In Memoriam - Brandon Lawrence

With heavy hearts, we must announce the passing of our friend and co-worker, Brandon “Tenacious B” Lawrence on May 31^st, 2022.  Brandon fought a very courageous 3-year battle with metastatic cancer.  He was 36.

Brandon joined the Dave’s Guitar Shop sales team in August of 2018.  In the time since his initial diagnosis the following summer and throughout all his treatments, he remained positive and kept his inimitable sense of humor honed and ready.  His steadfast attitude was inspiring to all of us.

Brandon was the “King of One-Liners.”  With his rather understated, deadpan delivery, he could utter a single sentence that would send a shockwave of laughter through the store, stopping everyone in their tracks.  Many times, we laughed so hard that we had tears running down our faces and could barely catch our breath to answer the phone.  His quick wit was truly awesome to witness!

He was truly passionate about his work and his music, and a true enthusiast of music and movies.  He had absolutely perfect handwriting, and a large, colorful, and pristine collection of Converse sneakers.  He was generous and quick to lend a rare concert DVD or imported 7” when he knew we liked the band, simply to share the joy.  He always had a movie quote or band reference at the ready to make any conversation with him that​ much more interesting and enjoyable.

Brandon was a walking, talking encyclopedia of rock ‘n roll trivia.  He could name nearly every member of any band, what years they played in the band, the specific instruments they rocked, and off-the-wall interesting factoids, usually about weird instances that happened in Japan. 

He was a huge fan of pop punk bands including Jimmy Eat World, Sum 41, American Hi-Fi and Gob; Japanese rock bands Scandal, Silent Siren, Band Maid, and Trident; and 90s-2000s alternative acts Anberlin, Marilyn Manson, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rammstein, Bush, Silverchair, Everclear, and Fountains of Wayne.

He owned many guitars over his life, but his favorites were Made-in-Japan Fender Telecasters, and more recently, Fender Custom Shop John 5 Telecasters.  He would only – and proudly! - use Boss pedals.

Earlier in life, Brandon played guitar in the The Sweet Nothings, then in regional touring band Stars After the Storm, and finally Twerp.

He loved late-night comedy, American Psycho, and cheesy B-Horror movies like Jack Frost.  He held a regular ‘Strange Movie Night’ with Nugs (Christian), Ben, and former employees Sam and John.  Other titles he held near and dear are Van Wilder, Equilibrium, American Pie, Chopping Mall, UHF, Night At The Roxbury, Dude, Where's My Car?, Clerks, and most other Kevin Smith movies.

Brandon and Nugs became good friends over the last few years.  In addition to out-doing each other with who could summon forth the worst movies in existence, and playing in Twerp for a short time, they would take road trips to record stores from Minneapolis to Milwaukee to find awesome and obscure releases on vinyl. 

“Brandon’s one of the smartest, kindest, funniest, most thoughtful dudes I've ever known… impossible to escape his humor and charm.”  - Christian ‘Nugs’ Sveen

Brandon lived in the La Crosse area his entire life and graduated from Logan High School in 2003.  He is survived by his mother Pennie (Onalaska) and grandmother (La Crosse).  

He will be sorely missed.