The Mic's Gemma Cockrell makes a spontaneous trip to see off-kilter slacker-pop darling Lauran Hibberd at Rough Trade.
I’ll set the scene. It’s almost 4pm. I’ve just finished work. I hear my phone ping across the room. It’s Maia, The Mic’s comms sec, on the contributors group chat, asking if anyone wants to go to a Lauran Hibberd gig at Rough Trade that very evening, in about two hours’ time. I had never listened to her music before, but I am always up for giving new artists a chance, so I said yes anyway.
I soon found out that this wasn’t just any gig when I looked on the Rough Trade website and saw that it was advertised as a pub quiz as well as a gig. And it was FREE entry. So, I was naturally intrigued, since it is very rare for a gig to be free - and very rare for one to include a pub quiz, too.
With doors opening at 6pm, Lauran came on stage at around 6:45pm, which gave me a nice amount of time to have a drink and soak up the atmosphere beforehand. I wasn’t sure what to expect - would the pub quiz be before Lauran’s live set, or afterwards? Turns out, it would be neither of those options, as it was integrated into the live set.
This would never have worked with a larger crowd than the one that filled the humble upstairs of Rough Trade, but the venue was perfect for the occasion. Beginning with a quiz question on how often we pass wind (15 times a day, apparently - I guessed 30, so I suppose that says something about me), Lauran then moved on to play her first song of the evening, I’m Insecure.
This led naturally into a question asking which celebrity is insecure about their ears (Kristen Stewart) before Lauran performed a song titled Hot Boys, to which my fellow-The-Mic-attendee Izzy Morris shouted “There aren’t any in Nottingham!”. Sorry boys. Apparently, according to the next quiz answer, Brad Pitt has been voted the most attractive male in the world, but he doesn’t tend to visit Nottingham very often from my knowledge.
"I’d love to see more artists experimenting with their gigs in this way and trying something new."
The entire set was made up of songs from Lauran’s recently released debut album Garageband Superstar, including the two tracks that have already been mentioned as well as Average Joe, Step Mum and Still Running (5k). It was a very short performance made up of only five songs, with an early finish of 7:30pm, but since I didn’t pay a penny for entry I really can’t complain.
Contrary to the previous Rough Trade gigs I’ve been to, Lauran played with a full band rather than opting for an acoustic set, something that this suited her rock- leaning style of music very well. However, the evening did end in typical Rough Trade fashion: I got to meet Lauran after her performance and got a photo taken with her, one of my favourite things about Rough Trade as a venue.
Aside from my pen not working for the quiz, and only scoring one out of five points, I enjoyed the format of the evening, and I’d love to see more artists experimenting with their gigs in this way and trying something new. As Lauran said herself, “Welcome to the future”.
Gemma Cockrell
Edited by: Caradoc Gayer
Cover image courtesy of Lauran Hibberd via Facebook.
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