go, rode on a broad crest of acclaim for his brilliantly refreshing approach to the craft. With this year’s essential I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away, he has firmly established his place in a pantheon of guitarists who innovate both sonically and compositionally, whilst always maintaining a phenomenal command of melody and songcraft. Despite the intricacy and virtuosity inherent in his work, it never feels like Hayden is bending over backwards to bombard you with constant reminders of his proficiency. Instead, he crafts gloriously enthralling pieces of music in which the pauses between passages are as essential as the gloriously intricate melodies he weaves together. It’s firmly in the John Fahey/Jim O’Rourke tradition, but it still always feels clear that Hayden aims to forge ahead instead of looking back; his music is simply marvellous, a glorious healing balm in a time of such great uncertainty and division.

Hayden commenced his set with a marvellous rendition of Smoked. A choice cut from I’ll Be Waving…, the piece is a (as Hayden nervously admitted) marvellous homage to 70s British prog, brilliantly recalling the intricate 12-string symphony of Genesis’ legendary Entangled with its dense arrangement of baroque, vivid fingerpicking, which effortlessly shifts through complex chord progressions with a fierce and emotional brevity.

Throughout the set, Hayden marvellously exuded an effortless confidence in his command of the fretboard, relying on very little in the way of effects to thicken his guitar sound, save for a tasteful touch of reverb and delay to further enhance the atmosphere within his compositions. He brilliantly wove the main motif from Gustavo Santaolalla’s score to Brokeback Mountain into ‘Elsewhere’ to further enhance the piece’s incorporation of long pauses, encouraging us to listen as intently to the silence, as we would the piece itself. The result was an arresting experience, where every note felt like it held an even greater purpose, resonating vividly around the four walls of the Fiend.

The end result is a marvellous testament to Hayden’s talents and an inarguable reminder of why he’s so comfortably taken his place in the modern guitar virtuoso pantheon. He expressed a keen desire to return to Newcastle on his next venture to the UK, and I highly recommend you consider it. It’s rare you get such an unprecedented opportunity to see tomorrow’s legends today, and it’s clear that Hayden is destined for nothing less than greatness if he keeps on carving out these glorious slabs of sonic wonder.