Thursday, April 8, 2010

A Grand Introduction of Lawrence Arabia-Lincoln Hall, Chicago, 4.7.10

With much intrigue, I arrive early to catch the opener New Zealander, Lawrence Arabia. The stage is filled with five bearded men playing in a gritty bluesy rock fashion, harmonizing and complimenting Lawrence's tender and warm hearted vocals. Psychedelic black lights flash as the guys shudder around playing with intensity a full-bodied guitar rock. His lyrics a personal recounting of experiences pleasant and forgettable maneuvering the set's overall tonality through an array of emotions varying from jovial, sentimental and bitterly nostalgic. Romanticism gushes from stage in the grand caribbeanesque “Aukland CBD Part 2”, as Lawrence smoothly croons the crowd of former love. He cynically notes another dream related song, softly singing in a Buddy Holly fashion slowly unraveling his adolescent fantasies.

His prime ministers compliments him in harmonic style returning to a higher tempo with a beachy melody as smoke rises and the tambourine clatters. The band playfully jests with the venue's fog machine controller, beckoning a spray then quickly proclaiming too much. There is an overall pleasant way of their sound, familiarly blending past eras in a poppy singalong aesthetic as though offspring of Sgt. Pepper. His music an orchestral retelling of lost love letters of life leaving a certain Joie de Vivre in the air. Thanking the crowd and Fanfarlo once more before singing their final melody; a playful song of the pleasantries surrounding a beach environ. Stalling with the echoing sonorous do das before ultimately deconstructing in a dissonance of sound and a fog of the smoke machine.


Lawrence Arabia

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