In Sweet Sweaty Soul Music We Trust | St Paul And The Broken Bones Live Review w/ Humming House | The Beacham Orlando | January 15 2015

by Dainon Moody • January 20, 2015

Before we even go a full sentence into this thing, please know and understand this out-and-out fact: when St. Paul and The Broken Bones played The Beacham a few days back, offering this spot of Florida some old-fashioned Alabama soul music, whether they knew they were doing so or not at the time, they gave us one of the greatest shows of the year.

But scratch that. Scratch that right out and switch it for this instead: it was the best show of the year, no question. And yes, it’s pretty early in 2015, but chances are better than good we’ll be comparing all else we see to the sheer magnificence we were subject to last Thursday. And it’s not real good to compare, you know—comparison is the thief of joy, or so they say—but it’s going to be hard not to.

Lucky for us, we got to see the band when it’s got a whole album out and little more. The downside (and a small one): they didn’t have a whole lot of songs in their catalog to play (it also means they had their choice of very excellent covers to use to their advantage). Still, they’ve played 200 or so shows in the last year or so, no small feat. They know their songs front and back and can unleash some holy hell at the exact right moments.

They weren’t hiding smiles. They didn’t hold back or have some image they were attempting to project. St. Paul & The Broken Bones were pretty happy to be here, dammit, and the louder we screamed for them, the harder they worked to give more. Tall order, that, but they were up to that challenge.

People were calling bespectacled lead singer Paul Janeway the “White Otis” and I guess they can get away with that. I just thought they were very good at tapping into a sound we don’t get to hear so much anymore while still managing to sound fresh, too. Close your eyes and you would have thought you’d taken a big leap back in time. Keep them open and you ended up simply delighted beyond all comprehension. Either way, you won.

Paul commanded his own tunes like “Call Me” as well as he did his Otis covers. And is there actually a better song in this wide world to close a concert with than “Try A Little Tenderness”? That’s the part of the night I keep replaying in my mind. It’s the perfect end that had us all dancing.

It’s a couple days later and my ears are still ringing somehow, but I don’t really mind so much. In fact, I’ll go ahead and consider that my rite of passage. Long may they ring.

And for what it’s worth, that Nashville-based opener Humming House did those Broken Bones a solid by getting the crowd completely riled up. It’s what all main acts hope for, sure. Who knew making acoustic country-tinged covers out of Justin Timberlake and Whitney Houston songs was all it took?