Live review – London, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire 21-11-11
When I was first asked to review Polydor’s new signings, Lawson my first thoughts were that it’s yet another boyband with instruments who might be instantly forgettable. But, to be fair to Lawson, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised.
Lawson kicked off their set with a real bang, immediately grabbing not just my attention but all of the audience inside the venue. You got the impression that they really knew what they were doing and had worked hard to get to this stage. Tight musically and strong vocally.
From their strong opener, Lawson followed this with a cover of “Firework” by Katy Perry. It could have been cheesy, but they really did a good job, again showing how strong singer, Andy Brown’s vocals are. Impressively, they managed to make the song their own, managing to make it work, very much in their favour.
Lawson may not have been playing to their target audience (I’d guess they’re more aimed at the whole “tweenie girl” market), but they were well received and managed to engage the crowd and definitely won people over throughout their set. Especially the woman sat just along from us, she was rather excitable and they definitely earnt a new fan in her tonight.
The look of Lawson may not exactly be unique, but you get the impression they’ve been styled, they’re ready to market for Polydor and even if things are perhaps a little generic look wise, they’ve got enough in their music to actually make an impact.
They follows up with more original numbers including “Red Sky” and “Standing In The Dark”, decent enough songs, but by this time things were beginning to sound a little similar. But, there’s also the thought that if you’ve got things right, then why would you mix them up, look at bands like Oasis, their songs all sound remarkably similar to one another and look what happened to them!
The Lawson sound is firmly fixed in rock, but they have a lighter side to them, mixing in elements of indie and also pop, which gives the band that mass appeal edge. It’s hard to compare Lawson to other bands out there. McFly maybe too obvious and doesn’t really fit their sound, I did hear hints of Kings Of Leon, which is no bad thing. They’re more along the lines of Razorlight than McFly. Another positive for musical integrity, but maybe not for mainstream chart success.
This four piece seem to have a decent team behind them, creating a bit of a buzz around the band. The story goes that they were named after the brain surgeon who removed frontman, Andy’s brain tumour. Andy is also well known not just for his YouTube channel (where he performs covers of various songs) but also as the ex-fella of Mollie from pop group The Saturdays.
Closing their set with “When She Was Mine”, you have to wonder if this is a tune about a previous relationship with a certain pop band member…
Whether or not Lawson can trouble the charts remains to be seen, they definitely have an impressive sound about them and the right tools to make an impact. Yes, the songs are a bit samey, but their vocals cannot fail to impress. If you do like your indie/rock/pop stuff, then you should check Lawson out, a decent band that could just do pretty well.
review by JT
You can check Lawson out here: http://www.lawsonofficial.com/
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