By Jase Walker
Just as I’m about to head to the venue for the show, I hear that unfortunately headliners Magic Sword have had to drop out due to a medical emergency – but the show’s still going ahead. I really hope whatever it is, that they’re OK and getting themselves sorted!
After having a brief chat with Shaun from Lebrock, I’ve found that they’ve opted to push back the stage times rather than going early and finishing early.
Droid Bishop kick things off as just the solo guy with a guitar doing bloody everything at once and still doing the front man bits too, quite the one man band! Gotta give him props for marching around the stage rocking out as if he has a full band with him too! Not only that but in between the strutting and rocking out, he’s got time to make the odd few quips about loving people’s hair as well. Just to stress though, this is synthwave, so all the usual ’80s synth sounds and electronic drums are all there too.
I’ve seen a few stripped back synthwave acts over the years but not quite one where the guy acts quite like he’s a one-man motley crue. It’s a pretty damn nice Gibson he’s playing with too and it sounds great, real classic Def Leppard/Journey tone. It’s not just his guitar he’s using though, periodically jumping back onto a minimalist synth keyboard for a bit of keys improvisation here and there. It’s often tough as hell to pull off a one man show, but synthwave is full of little surprises about how much someone can do with the right mindset. Droid Bishop’s been damn fun to watch and the crowd’s definitely into it too! Ah-woo!
Lebrock kick off with ‘Heartstrings’ and I’ve just spied they’ve got a live bass player now! Seeing how The Midnight has grown in a similar manner adds to the excitement of how Lebrock may be developing. Even with just the addition of a live bass player, it’s already added so much more oomph to their live sound and it’s great.
A massive singalong banger ‘Please Don’t Cry’, the whole audience knows the drill and they’re all screaming the chorus back, excellent! Not only that but there’s a couple next to me that are rather enthusiastically swinging around light sabres: synthwave shows in a nutshell. I mean it’s hard to overstate just how much of a real singalong fest your average Lebrock show is; each song is almost written from the ground up to be easy to pick up and they’ve all got a pretty distinctive hook to go along with that.
They kick into ‘Hollow’, my favourite song off their debut album ‘Fuse’, and I immediately start losing my mind, alongside its galloping beat and epic chorus it stands out amongst the other songs! It’s good to hear a solid mix of album and EP material so far as well. The crowd trying to keep up with Shaun on ‘Call Me’ is quite funny too; it’s quite a high reach on vocals!
Sadly the set overall feels quite short, most likely because I’ve enjoyed the absolute fuck out of it. Their second to last is the song that introduced me to them in the first place, ‘Dangerous Dreams’. Finishing with ‘Interstellar’, which has arguably their biggest singalong chorus and I don’t think it could have ended on a better note: even Shaun crowd surfing briefly towards the end as well just tops off what has been a fantastic set.
Lebrock cemented themselves as one of my favourite synthwave bands alongside the likes of The Midnight and Gunship. Their approach to fusing synthwave with glam rock and it’s a fantastic combo and the addition of a new member has added a ton to their live sound as well. Brilliant set.
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