sondre lerche & lail arad @ the slaughtered lamb

on 18.10.09, i went to see a show at the slaughtered lamb in clerkenwell with k.l. sondre lerche was headlining his own show while on tour with the fray. amazing. k.l. and i bought tickets online, which was lucky cause the show sold out. of course the show sold out, it was sondre lerche! has there ever been a more adorable, cuter, funnier, wittier, better guitar playing norwegian person ever before in the history of the norse? i doubt it.

the show was fantastic. the venue was fantastic. upstairs it's a regular pub, with decent food & drink and the usual post-work pubbing crowd. downstairs is a cosy venue with couches and a very sitting around in your parents' basement feeling but your parents' basement isn't a dive or made to look like a bar mitzvah barfed all over it. in short, it's perfect. not that i have anything against bar mitzvahs or dives, mind you. its just that after being in far too many venues that require having to bring your own hand sanitizer along, it's nice to stand somewhere and not wonder what that sticky feeling under your [insert body part here] is.

k.l. was the perfect lady to attend the show with because she's giddy for sondre like me. and we could be groupies together with no shame. the opening act -- lail arad -- was fantabulastic. she's putting an album out soon, so keep an ear out for it. she has an adorable voice, wonderful stage presence, witty repartee and sings the truth, people. she sings the truth. or perhaps i've become lail's biggest fan because she sings like me: made up in the moment type spontaneous songs, but unlike me, her songs are good, clearly had time and effort go into them, are thoughtful and she can actually sing. go lail!! please please please go find lail's music -- and PAY FOR IT mofos -- because i don't want to have to say "i told you so" when i have tickets to her shows and you have to stay at home.

lail was the perfect opener to sondre lerche. the downside was that lail's too modest. she mentioned her name only once or twice during her gig and i barely heard it. it sounded like it could be spelled lyle or lille or lil' or lily and it took me some heavy internet stalkings to find her webescence. oh, but i did.

so, apart from sondre lerche playing fabulous song after fabulous song with amazing guitar move after amazing guitar move looking and acting increasingly more adorable, he also moved me into a fit of the giggles. man alive, that man is funny! he even took the piss out of the british for their fascination with has-been popstar / reality tv "star" (see an earlier post about reality tv "stardom" for my opinion on the phenomenon) peter andre.

i could go on and on gushing about the night, but i will end by telling you that as k.l. and i snaked our way to the exit / merch table, sondre lerche had already parked himself near the exit bidding a friendly (and very un-affected non-williamsburg adieu) to his fans. as i mulled over which size of man's tshirt to get, k.l. offered to take pictures for people waiting to have their photo taken with him. as a result, we also got our photo taken with sondre lerche. and k.l., being the darling that she is, let me stand next to him and i didn't even have to fight her for it.

yes yes yes!!!! k.l. and i got our photo taken with sondre lerche!!!! i won't post the picture up here to protect the innocent, but i will tell you that in the photo, he looks like he's lunging out into the camera and k.l. and i, by comparison, look like we're standing in the next time zone. he looks huge! it's quite hilarious actually.

someday i'll show you, after i've stopped drooling all over the picture, that is.

here are some other pictures of the show though.