Lawrence Arabia: Live Gig @ Happy 08 Feb 2008

Thursday night at Happy was packed, and for good reason. For ‘it’ man Liam Finn was due to support Lawrence Arabia, who threw two nights of fun filled music with all his friends. The faces were out in numbers, seemingly everyone who wanted to be worth something.

The Finn set seemed like the one a lot of people had bought tickets for out of the two nights, drawing a large amount of middle aged beard sporting nice guys. The first half of the set was mediocre, but with the addition of Connan Hosford, James and Joe to form an impressive backing back, the final two songs were perfect. It was the first time I have seen Liam Finn duet with Connan on ‘I’ll Be Lightning’, as on his debut album, and it was just brilliant.

The second of the two nights brought on Luke Buda, Samuel Flynn Scott, and Connan and his retarded gannets. Luke was up to his same show ponyish antics, which I like- they are great entertainment. Samuel Flynn Scott was great, and played a lot of his better songs, but where was ‘the hunt’? God knows you should’ve played it.

Connan- minus two moccasins- played what he does best: cute. But there was something about those down syndrome gannets that didn’t quite click for me. The music was nothing new, worse than any Mockasin material, and seemed rather empty, but that could just be a bias sentimental side coming out.

Lawrence Arabia is awesome. If you can ever get to see him- do. With a Dylan cover and saving his best hits til last, Lawrence Arabia not only hosted two nights of sweet gigs, but fully owned the top spot and played long into the night. The collaborations were flying, and it was the type of gig you don’t see every day.

Thanks Lawrence Arabia, good times. It would be a good idea to see them again before they head back to U.K.