an interview w/ Sondre Lerche @ Maxwell's (pics, setlist too)

by Anna Scialli

Apparently, in Hoboken, St Patrick’s Day is on March 6th. I did not know this when I headed to Maxwell‘s on Saturday night to see Sondre Lerche finish up his most recent tour to a sold out audience. As a result of the premature Hoboken celebration, the PATH train took over an hour and a half to show up and getting to the venue was nearly impossible due to the hordes of drunks swarming Washington Street. Finally, after a very long commute, I arrived at Maxwell’s – Only to find out that Sondre Lerche had four songs left.

Those four songs were great though. I’ve seen Sondre Lerche a few times but this is the first time I’ve heard him play “I’m A Boy” by the Who. His acoustic, poppy rendition was fun and catchy – a very interesting adaptation for his solo show. For his last song, Sondre played “Modern Nature” encouraging the audience to sing along in place of the female vocals from the recorded version.

After the show, I explained to Sondre my PATH dilemma. He generously offered to do an interview after he gave autographs and talked to all his fans at the show. Of all the musicians I’ve seen, Sondre Lerche has always been the most gracious and friendly. So, I quickly scrambled to jot down some interview questions and thanks to my iPhone, the interview happened.

That interview, a few pics from the show and the setlist, below…

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“What are your pre-show rituals?”

Sondre: I don’t really have any, I do some voice exercises and I do a little] bit of this, a little bit of stretching because you know I do a lot of guitar playing. Yeah, I don’t really have any crazy rituals that I HAVE to do, I’m not very superstitious

So you live in Brooklyn – what is your favorite Brooklyn bar?

I like Hotel Delmano even though they’re a bit bitchy there sometimes. Usually it’s a nice place to go and they have really nice drinks. And every now and then if the people who work there are a bit bitchy we go “ah no, I’m never going to go back there” but somehow we always come back.

How many guitars do you own?

I have probably like 8 or 9.

What’s your favorite to play on stage?

The Blue Gretsch

What’s your favorite to write songs on?

I have a little Gibson Blues King that is really tiny and that’s the one I usually use to write on at home.

What’s your favorite song to play on stage?

Oh you know – when you do a full tour and you play every night it just changes from night to night. I try to be sort of true to myself in the sense that if I’m not feeling a song I won’t play it that night- I’ll just let it go and maybe tomorrow I’ll feel it again. Especially when you’re on stage by yourself, I need to ahve a certain element of spontaneity and be improvised. Every song I play every night – I play a sort of a loose translation or a loose interpretation. So that makes it really dynamic and every night there’s sort of a new song that stands out to me.

And tonight?

I’ve been enjoying Airport Taxi Reception a lot lately.

I must have missed that.

Were you here for Phantom Punch? That one was pretty good tonight.

I’m sorry, I missed that one too- I’ll never forgive the PATH! What are your thoughts about the Hoboken St Patty’s Day parade (that so egregiously delayed me tonight)?

My initial thought is that it makes it really difficult to park around here and I hate that. But I guess people are having fun and there’s nothing wrong about that and they look silly which is amusing of course, to look at, when you’re not in that, y’know.

What was your best show or favorite venue to play a show at on this tour?

The best venue was Lincoln Hall in Chicago. It’s brand new and it’s wonderful. The best show was probably Dallas.

Favorite current buzz band?

I’m really bad at keeping up with who’s buzzing. I do follow you guys [Brooklyn Vegan] on twitter which helps me. A band that my friend is on tour with now so we were playing them in the car, Avi Buffalo. I just heard a few songs and I thought it was really, really beautiful. They’re opening for Rogue Wave and apparently they’re sort of happening and I can understand why because it’s really beautiful.

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Sondre Lerche will be playing at City Winery in Tribeca on March 23rd.

a few pics from Maxwell’s…

Maxwell’s Setlist:
Good Luck
Airport Taxi Reception
Guess It’s Gonna Rain
Two Way Monologue
Heartbeat Radio
Happy Birthday Girl
Dead Passengers
Pioneer
No One’s Gonna Come
?
Easy to Persuade
I’m a Boy (The Who Cover)
Words & Music
Sleep on Needles
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Modern Nature