Greg Laswell & Elizabeth & Catapult

Greg Laswell, Lincoln Hall, Nov. 2010

After seeing his show Saturday night, I think it's safe to say I'm having a @GregLaswell type of day. According to the singer, that typically carries with it a negative connotation from his Twitter followers. However, it's been nothing but positive today as I recreated his set list on Spotify from the show, that was in the words of my fiance..."f**king awesome." 

Greg Laswell, Schubas 6/9/12

The night started out with my first encounter with Elizabeth Ziman from Elizabeth & Catapult who is opening up for Greg Laswell on their tour as well as featured in one of his songs off his latest album,Landline. It didn't take long to understand why she is one of Laswell's "favorite artists." Oh, that voice. She has an amazing personality which came out in her interactions with the crowd between songs. Have I mentioned her voice? A little raspy mixed with a little sweet, she makes it so easy to listen to her and she left me wanting more. She closed her set with a fantastic cover of the Dawes hit, 'When My Time Comes,' which was so well done I would've believed it was her song originally.

Laswell began his set with a full band accompanying him and they remained with him for most of the night with Elizabeth covering piano as well as contributing vocals, but he moved over to the piano and also held the stage by himself from time to time. Also fantastic in his interactions with the crowd, he comes off as just the right kind of cool with his patented hat and anecdotes from life on the road. From his epic search for the Dorito Taco to his seemingly one-on-one conversation with a woman in the front row of a concert who responded to everything he said to the crowd, just loudly enough for him to hear. He worked off a very steady rotation of new song, old song, new song, old song throughout the list which worked well for the people in the crowd who were not extremely familiar with his latest release which dropped at the end of April. He pulled from all four of his studio albums as well as his How The Day Sounds EP in 2008 and his five song release Covers in 2009. It took him all of three songs for him to ditch his leather jacket and he appeared ready to take over the piano. 

Greg Laswell, Lincoln Hall, Nov. 2010

He moved effortlessly from some of his early work right back into his new material. Laswell pre-empted a "cover of a cover of my song" when he commented on how much he hates when a band plays a song completely different than the way the fans have experienced it on an album. As cool as ever, he performed a stripped down version of 'How The Day Sounds' that made the audience forget about the original version entirely. It also provided a perfect transition to his duet with Elizabeth on 'Back To You.' He littered the set list with small tidbits including the song he wrote for his dad, 'Late Arriving' in which it turned into an apology at the chorus. Laswell also was completely fine with admitting "I'm an asshole in this next song," which turned out to be 'Dragging You Around' from the Landline album.

Contributed by guest editor: Jeremy Brade