Live Review: Steve Lacy @ John Cain Arena

It's 8pm and there is a huge crowd impatiently waiting to check into the John Cain Arena. They should have gotten there earlier because all round wild child Fousheé is about to blast fans with a heavy blast of pop-punk noise. Fousheé, resplendent in black hot pants and long blonde Rapunzel-style hair, has got personality to spare. She is as fierce as it gets, and her presence demands your complete attention. She’s got riot grrl attitude, and when she isn’t screaming ‘suck my dick’ at us, her commanding vocals strangely reach for R&B love songs. It’s a sometimes awkward juxtaposition of styles, but Fousheé and her hard-rocking band do their best to deliver a cohesive set. Seeing Fousheé just a few days after her second album, softCORE, dropped is a real treat. She provoked a sense of wild, hysterical excitement in the crowd, who really opened their hearts to her. What more could Steve Lacy ask of an opening act that didn’t just warm up the audience but got them red hot for all the evening had to offer? It is unsurprising that Lacy has collaborated with her and that she has a songwriting credit on his hit Bad Habit.

When Fousheé finishes up her set, the girl next to us sits on the floor and starts furiously swatting for her year 11 chemistry exam. It seems an odd place to be brushing up on chemistry, but it is, after all, that time of year. 

When Lacy eventually hits the stage, he is greeted with a huge roar of approval from the crowd and hundreds of mobile phones in the air documenting the occasion. Quite a few were dialling in friends stuck at home on video chat. Perhaps it’s just the youthful innocence of the crowd, but it has been a while since we have seen such enthusiastic hysteria for an artist at a stadium-sized show. Lacy, who is just 24, has been making music for the past ten years and, after having played the guitar for the very wonderful The Internet, is enjoying an extraordinary cross-over moment largely facilitated by Bad Habit and the hugely popular album from which it is lifted, Gemini Rights. 

The set starts with a selection of new material. After Buttons, the crowd heartily sings along to Mercury and almost every other song in the show. Lacy stops the show after Mercury, and in a display of pop star growing pains, he admits that the John Cain Arena is the biggest venue he has ever played. He is surprised, delighted, overjoyed and overwhelmed, all at the same time. It feels as though Lacy isn’t chasing this kind of success, but rather it seems his music has attracted broad mainstream appeal around the world. The seductive slow R&B is Lacy at his idiosyncratic best as he manages to get the crowd swaying and singing along to a smooth-as-silk groove. 

The show did stop and start a few times as Lacy took the time to make sure fans were okay. Perhaps the overexcitement was too much for them, but quite a few needed ambo assistance. Demonstrating his versatility and ample talent, Lacy plugs his guitar into what sounds like a distorted synthesiser to shred some pretty wild riffs on Lay Me Down. Slipping to into his falsetto on tunes like Amber and Give You The World, Lacy brings to mind the likes of D’Angelo and Prince spaced out on the dreamiest vibes. Lacy sits at the very agreeable intersection of R&B, pop, hip-hop and funk to produce a sound that’s now finding broad appeal. Fousheé returns to duet with him on Sunshine ahead of the hugely anticipated Bad Habit, which sees fans bouncing along for the ride with huge smiles on their faces.

The crowd was begging for more, and Lacy came back to deliver stripped-back versions of C U Girl and Dark Red on his guitar. Tonight’s show illustrates Lacy is at a turning point in his career, coming to terms with the fact that he has outgrown the medium-sized venues he’s been playing and has the luxury of considering playing to larger audiences and filling larger arenas with his sweet melodies.

Despite all the music he has produced over the years, it seems Gemini Rights is pushing Lacy into a new phase of his career which is blossoming in abundance.