Sondre Lerche

Sondre Lerche in concert at Southpaw
October 19, 2004
Written By June Sung
Photographed By Evan Sung

I walk into Southpaw with mixed feelings. I'm excited for Sondre: "Look at this place! Its packed!" But, sad, angry, confused, and scared for me: "Hey! But I thought Sondre was my discovery." But by the end of the evening I surrendered to the fact that everyone packed into Southpaw that night had found quite a discovery in Sondre Lerche. Playfully referred to as the "Velvet Viking" and the "Norwegian Nightingale," this 21-year old indie singer-songwriter had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

Southpaw provided the perfect setting for a return to solo form for Lerche. Lerche first toured solo in America about two years ago, returning last year accompanied by his Norwegian band mates "The Faces Down." On his third visit to New York, and his FIRST ever concert in BROOKLYN!! as he shouted to the cheering crowd, he returns to the stage with only his golden Grestch guitar. Lerche made his way through songs old and new, offering solo renditions of songs from his two albums, Faces Down and Two-Way Monologue (released state-side by Astralwerks). Lerche is already a huge draw in Europe and the Southpaw audience had a great chance to find out why.

Sondre Lerche

In addition to displaying a crooner-like instinct for shaping his songs vocally, he charmed the crowd with his breezy, winking patter between songs. By the second song, the pretty alterna-chicks (and maybe some alterna-guys) probably had their alterna-undies down around their alterna-ankles. As a musician he showed off some real skills with the guitar, attacking the strings and swinging it wildly as if to launch the music into the crowd. His skills as a guitarist are mind-blowing. His best songs of the night were the sunny pop of "Two-Way Monologue" and the adorable "Modern Nature." "Modern Nature," a song written by Lerche at 15 (!) is normally a duet, and said alterna-chicks were more than happy to oblige Lerche by singing the female part. And I have to say that they sounded great together.

As wonderful as Lerche was, it was a welcome change when he brought up the opening band of "The Golden Republic" to accompany him on a few of his more energetic songs. "The Golden Republic" were no slouches in the hard-rockin’ department, and provided a great context to show that Lerche was not just all dreamy vocals and bossa-nova tinged pop.

Sondre Lerche

Sondre Lerche continues his US tour until the end of the year, so surf on over to his website www.sondrelerche.com to check out his next dates. Because this "Norwegian Nightingale" will soon be flying back home.