LANY Heats Up Minneapolis At The Armory

Article and Photos by: Jessica Fredette special to TCM

As I arrived to The Armory I was not at all surprised to see fans lined up around the building, or to overhear that some had been waiting in line for several hours, despite the cold weather, to get the chance to be up front. I guess their sheer excitement stoked adrenaline to see pop band LANY was keeping them warm.

LANY (pronounced lay-nee; an acronym for Los Angeles and New York) is a pop trio that formed in Nashville in 2014 and that consists of lead singer Paul Jason Klein, drummer Jake Goss, and unfortunately missing from this tour, due to deciding to stay home with his newborn child, guitarist Les Priest. LANY sings a lot about love and heartbreak, the start and end of relationships, and all of the ups and downs in between.

Starting the night off however was 25 year old new father, Jake Scott. Scott rushed the stage with a lot of energy. He spent half of his set skip jumping back and forth across the stage during songs such as “Like No One Does” and “Can We Just Be Happy Now”, and the other half slowing things down with just an acoustic guitar for songs “Overthinking” and the highly requested “Tuesdays” and “Favorite T-Shirt.” I admit I was not familiar with Scott before hearing him be announced as support for this tour but I seemed to be the only one there that didn’t know his songs. I would recommend you check him out on his first headlining tour early next year but unfortunately his 7th St. Entry show is already sold out despite the tour only being announced a week ago and tickets not even being on sale to the general public yet. Fortunately for fans who may have missed out though, he did mention that he’s trying to book a larger venue to meet demand. Seems as if the twin cities want a whole lot more of Jake Scott.

Next up was the very sweet and sincere singer/songwriter Sasha Alex Sloan, fka/aka Sad Girl Sloan, whom is known for her indie, alt “sad girl pop” songs about extremely relatable issues such as relationships, anxiety, imperfect families, and loneliness. After her first song she asked “Are you ready to get sad?” and then quickly stated “It’s about to get fucking sad.” Sloan gave the audience her hit songs “Normal”, “Older”, and my personal favorite “Dancing With Your Ghost” in a pink fog, as well as “At Least I Look Cool” and “Smiling When I Die.” I’m a fan and will definitely be seeing her again next time she returns. She makes sadness lovely.

Finally, to everyone’s delight it was time for LANY! They were welcomed with much applause and cheers/screams. Klein very comfortably made use of the entire stage all by himself, while Goss and two stand in band members were on a raised platform behind him. He was very engaging with the audience, utilized his own smaller raised platforms to dance on and ensure that everyone had a decent view, came down from the stage and climbed the barricade to be embraced by adoring fans multiple times, and even ran into the audience half way through one song, all while the fans soaked up every second of it.

The set list included a wide variety of fan favorites from all four of their chart topping full length albums and several EP’s including “Thick And Thin”, “IDWLYA”, “13”, “If You See Her”, and the song that made me a fan in 2017 “Super Far.” I was lucky enough to have Klein blow me a kiss during “Hericane” which is a moment I’ll never forget. Klein sat at a clear piano for slower songs like “Malibu Nights” which he then climbed on during a couple of others. They also included some of their more recent songs “Roll Over Baby”, “Ex I Never Had”, “Never Mind Let’s Break Up”, of which Klein seemed surprised and humbled that fans knew the lyrics to despite being released not too long ago, and so many more, 90 minutes worth to be exact. It didn’t seem as if one single person, myself included, didn’t have every word to every song memorized but just in case you didn’t you could sing along as the lyrics were displayed on a very large and colorful LED screen.

About half way through Klein was joined on stage by country artist Kelsea Ballerini to perform their duet “I Quit Drinking” which I’m sure would have been a huge surprise to fans if they both hadn’t announced it in their Instagram stories last week. Nevertheless it was a special moment that hadn’t happened anywhere else on this tour except here and for us. She looked and sounded beautiful, per usual.

Overall it was a amazing show and great night. Lots of love was both given to Klein from fans and just as much, if not more, to fans from him in return as well. It felt like a dream. A dream that I absolutely wouldn’t mind being a recurring one. A dream come true actually.