Grand Ole Opry member and new Big Loud Records powerhouse Lauren Alaina started a new era in 2023 with the release of her ‘Unlocked’ EP. The six-song set reintroduced the multi-faceted star, stripping back every layer and allowing fans to know her more than ever before. You can read our review of it right here.
Alaina has earned three chart-topping hits in her career to date: ‘Road Less Traveled, ‘What Ifs’ with her childhood friend Kane Brown and ‘ONE BEER’ with labelmate HARDY + Devin Dawson. This Georgia-born force of nature has had a quiet few years since her 2021 release ‘Sitting Pretty on Top of the World’ and has gone through professional and personal change and evolution in that time too but it was great to see her back at the C2C festival since she first wowed the London crowds back in 2016 with an Indigo performance that was a pleasure to be at.
Taking the stage amid two guitarists bathed in shadows and pumping rock music almongst the flashing lights, Lauren Alaina grasped this opportunity to wow the London crowd and held onto it for dear life. What came through, almost from the off, was Alaina’s warmth and connection with the crowd in front of her. “I don’t get nervous,’ she told the O2 Arena, ‘But youre making me nervous tonight,’ she said, understanding the import of this performance but she had no reason to worry and if anyone came to the O2 Arena tonight not already a Lauren Alaina fan, they sure as hell left as one.
Alaina’s performance was slick, impassioned and confident but, saying that, it still carried all the hallmarks of a more intimate show and that was down to her ability to narrow down the aircraft hanger hall to a smaller gathering amongst friends. A bombastic start in ‘Georgia Peaches’ and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ got the crowd up and dancing and that bombast was carried through into songs like ‘One Beer’ and ‘Walk in the Bar’. The former, a number one hit was a perfectly delivered Friday night song whilst the latter was a great pick from Alaina’s recent ‘Unlocked’ EP full of arena sized sonics and guitar histrionics. A terrific performance of ‘Getting Over Him’ saw Alaina stalking the stage like Tina Turner, connecting with everyone she could in front of her and it also became obvious that she is very adept at telling the actual story of the songs with her facial expressions too.
Ballads were sensibly kept to a minimum and so ‘Getting Good’ was delivered with a Gospel edge in the first verse until the drums kicked in in verse 2, which added a nice energy but it was Alaina’s vocals that shone on this song and all the songs in her set tonight. She has such a rich, powerful voice and there was no better sense of hearing that than in something like ‘Doin’ Fine,’ which she dedicated to all the people out there with broken and crazy families.
Obvious highlights of this accomplished and professional set were a superb ‘Ladies in the 90s’ with its extended ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ section and the two closing songs of ‘Thicc as Thieves’ and ‘Road Less Travelled.’ The former began and ended with the riff to Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’, adding a real energy to an already upbeat song whilst ‘Road Less Travelled’ finished with the O2 Arena lit up by 15,000 phones and Alaina calling out to her new husband, who was in the crowd tonight, ‘Look Cameron, your wife made them do that!”
Lauren Alaina’s set was a triumph. A masterclass of charm, skill and down-home Southern sass. There was something innocent about the way she interacted with the crowd and you could tell how much this performance meant to her. Alaina’s professionalism shone through throughout and her infectious and charming personality resonated with a British crowd eager to have a ‘no bullshit’ performance from one of Nashville’s most powerful singers. I suspect she left the stage very happy and that happiness was reflected in a crowd who had been wowed, charmed and downright entertained.
Set list: 1. Georgia Peaches / Fat Bottomed Girls 2. Smaller the Town 3. One Beer 4. Getting Over Him 5. Ladies in the 90s 6. Getting Good 7. Doin’ Fine 8. Walk in the Bar 9. Thicc as Thieves 10. Road Less Travelled Venue: O2 Arena at C2C 2024 London Date: Friday March 8th
