The last time Andrew Cushin played Lafayette, it was just him and an acoustic guitar supporting The Sheepdogs. Seven months, one EP, and three outdoor summer spectacles with Paul Weller later, he’s headlining the venue with full band in tow. And yet the emotional centrepiece of tonight’s show is a song he performs alone.
Introduced as the most personal he’s ever written, Four And A Half Percent uses the everyday minutiae of addiction (“he struggles to iron his clothes”) to portray his father’s battle with alcohol. The song’s become the beating heart of his live set, but Cushin still delivers it with the raw vulnerability of a first-time performance, an absence of self-pity only adding to the devastating impact of lines like “I’m still your son”.
The 22-year-old from Newcastle pours even more of himself into the set’s only other almost-ballad, You’ll Be Free. Unencumbered by a guitar for the only time tonight, he clutches his head, clenches his fists, pounds his heart, pokes his temple, and appears to lose himself in lyrics that touch on childhood traumas and mental health. Musically, though, the brand new song is uplifting enough that, even though nobody’s really singing along yet, just about everyone in the venue’s clapping to the beat by the time the chorus arrives.
It’s yet another example of how Cushin, championed by Noel Gallagher and signed to Pete Doherty’s Strap Originals label, connects immediately and directly with audiences. The stonking Hollywood is all-out swagger, fittingly opening the show with its refrain of “are you ready?” The unstoppable runaway train that is Yeah Yeah Yeah rolls along with all the energy of a lost Definitely Maybe outtake. Catch Me If You Can is a self-confident stomp big on groove, searing guitars, and sneering vocals. Next single Dream For A Moment is effortlessly impassioned. The soaring Waiting For The Rain was seemingly written to be sung by a stadium crowd.
And, like his hometown’s other young male singer-songwriter on the up and up, he can combine those big tunes — that, usually, trigger impromptu dancing or, at the very least, a sea of raised arms and voices — with meaningful subject matter that’s personal yet relatable. Anyone with regrets will appreciate the touching, but defiant, Memories; It’s Gonna Get Better pairs lines like “Well I’m low and I’m weak, And I’m sorry I take it out, On the ones that breathe, The closest to me” with the sunniest of choruses; and show closer Where’s My Family Gone transforms from forlorn self-doubt and introspection into the night’s biggest, most life-affirming singalong.
But it’s not just Cushin’s songs that connect so easily. Supremely relaxed on stage, he’s a natural conversationalist, whether talking about his beloved football team (there’s even a Newcastle United flag draped over the keyboard stand); lightening the mood ahead of Four And A Half Percent (by joking that his being on the stage alone is the best part of the show); chatting directly to particularly vocal individual audience members; or graciously, genuinely, and repeatedly thanking everyone for turning up to see him.
At the end of the performance, as his four-piece band bound off, he stays behind for fist bumps, handshakes, smiles, and even selfies with everyone who pushes to the foot of the stage to reinforce that personal connection they’ve felt over the past hour.
Andrew Cushin
Lafayette, London
7th October 2022
Photo: Simon Reed
- This article originally appeared on Louder Than War.
Nils van der Linden 