The first time I saw Lauran Hibberd live, she was backed by a banner asking “who the f#ck is Lauran Hibberd”, now seeing her name on posters touring the UK as a ‘GarageBand Superstar’, having released her debut album of the same name last month.
I was lucky enough to attend the very first date of the tour, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds - probably my favourite music venue in Yorkshire!
After two fantastic supports in the form of Viji and Daisy Brain, with only the latter that I had seen before life, another brilliant performance, as well as seeing a refreshing set from Viji!
Lauran came on stage and started singing the opening lyrics to ‘Average Joe’ which everyone in the room was moving around to, and as they should be!
Get Some and fan favourite ‘Bleugh’ were up next. To me, ‘Bleugh’ is one of Lauran’s most memorable tracks, with the blunt observations in the opening of the track with minimal instruments which bursts into this catchy verse.
‘Hole in the Head’, one of the more memorable album tracks on the album which strangely wasn’t included as its standalone single release pre-album, which includes an incredibly catchy 2000s pop-punk inspired chorus. ‘Sugardaddy’ was up next.
‘Hot Boys’, starts to play. Viji, who features on the track, managed to find a tangled up microphone by Lauran’s pedalboard and accompanied the band in performing the track!
‘I’m Insecure’ is one of the more powerful tracks beyond its catchy verses and guitar tracks, having opened with a small monologue of how Lauran believed nobody would actually turn up to her shows beforehand.
When the album was announced, fans were happily confused about some odd features on the record, the second song on the set including one of them, ‘Still Running (5K)’ which features beats from DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit. This was announced by Lauran herself as the “last song” and called out sarcastically “this is definitely our last song, we are definitely not coming back” accompanied with the air quotes.
‘Slimming Down’, ‘Rollercoaster’ and debut album closer ‘Last Song Ever’ were played as the encore after calls from the audience “we want more”. The night as a whole was comedic, memorable, and unpredictable with quick witty comments and jokes coming from Lauran and her bass player Jess Baker as well as me retrieving one of Lauran’s bright pink guitar picks!
