St. Paul and the Broken Bones w/ John & Jacob at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (01 June 2014) concert review

Varsity Theater Marquee Setlist Chicken Pox (Booker T and the M.G.’s cover) Don't Mean a Thing Sugar Dyed Honey Pants Dixie Rothko I'm Torn Up Shake! (Sam Cooke cover) Half the City That Glow Broken Bones & Pocket Change 99 1/2 Like a Mighty River Let It Be So Down in the Valley (Solomon Burke/Otis Redding cover) It's Midnight River Song Call Me Grass Is Greener Make it Rain (Tom Waits cover) -- Encore -- A Change is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke cover) w/ Lizzo Hey Jude (The Beatles cover) w/ Lizzo, Caroline Smith Tour Dates 06/05/14 Wakarusa Festival 06/06/14 Wakarusa Festival 06/13/14 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival 06/18/14 Wilmington, NC Ziggy's By The Sea 06/19/14 Winston-Salem, NC Ziggy's By The Sea 06/20/14 Richmond, VA Brown's Island 06/24/14 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre 06/28/14 Meadow Lark Festival 06/29/14 Mountain Stage Radio Show 07/12/14 Master Musicians Festival 07/18/14 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall 07/27/14 Interstellar Rodeo 07/30/14 Mankato, MN Vetter Amphitheater 07/31/14 St Paul, MN Amsterdam Hall and Bar 08/10/14 New York, NY Damrosch Park 08/24/14 Southern Brewers Festival 10/25/14 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium Read More St. Paul and the Broken Bones They may look like the company photo of your accountants or law team, but underneath that façade, St. Paul and the Broken Bones soulfully proves you can’t judge a book by its cover. …

St. Paul officially killed Minneapolis.

This wasn’t another Twin Cities-area border battle- Birmingham, Alabama soul upstarts, St. Paul and the Broken Bones hit town at the Varsity Theater earlier this week and all but literally blew the roof off the place.

“…Oh S#*t!” someone up front in the crowd shouted, early in the band’s 90min. show-stopping set.  Vocalist Paul Janeway heard the comment and responded, “Oh S#*t is Right!  It’s gonna be a good night!”

John & Jacob

John & Jacob, a fellow Birmingham, Alabama duo w/band, opened the evening with a generous 50 min. set, ahead of their debut full-length release, due out August 12^th.  The alt-country/rock duo already has a self-titled/self-released EP out and aims for bigger success with melodic new songs such as ‘Oh Melissa’ and ‘Breaking the Law’, which has been getting some airplay on CMT.

John Davidson & Jacob Bryant

EP song ‘Be My Girl’ was recently featured on ABC’s Nashville and the five-piece will continue on the road, with a support slot for Kacey Musgraves, ahead of the album’s release. One of the distinguished trademarks of their good time, good ol’ boy sound, is Jacob Bryant picking up the trumpet for several songs, and the shared harmonies with counterpart, John Davidson.  With Davidson’s cousin, Jake Thrasher on bass, it’s mostly a family affair and was well received by the crowd.

Janeway

St. Paul and the Broken Bones’ debut album is called Half the City (Single Lock/Thirty Tigers Records) and while they have no connection to our Silver City, the title can certainly be interpreted as a nod.   Six of the seven Broken Bones members took to the stage for the opening Booker T. cover- including trumpet and trombone players and led by guitarist Browan Lollar, while singer Janeway patiently waited in the wings.

The first words from Janeway’s voice on ‘Don’t Mean a Thing’ drew excited yelps from the audience; he, dressed in a cufflinked white shirt, matching white shoes, and dark suit (with red Alabama pin), prowled the stage, shaking and shimmying from end-to-end.

Janeway has a gospel-tinged delivery like his heroes Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, and the band proudly wears their 60’s-era Staxx and Atlantic Soul influences on their sleeve.  ‘Sugar Dyed Honey Pants’ and ‘Dixie Rothko’ were both full-fledged retro-soul dynamite, with Janeway dropping to his knees, and getting on the good foot, much like James Brown would do in the day.

In front of the “biggest crowd we’ve ever played to as a headlining show”, the band felt an immediate warm welcome and fed off of the electricity.  “A Sam Cooke song done in an Otis Redding style”, ‘Shake’, took the crowd back to 1964, while tempo slowed to a simmer for the album’s title cut and ‘That Glow’, before building again with ‘Broken Bones & Pocket Change’.

Setlist

‘Let it Be So’ was the band’s “one love song” for the evening, then was followed by a stomping cover of ‘Down in the Valley’. “What’s this one called? ...Call Me!’” shouted Janeway, as the band launched into the debut single from the new album, which had the audience clapping, with heads above heads.  After a triumphant closing, ‘Make It Rain’, the band saved the best for last and the encore.

Watching off-stage for the whole show, no one seemed to have a better time than locals Caroline Smith and Lizzo, who joined the band for a hothouse Sam Cooke cover and Beatles-done-in-a-Wilson-Pickett-version of ‘Hey Jude’.  Lizzo, known more for her hip-hop skills, slayed on the ever-soulful, ‘A Change is Gonna Come’, playfully dueling vocally as she and the Broken Bones singer traded verses. Smith joined on-stage for harmonies on the final number, with the crowd dutifully playing its part in singing the acapella “na na na na’s” as one.

And with that, St. Paul had conquered Minneapolis.  The advice is to run and not walk, to get tickets to see the band’s next area appearances in late July – with Jason Isbell outdoors in Mankato, or back in town at the inexplicably smaller venue, Amsterdam Hall, where St. Paul and the Broken Bones will no doubt kill St. Paul as well.

St. Paul and the Broken Bones at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (01 June 2014)

john () ♥ weheartmusic.com