Live Tunes Tuesday - Black Joe Lewis

Black Joe Lewis

I saw Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears open up for Flogging Molly. I’d purchased their album, Scandalous, before catching the show, which I feel is like sort of doing your homework. I was excited to see them, mostly on the strength of this one song and video, Mustang Ranch, which is simply fantastic:

They’re definitely showmen the lot. Black Joe Lewis and all the Honeybears played some wild stuff and got the Orange Peel hopping. And the music they played was great, but there’s a big but, which is possibly just a but for me…

They spent almost no time forming a rapport with the audience. They said a few things. A couple things. But there were no little stories, no jokes, and just not a lot of talking. Now I think that, perhaps, if I’d been following them for ages and ages, that I might have enjoyed having nothing but the music to speak for the group. But for me, I didn’t know them all that well and I wanted to.

So I didn’t feel a connection with them and, even though I really grooved on their music, I wasn’t wowed.

But it was still really freakin’ cool when BJL played the guitar with his teeth.

BJL Playing the Guitar w/ His Teeth!

And the horn section was just awesome.

The Honeybear Horn Section

As was their presentation.

Wall o' Strings

Members (courtesy of Wikepdia)

• Joe Lewis
• Matt Strmiska
• Zach Ernst
• Bill Stevenson
• Jason Frey
• Derek Phelps
• Joe Woullard

Honeybear Bassist

Honeybear Backup Guitar