Regardless of what makes Sondre Lerche such a great performer (my research informs me that it comes from years of studying music, go figure) he is still worth the ever increasing ticket prices to see live.

My evening of Sondre started by going to see him at Cactus records for an in store meet and greet, which was really just Sondre hanging out and talking to his fans. There wasn’t really so much a line to get an autograph as it was just him standing up and taking pictures and making small talk. I had been informed that Sondre was a very friendly guy, but he was way nicer than I expected.

A couple hours after the meet and greet I headed to the Meridian (I guess it is actually Wired Live now?) to see Mr. Lerche perform. I got to the venue just as his opener, JBM, was finishing. After JBM took his drum set and guitar off the stage Sondre took the stage, alone.

Sondre belongs to a very small club of musicians, like Andrew Bird and Regina Spektor, that can put on an amazing show playing by themselves. When Sondre started the first song I was instantly amazed at how perfect his voice was, how tricky his guitar playing was, and how he managed to make the songs still sounds full without any bass or drums. In fact, I think that had he played with a full band it may have taken away from his charm.

In addition to being a great singer and songwriter, Mr. Lerche has a wonderful stage presence. He was able to keep all his fans screaming throughout the set, made small talk with the front row in between songs, and he even sang, in joking, a Beyonce/Destiny’s Child medly.

The set list was impeccable, touching on all points of his career. Older songs such as “Two Way Monologue” were met with just as much applause as songs off of his newest album, “Heartbeat Radio”. After playing a flawless set, not a single wrong note hit, Sondre treated Houston to a solo version of the song “Modern Nature”, with the audience filling in the female parts.

After Sondre put his guitar down for the night he immediately walked over to the merch table to take photos and sign autographs. In fact, Sondre didn’t leave the merch table until every fan got a photo, an autograph, or at least shook his hand. It’s very rare to see performers that are so nice to their fans, and I respect Sondre even more for taking care of his fans.

Leaving the show I noticed a good number of younger looking kids in attendance. It is nice to see that some kids still look up to people who don’t need auto-tune (actually auto-tuning Sondre Lerche would be blasphemous) or any gimmicks to get kids to the shows. Maybe some of these kids might end up alright.