Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche wasted no time when the red curtain rose in the intimate art deco El Rey Theatre Wednesday night.
He launched straight into “Private Caller” from this year’s new self-titled release with a reverb punch from a blue sunburst Gretchen guitar and a lot of energy from his backing band ““ much to the delight of his adoring, mostly female fans.
“How are you?” Sondre asked, eliciting in response of cries even louder than the music itself.
“Pretty good,” he concluded in an understatement with a smile.
Continuing with phone-themed songs, Lerche reached back to 2007 with “Airport Taxi Reception,” showcasing his wide vocal range and quick octave changes. Sweet, contained, melodic refrains gave way to unleashed drum fury, as the band broke into a jam.
Slowing down the tempo at first with “Two Way Monologue,” Lerche picked it back up again with jolting guitar riffs and pauses that left audience members drooling in anticipation for his next move.
Lerche cooled off his audience again with a song in a minor key and with a retrospective sentiment, “No One’s Gonna Come.” The pining eyes of the front-row girls glittered as they sang along: “Like you said, it never was better than how it was.”
Kicking up the tempo with the swooping seventh chords Lerche is so fond of, the blue-eyed, flaxen-haired heartthrob went into an energetic fit of fast guitar strumming, keeping listeners on edge during the fittingly named “Domino.”
Between songs, the band engaged in some friendly, teasing stage banter about its fashionable band merchandise, cheap buttons and how it only communicates via twitter now.
It also communicated via harmonized sing-alongs, which the audience joined
in on, never missing a cue (except maybe a verse or two).
A jazzy, longing and endearingly vulnerable voice crack could be heard on “Wet
Ground,” which had bodies swaying left and right.
Lerche shook off some structure on “My Hands Are Shaking,” singing with a clean voice over a richly muddied guitar. Though a similar arrangement could be heard throughout a lot of Lerche’s songs, the band kept it fresh with varied rhythms and accents.
After another song about cobble streets on an electric-acoustic Gibson, Lerche launched into “Heartbeat Radio” with short outbursts of distorted electric guitar, his voice falling down scales like a feather in the spotlight over wistful listeners.
Eliza Hardy Jones from opening band Nightlands joined Kishi Bashi, fellow opener and violinist and keyboardist for Lerche’s band, on the keyboard for “Say It All.” The collaboration sparked more stage banter, laughs and even staged punches from Jones and Bashi as Lerche sang “it’s all in the punch line.”
After asking forgiveness for his rather abrupt rock “˜n’ roll exit (which the audience gave to him with cheers), Lerche led a duet with the audience on “Modern Nature”: “Do you have a clue what this is? (I don’t know) / Are you everything that I miss? (I don’t hope so) / We’ll just have to wait and see (Wait, and see).”
The energy, along with Lerche’s fresh, foreign take on English words and phonetics in his lyrics, kept audiences talking outside long after security had cleared them out.
It could have been the hot dog carts, as well.