Lawrence @ 9:30 Club [DC] - 12/16/21
Clyde Lawrence, one-half of the Lawrence siblings and one-eighth of Lawrence (Photo ©2021 Mauricio Castro)
We’ve been fortunate enough to see Lawrence a handful of times since 2016, but with a sold-out 9:30 Club show to cap off 2021, the eight-piece soul-pop band fronted by siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence have really hit their stride.
For two hours, the group played new favorites like “The Weather,” complete with a gospel-inspired outro that isn’t a part of the album version. The song’s outro is a triumphant tour de force that puts all their strengths in full view: larger-than-life horns and larger-than-life, hearts-on-sleeves vocals makes for an unforgettable concert highlight. Gracie’s incomparable vocal range is front and center in “Shot,” and funked-up covers of Sean Paul’s “Get Busy” and Backstreet Boys’ “It’s Gonna Be Me” were among the cover highlights of the night. Their interludes were fun affairs too, like thirty-second covers of the Seinfeld/Hey Arnold! theme songs, the Cha-Cha Slide, a rock-paper-scissors contest, and even a Rickroll during the encore.
While their latest album has undoubtedly slicker production values than Breakfast and Living Room, it’s satisfying to watch them strip away those radio-friendly touches and show why we fell in love with them years ago. They’re fun to watch, they have two of the best co-vocalists today, and they’ve got an ear for catchy melodies that draw from the greats like Sly and the Family Stone and Stevie Wonder. Three albums in, and the band looks like they’re having more fun than ever on stage.
Lawrence’s third album Hotel TV is out now on their self-run label Beautiful Mind Records.
Opening for Lawrence were Maryland-based R&B/soul artist MLLN, who also performed on stage with Lawrence for “Don’t Lose Sight,” after winning a social media contest where the band asked fans to send in their best Lawrence covers. Clyde noted before performing the song that he liked MLLN’s vocal delivery on the song so much that he took some cues from it for his own live performances. MLLN’s latest release is the single “For It.” Also opening were southern California soul/rock group Próxima Parada, whose self-released sophomore album Second Brother is out now.
Photos by Mauricio Castro
SETLIST
Casualty
It's Not All About You
Hotel TV (with The Office intro)
Probably Up
Heartburn (with Hey Arnold! intro)
Jet Lag
Shot (with Cha-Cha Slide intro)
More
Freckles
Silver Lining
Get Busy
Weather (with outro)
False Alarms
Make A Move
Do You Wanna Do Nothing With Me?
Don't Lose Sight (with MLLN on vocals)
ENCORE
It's Gonna Be Me
Tomorrow