Music / Alabama Shakes
Dylan LeBlanc, Colston Hall
Nashville girl Aubrie Sellers opens up for Dylan LeBlanc at the Lantern tonight. Behind her dark outfit, long black locks and raving electric guitar is hidden a beautiful dulcet voice. Although born in the Music City, she grew up loving rock’n’roll in her teenage years. Her music is therefore a saucy concoction of the two genres. Her performance is fierce and energetic and her song Liar, Liar is a good example of the mix of her sweet voice and dark rock background.
Dylan LeBlanc then enters the stage with a full band composed of cello, guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. This young musician originally from Louisiana went through a period of intense personal turbulence, which led him to turn down a major label deal. He then went back to Alabama to write Cautionary Tale, an album released in 2015, that featured appearances with Ben Tanner from Alabama Shakes among others. From the first note, he embarks the audience into his own little world, with his mellow voice reverbing on the walls of the Lantern. His music is mysterious and the instrumentation is finely nuanced. His band is a solid background on which he can shines freely with mesmerising electric guitar solos. On Man like Me, the softness and poetic edge of the music is always reminded by the soothing cello.
Although his music is mainly folky and soft on records, it is a different story live. Most songs are finished with a loud instrumental bang. The loudness is sometimes appeased, as demonstrated on I’m Moving On, on which the drums are played with a brush and the cello in pizzicato, giving it an overall bouncy nostalgic effect. LeBlanc comes back for an acoustic encore, only accompanied by his cellist. They perform Emma Hartley, a gorgeous ballad from his first album, and a perfect way to finish the set.
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Tonight the intimacy of the room is a very good match to Dylan’s introvert personality and shyness (although he blames his quietness on the little sleep he got the night before). More interaction with the crowd would have been great, but the audience enjoy a night of dynamic alt-country with a great balance between intensity and subtlety.
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