Concert Review: St. Paul and the Broken Bones at the Great Scott, 3/25/14

St. Paul and the Broken Bones promotional photo.

Every once in a while, you completely stumble upon a great band accidentally. Yesterday was that day for me, and boy I’m sure glad I stumbled.

Circumstances had led me to not come in for a set at the WERS studio, where I work on web staff as a writer and photographer. But thanks to a phone call from the loveliest of friends, Janine, I came in. I may have been soaked in sweat from a recent run on the treadmill and still in my gym clothes, but that’s beside the point.

I was sitting there, and for the first ten minutes after my arrival, mics were being tweaked for the instrumentalists, so I hadn’t heard anything cohesive yet. And then Paul Janeway opened his mouth and began to sing.

Janeway is this generation’s white James Brown, without the cape. Raised in Chelsea, Alabama, Paul was planning to be a minister. Or at least, that was his dream until he was about 18 years old, as he grew up going to his Pentecostal-leaning church every Sunday, where he learned his gospel music that serves him so well today.

Last night, at the Great Scott in Allston, Janeway and his associates brought a little bit of this Southern religion to the stage, but made it their own. Though the singer was raised on primarily non-secular music, he was also steeped in the traditions of the likes of James Brown, Otis Redding, James Carr, and the like.

He brought all this to the stage, along with his band: bassist Jesse Phillips, guitarist Browan Lollar, trumpeter Allen Branstetter, trombonist Ben Griner, drummer Andrew Lee, and keyboardist Al Gamble, also all from Alabama and thrown together in the musical hotbed of Muscle Shoals.

Opening for St. Paul was Gold Blood and the Associates, a local Boston band that really didn’t make any sense to me. Lively, for sure, but the mix of two young horn players, and four bearded dudes on keyboard, drums, bass, and guitar, respectively (who looked like they should be in a metal band) along with a front man who looked about 25 years older than he was acting. Basically it was a performance that made most audience members uncomfortable, and they were quickly forgotten.

…And completely gone from everyone’s mind when the Broken Bones took the stage.  Janeway waited to ascend for an entire song, letting the band set the mood, playing a lively instrumental number that featured solos from several band members. The audience was excited enough, pushing up against the stage, where there had previously been a large gap. I thought that feigned disinterest was the nature of shows at the Great Scott, but I was impressed by how hard people tried to get close during the show. And then, when Janeway took the stage, the crowd went absolute ecstatic.

Because, DAYUM that boy’s got some moves! He grinds, shakes, jumps, and shouts like there’s no tomorrow. Personally, I’ve never felt more energy coming from a performer. And the skill lies not only in that, but in translating it to the audience. I was not only dancing, but I was shouting, sweating, and screaming too. And as far as I could see, everyone else was doing the same thing. I think my love for this band’s talent and knowledge of how to work a crowd was when Janeway shouted “Can I get an Amen?” and everyone shouted back “AMEN!”  Though he never became a pastor delivering the word of God, Paul Janeway definitely knows how to deliver some soul. I felt it.

The band currently has one album out, called Half the City, released about a month ago towards the end of February. They played through every song, and did a couple of covers because as Janeway acknowledged, “at this point the band only has about 40 minutes of recorded material.”

About halfway through the show, they pulled out their first cover, a Sam Cooke number. And then, though I should have seen it coming, I didn’t… for the encore, the band did an unbelievable rendition of “Try a Little Tenderness.” Janeway went full preacher  during this performance, raising his hands towards the sky, and at one point falling to his knees both in exhaustion and devotion to the music.  And just when you thought they were done, they weren’t. There was yet another repetition of the chorus, and another. And though it may be seen as kind of a gimmick, nobody gave a flying f^%k because it was just. that. good. I think the reason the audience was so responsive, including myself, is because we don’t see artists the likes of St. Paul and the Broken Bones anymore. It’s easy to get caught up in the indie circuit and forget what else is out there. But the most significant quality of this band, led by the powerful Mr. Janeway, is that they build a bridge from that of the Soul Train era to now. This generation is lucky, because we’ve been gifted our own James Brown to make us feel, dance, and shout. He’s just in the unlikely form of Paul Janeway. But after last night, it doesn’t even seem that unlikely anymore. He was born to perform.

Check this video for “Call Me” one of my favorites of theirs.