Augustana & Lauren Shera Live and Acoustic in Philadelphia

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A Teen View

4 min readJan 18, 2013

I always find it funny when what I learn in a class actually applies to daily life. This term one of the courses I’m taking is about how we communicate and the topic of class yesterday was listening and responding. It seemed fitting that a few hours after that class, I’d be at a concert seeing the listen/response methods we talked about in action. It’s something that we do subconsciously, but it was on my mind. On a brisk January night, it was time for my first concert of 2013. With an acoustic tour headlined by Augustana and opened by Lauren Shera, I was curious to see the crowd that would show up and how the show would go.

Lights dimmed at 8pm and Lauren took to the stage. In a patterned yellow dress with her hair down, she simply played guitar and sang. The thirty minute showcased more than her songs, both new and old, it showcased just how talented her voice truly is. With nothing more than guitar to accompany her, Lauren’s silky warm voice filled the

room. A fantastic cover of The Black Keys’ “Little Black Submarines” and a few songs from her new album including “Light + Dust” seemed to be crowd favorites, yet most hadn’t known Lauren prior to the night. It took me almost the whole set to pinpoint who she sounded like, but during the final song I realized that she reminds me a bit of Brandi Carlile. While the stage was changed over, Lauren made her way to the merch table and spent the remainder of the night talking with anyone who wanted to say hi.

At 8.45pm, Dan Layus and friend David Lamoureux took to the stage. After being released from their label last year, Augustana went through a bit of reformatting leaving frontman Dan Layus with a solo project that carried the same name. Although it was an amicable split, I wasn’t sure what to think when I saw that Dan would be coming through town for an acoustic tour. Although the songs would still have his voice, how would they sound without a full band? To answer my question and anyone else who had the same question, the songs sounded better than ever. It was apparent the moment Dan stepped on stage that he was in a good place. From a crisper voice to a simply apparent joy and vulnerability every minute of the 90 he was on stage, I couldn’t have asked for a better concert. Beginning the show with “Mayfield” off the 2005 album All The Stars and Boulevards, the show encompassed a variety of hand picked songs from every album including a few new ones Dan has written over the past year. Playing for a solid 45 minutes before actually talking with the crowd, I couldn’t help but think about our communication discussions in class. We had been talking about how sometimes it’s easier to communicate through music, dance, or even numbers because they are universal whereas language can change anywhere you go. The songs spoke much louder than any dialogue could have. Songs about regret, love, redemption, and hope all came through the speakers.

When Dan finally took a minute to chat with the crowd, it turned into a 20 minute stand up routine. With accidental jokes and laughs from the crowd and both Dan and David, it was a classic example of listening and responding that I had discussed in class. With both sides listening to each other and feeding off the conversation at hand, it made what could have been a simple “hope you enjoy the concert” into a special moment for anyone in the room. Around 10:15, Dan ended the set with a newer song, “Alive” which he described as perfectly explaining where he is in his life. I left the concert with a smile on my face; and my roommate, who hadn’t listened to Augustana as much as I had, was a new fan.

With only a few weeks left on tour, try as hard as possible to catch a show. It’s something you won’t regret and Dan doesn’t take for granted. Acting as his own tour manager and driving around the country, he was genuinely thankful to every single person that took time and spent money to come. Check out tour dates & photos below!