Dawn Landes, Mercury Lounge, NYC. June 15, 2008.
The delightful Lauren Mooney went to see Dawn Landes at Mercury Lounge on June 15th. It was raining like a mofo, so she’s obviously a super trooper. Here is her review:
NOTE: If you were walking around Williamsburg on Saturday and wondered where all the hipsters were — they were either in Central Park getting soaked or holed up in nooks and crannies uptown trying to stay dry. VAMPIRE WEEKEND and a rainstorm. The things people do to be cool — but not me, not me. Aha.
But what I’m really here to talk about is Dawn Landes, or Pollyanna meets PJ Harvey. First of all — her entire band emerged in silver sequins. And Landes remarked that she was “very honored to be surrounded by such sparkly people.” And I started to fantasize that I
was her backup vocalist/keyboardist/kazu-ist. We both have curly hair and her name is Lauren too. Aha! Hey it could happen — too bad I quit piano lessons in Jr. High.
The set list was phenomenal — when she played “Tired of this Life,” then “Twilight,” followed by “I Don’t Need No Man,” it went from mellow to full on ROCK out session. And her Kentucky sweetness came out when she said “Happy Birthday to anyone with a birthday today and Happy Father’s Day to anyone with a father.” Ha! So nice of her. No really, she’s SUCH a sweetheart!
Oh and that guy in the overalls — he sang with Dawn on her smashing bluegrass cover of “Young Folks.” (You know that song by that swedish group that was the number one song on iTunes for all of 2007)
When Dawn announced it was time for the last song the audience booed and in quirky Dawn fashion she pondered out loud “Where did that come from? Ghosts make that sound — are you trying to scare me?”
As she embarks on the rest of her tour (this was the opening night!) it’s safe to say that Dawn isn’t scared — she’s fearless and ready to rock you in a style all her own.
