Sondre Lerche @ Southpaw - pics

Sondre Lerche (pronounced Sondra Lair Kay) of Norway played an extremely packed Southpaw in Brooklyn last night (20 October 2004). I've been to packed shows at Southpaw before (The Unicorns & Mogwai). This was more packed.

I missed The Golden Republic, which is unfortunate because I thoroughly enjoyed them as Sondre's backing band. In fact, my advice to Sondre is to stick with the band format. He played about half solo, and half with the band. Me liked the band. I believe the cheering crowd agreed.

Sondre is an entertainer. His between song banter is reminiscent of the classic lounge act. He's the Nordic Frank Sinatra, telling jokes and wooing the ladies. And I think he has the potential to go in that direction if he wants to, although it probably goes over much better in Norway in his native language. Sometimes, with his less-than-perfect command of the English language, I wasn't sure if the (tough Brooklyn.... grrr) crowd was laughing with him, or at him.

Luckily for Sondre, no matter what is going wrong on stage, there will always be the girls in the audience screaming about getting naked and how much they love him.