Concert Review: Dean Lewis Makes Waves At Mercury

Okay, weird comparison time! I’ve seen Dean Lewis before, and …. He always feels like the ocean to me. Maybe, it is the Aussie accent and wit that makes him feel like a literal ocean away? Yet, in truth, at Mercury Lounge, it was his ability to feel light while waving through all the feelings that turn our emotions into tsunamis that made him oceanic. 

Perhaps, it is because he, literally, played a song called “Waves” that I got the sea theme, or, maybe, I was really excited about the Harry Styles concert I was going to cover later that week and, suddenly, everyone feeling pop and fluid to me. Yet, I saw that “pop icon” quality in Dean that does make me like Harry Styles feel legendary in show. They are the banal “shake” to our system. The sonic equivalent to “chin up” that anyone can hear; never getting to sad to make us feel like depression on legs, but never getting too hyped to make us feel deludedly corny. They have an inherent balance that is embedded them.

I remember watching Dolly Parton’s documentary Here I Am, and she asked/ stated, “I have a feeling people like me because I give off that they know me.” For some reason, you feel like you know Dean Lewis. As he talks to the crowd, fixes his instruments, and shimmies his voice through lyrics, eyes closed, you feel like you know him. He is that friend that calls you after he fights with his girlfriend. He is that buddy that tells you, “One more beer, mate,” because he knows you don’t REALLY want to go back to work. He is the equivalent to somebody you know because you feel knows you; singing and speaking to you with the confidence and care of someone that you hang out with.

I always find it funny that “star quality” is really just somebody that can make you feel like they are with you: whether they are “demigod” or just casual person. Their magnetism derives from how YOU feel followed by them: not how you follow them. Dean Lewis is followed, and like the ocean he is bound to make waves.