Lauren Daigle

Lauren Daigle: 12/9/23 “It’s as if Scrooge and the Grinch smiled together upon me granting the gift of one last non-holiday show to end my year at Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena Saturday evening. Lauren (‘the Christian Adele’) has been a hot ticket since the day the event went on sale back in March, and not altogether a cheap date either ($52-166.50 plus fees —always tack on at least a third). Majorly behind the times, I had only learned recently that the Grammy, Billboard, and American Music Award winning singer is primarily a Christian artist. Being familiar mostly with her pop crossover hit ‘You Say’ how would I have known until I recently noticed ‘These Are The Days’ climbing the charts in the Christian circuit. Putting my hat in the ring this week, I entered Magic 106.3’s contest for a pair of tickets and to my surprise won. Needless to say I was thrilled as I had been following the event from the very beginning. The Greenville show marked the 30th and final date of her 2023’s Kaleidoscope Tour which ended in a whirlwind of three shows in three cities in three days. With 4 studio albums, 1 EP, 42 charted singles including 8 number ones, the show was expected to lean heavy on material from her 2023 eponymous album which had been released in two volumes over the space of three months. The album itself which compiles two years of studio work, is in one man’s opinion, a neo-soul masterpiece worthy of more than just a casual listen-over. The show was an as expected sell-out save a few seats that opened up last moment on the lower sides (sections 105 and 111) with restricted views. My seats were upper bowl side stage slightly toward the front, four rows above the bowl divider. Arriving early I made my way to the stage front for a close up revealing an orange carnival curtain tent semi-circled backdrop concealing all but keyboards and percussion instruments in the forefront allocated for the opening artist’s set. The Kaleidoscope logo shone on the curtain with a walkway extending out more than halfway into the floor sections that ended in a lighted circular B-stage. A row of floor lamps covered the entire length of the stage floor from left to right. During the performance the main artist’s full band could be seen partially hidden just above a lower barrier of curtaining with video screens placed in between upper and lower curtains to the far left and right ends of the stage. The whole atmosphere in the building could be summed up as warm and inviting. At 7:30 promptly the lights went down for Lauren’s opener Victory Elyse Boyd aka ‘Victory’ to take the stage for a 25 minute / 4 song set. It was her eighth performance on the tour which utilized three different opening acts at different phases. One of nine siblings from Detroit, the singer who began her career as a New York busker which led to an appearance on ABC’s Morning Show and a songwriting credit on Kanye West’s ‘Closed For Sunday’, she excelled vocally throughout the performance. Backed by a four person band her soul fused honey rasp vocals proved the perfect recipe necessary to set the stage for the oncoming of the main performer. Drawing three songs from her 2023 release ‘Glory Hour’ she added in one Christmas song, ‘O Holy Night’, to cheers from the audience. ‘Listen it’s December ninth and I don’t remember a year where it’s gotten this close to Christmas and I don’t have the Christmas feels.’ One fan in the floor section responded with a commandingly loud, ‘Merry Christmas!’ Victory responded, ‘Thank you I needed that’, it was the only Christmas song of the evening. Following what felt like forever for a simple stage turn, the lights dimmed once again as the stage curtains illuminated with flashes of lightning and the sounds of an electrical storm over the main sound system. At 8:50 p.m. Lauren Ashleigh Daigle 32 from Lafayette Louisiana took the stage, true to her LA roots with a three piece brass section (trumpet, trombone, saxophone) leading the way down the catwalk for a 2 hour and 5 minute / 20 song set. Beginning with her currently #29 on the charts single from the new album ‘These Are The Days’, the first three songs all from the 2023 release set the pace of the evening with a staggering dozen songs from the new album —consisting of sixty percent of her total material. ‘My name is Lauren, I’m so glad to see y’all tonight, this is like the joy of my heart, I love it so much, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it.’ Marching up and down the walkway, reading signs, and interacting with the audience all along the way her simple mannerisms combined with a pure joy was contagious especially to those adjacent to the runway. It was of note that there was no pit, everyone was seated in proximity to the runway and somehow it unexpectedly fostered a more intimate artist/fan interaction. Calling selected fans up onto the stage, she staged an unmiked—unamped screaming competition to which a fan by the name of Alyssa was the clear winner. Another Daigle fan ‘Amy Erlanger’ conjectured up some free dance moves front and center stage that were both uninhibited and unbridled, Lauren commenting, ‘I just like a good sheer ruckus!’ The Louisiana horns were strong on ‘New’ and the number one single ‘Trust In You’ brought the sextet of three background singers and three horn players out onto the circular end stage while the backing musicians remained on the main stage. Each member of the 12 piece band was dressed all in white, shirt, pants, and sneakers accentuated in Kaleidoscope colors, Daigle herself wore pants covered in a daisy print featuring every color of the rainbow. ‘He's Never Gunna Change’ was performed with purple and white starlight projected onto the stage curtains and was perhaps Daigle’s best vocal performance of the evening. Prior to the singing of ‘Valuable’ a personal favorite of mine, Daigle explained the concept of the Kaleidoscope Tour. ‘It only happens one time, you’ll only see that image one time and one time only. The second you put it up to the light something beautiful comes on the other side the view, it’s pretty miraculous. Some of you came with incredible joy. Some of you came with the weight of sorrow. We all come in here with our stories… portraying this beautiful thing that God has put inside of each one of you —a story’. The hit’s continued with chart toppers ‘Hold On To Me’ and ‘Rescue’ and the complete band was brought out to the b-stage for a traditional Nashville styled writer’s round for ‘Saint Ferdinand’, ‘Inherited’ (a song about family) and ‘How Can It Be’ her very first single from 2014’s EP. There were however some lulls in the action which left more fast-paced folk such as myself feeling a little antsy. An audience member called out, ‘We got all night’ as Daigle quantified, ‘I like slowing time down. I think it’s a good thing to have to be still for a second.’ I couldn’t help but ask myself multiple times throughout the course of the evening ‘Is she really that simple and innocent a soul? If so, how in the world had she been propelled into such a status of stardom?’ My conclusion, ‘Yes, and that sheer authenticism is something we all long for, something we both crave and desire. The evening’s opener Victory was brought back onstage for a semi-traditional rendering of ‘His Eye Is On The Sparrow’ in duet form. The party in the streets atmosphere was not altogether done as each singer was introduced and everyone returned to the main stage for colorfully upbeat renderings of ‘Kaleidoscope Jesus’, ‘Turbulent Skies’, and the number 4 hit ‘Still Rolling Stones’ all performed in tandem. As the concert was winding toward its conclusion it was obvious that three nights of performing in a row had begun to take its toll on the singers voice, though it never slowed her down for a moment physically. It seems to me that many seasoned performers have eventually learned to schedule days off between dates in order to deliver their very best, maybe we’ll just chalk that up to her still being young in her career. Daigle however saved the best for last with her all time cross-genre number one ‘You Say’. With lights dimmed she was found standing on a small one person b-stage all the way to the rear of the auditorium to the right of the mixing board to the delight of her fans who remained content all evening located far from the main action. Dismounting the stage mid-song she made her way back to mid arena shaking every hand extended in outreach. In an exhibition of sheer gratitude for her fans she could not stop thanking folk for coming out, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for being a part of our night. We love you so much!’ The Kaleidoscope Tour was an event to be experienced not just a concert, one that will never be reduplicated again as such that I was grateful to have been a part of. Even though it left less room for many of her number ones with a scattering of them missing from the set, the entire vibe was something especially unique. Lauren’s music career began by singing in her church choir. She paid for her own vocal lessons with money earned by scrubbing toilets. After being bedridden for two years with an autoimmune disease and two failed attempts at American Idol she learned to not rush the process, describing it in her own words, ‘There was this trust that [God] started to build in me. I started realizing that God was trying to connect some dots.’ ’If I want my purest worship to come out, I have to have unhindered expression’. At thirty-two she has found her voice and loves her sound. There are no signs of letting down, and with a fan base consisting of folk from all walks of life she has become a solid musical force, one to be reckoned with!” Review and photo by DAve (Concert #844)