Five for Fighting (with string quartet) at Liberty Hall, Lawrence KS (2025-04-25)

FIVE FOR FIGHTING TOUR DATES

With food, everything seems better with bacon; with songs, everything seems better with strings!-

We’ve seen it already with so many long-term acts- from Elton John to Metallica, Kiss, and Yes, to hear their songs put to a classical arrangement, whether with a full symphony or some smaller grouping.

For 90’s hitmakers Five for Fighting who opened their 2025 String Quartet Tour in downtown Lawrence at Liberty Hall, the case was again made that songs transform and become better. If not better, then certainly enhanced, and made bigger-sounding and more elegant.

The evening began with a friendly twenty-minute set from NYC female folk duo, Lace & Lee who brought the spirit of 1960s and 70s storytelling, with a fresh best-friends-who-finish-each-other’s-sentences vibe. Caroline Lace and Olivia Lee started collaborating together at NYU Tisch after meeting on a train and discussing their love of a fantasy book, and even have a song about going into a city Walgreens to buy strawberries. So, some charming very slice-of-life songs, and the pair mentioned they’re about to enter the studio to record an EP.

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John Ondrasik aka Five For Fighting has had a long and illustrious musical career that actually started back in the days of hair metal and working with the likes of Whitesnake/Quiet Riot bassist Rudy Sarzo. After grunge changed the musical landscape, Ondrasik found himself back on piano where he musically began, eventually getting signed and on the radio and having his songs featured in high rotation on almost every Triple-A (album adult alternative) station in the country (like Minneapolis station Cities 97).

He’s re-invented himself a bit in the meantime since, getting more placements in film and tv soundtracks, and still gigs with a full band (his tour with Vertical Horizon starts in August after this tour ends) in-between doing these string quartet runs. This configuration has carried on for more than a decade and has been preserved on a self-released 2018 live album.

The ninety-minute set began with the 2006 Top15 single, “World” that lyrically asked, “What kind of world do you want?” a question that’s asked maybe even louder today, than two decades ago.

“Easy Tonight”, the band’s first hit, was played early in the set, prefaced by Ondrasik admittedly having mixed feelings about the song now considered an “oldie”, and a funny story about hearing it played, after sitting down at a wine bar in Lake Tahoe.

Ondrasik had always been a supporter of the military, entertaining troops abroad, offering guest list passes to military families, and he always plays a song in the set as tribute- this time being the poignant “Two Lights”, the title track from that same 2006 album.

As he wondered aloud about the history of the theater, he had heard that it was about 100 years old (113 actually, but close enough) and said if he happened to have an appropriate song to play, this would be the perfect time… So, cue up hit single, “100 Years” which he remarked in still used in weddings, graduations, and even funerals, with the key being at whatever age you might be, you generally fall into the era of one of the verses.

The musical highlight of the night was undoubtedly the medley performed by the string quartet (Matt Szemela; Melissa Tong; Chris Cardona, and Topeka, KS’ own Emily Brausa on cello), mixing classical numbers with the likes of a-ha, Led Zeppelin, and Queen songs, even working in “Carry On My Wayward Son” and Wichita Lineman” snippets for the Kansas crowd.

Szemela again shined on a musical duet with Ondrasik on “If God Made You” and the sweet “I Just Love You” was prefaced by the story of Ondrasik sent to an ashram retreat in hopes of finding inspiration for his next album, only to find out how much effort the schedule and workshops took, with the one bit of relief at the end of the day, being able to have a short conversation with his then-young daughter. As the song played, Olivia Lee from the openers joined in the chorus and the surprise reveal was that she was the daughter that inspired the song.

The band’s biggest hit, “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” had turned 24-years-old Ondrasik said, and admitted how proud he was to have performed it during the 9/11 Tributes, and how within the last few weeks, it has found renewed life as a collaboration tribute to the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

The one-song encore turned out to be, not a FFF song, but a familiar cover, as the band tends to work in at the end of these shows. Although the lyrics and keys to Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” sat propped on his piano all night, Ondrasik instead chose what he considered a “perfect or near-perfect” song, Harry Chapin’s “Cats in the Cradle” which they slightly sped up to play as more of a waltz.

And with a final bow and wave, the night was over, and with Five for Fighting, it was just like we thought- everything’s better with strings!

(click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)

Five for Fighting (with string quartet) at Liberty Hall, Lawrence KS (2025-04-25)

LACE and LEE at Liberty Hall, Lawrence KS (2025-04-25)