Laura Stevenson Is Even Better Live!!!
by BillyBockfuss on 9/25/25Bowery Ballroom - New YorkRating: 5 out of 5This has been my "Late Great"summer. I've been playing Laura Stevenson on repeat ever since she dropped her new album, and I was thrilled to get the chance to see her live. I'm so happy to report that she's even better in the flesh. With her band and (especially) when she goes solo, she achieves a deceptively nonchalant intensity that brings out every nuance in her songs. My only reservation about the evening is that, by mixing songs from "Late Great"with older pieces, she inevitably ends up diluting some of the album's force and drive. It derives alot of its power from tracking the series of shifts in the narrator's emotional landscape from when her marriage starts to go off the rails to when her divorce is finalized. Perhaps some day, Laura will perform the album live from begining to end---maybe during its 10th anniversary? Until then "Late Great"remains my album of the year, and this performance has definitely been my live show of the year!
