Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears + Those Darlins - Dante’s (Portland, OR; Apr. 10, 2011)

Back in 2007, when I was still a newbie to Portland, I found myself at Musicfest NW, impatiently waiting for Spoon to take the Crystal Ballroom stage. It was the first show of the weekend, and I was so excited, I couldn’t have cared less about Spoon’s openers. It was some band they’d brought with them from Austin, and while I liked their name, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, I just wanted them to hurry up so Britt Daniel could start his band’s show.

Everything changed the second Lewis shrieked, “Bitch! I looooove you!” and did a little James Brown body jerk, as the large backing band hammered out a delicious garage-soul beat behind him. Good god, I was hooked. It turned out to be the best show of the fest, and I spent the next few years listening to their music on a pretty solid repeat.

Their inclusion in the 2011 Soul’d Out Music Festival felt extremely fitting, and the idea that they would be playing at such a intimate venue as Dante’s seemed tantalizing. I’ve never seen anyone actually tear the roof off a place with their music, but I had a feeling BJLATH might be the ones to finally do it.

Touring alongside them was Tennessee foursome Those Darlins, whose roots as a female garage-country trio made me wonder how they fit into the theme of the festival. After seeing them play last night, I still feel they were a bit out of place in relation to the rest of the Soul’d Out lineup, but still would like to personally thank the festival’s organizer for bringing them into my world. Because at their core, Those Darlins are four terrific musicians who play an electric brand of punk rockabilly that just doesn’t quit. Every member took turns singing, and you never could tell who exactly was the official guitarist or bassist, as they would frequently switch up their instruments from song to song. None of their songs seemed to fit an exact genre, and but their speed and style were changed up often, which made for a fantastic mix of music.

Most of the crowd, however, failed to respond to it at all – the Darlin that seemed to be the lead singer of the group even commented that Seattle was beating us, in terms of dancing, and it was kind of lame to see the majority of the crowd not even nodding their heads to the music. This didn’t deter the overzealous nature of the group, though, and they kept on rockin’ out, despite it.

“Mystic Mind” was truly awesome, weaving a sort of bluesy shuffle into a set that featured mostly punky tunes. This included “Be Your Bro” and “Hives,” which revealed the lead’s raw and perfectly snarky vocals. She also had a knack for opening her eyes wide and staring down as many people in the crowd as she could, but it never felt serious – probably because she was wearing an orange, sequined bodysuit top, with fishnets and combat boots and fantastic jewelry.

One song surprisingly veered into riot grrrl territory, but that was deflected when the original bassist started singing in a sultry, androgynous way that turned the tune into one closer to soul than anything else they did. Then the guitarist and saxophonist from the Honeybears joined them onstage, and their own soulful touch added nicely to Those Darlins’ ever-changing set.

The boozy-good-time feeling I suspected BJLATH would inject into the crowd started to circulate before the band even started their set; a pair of longhorns sat above a mini-Texas state flag on the stage, and Lewis had a drink holder fastened to his mic. He also walked out with a guitar that had pictures of vivacious women taped all over it, and it just reinforced my expectations.

Their first song, “Boogie,” got everyone in the band, but Lewis, lowering themselves to the floor of the stage in much the same way Otis Day and the Knights commanded everyone to in that famous frat party scene from Animal House. All seven members of the band were constantly on the move, even despite the little space they had to work with. Dante’s was packed to the limit by the time they started, but this failed to dissuade Lewis, his guitarist and bassist from occasionally jumping down into the crowd and wailing on their instruments/dancing up on the ladies. Standing their ground as this went down were the three horn players, who dutifully stepped side-to-side, keeping beat with whatever song was playing at the moment. They were also a trio that proved fiercely relevant to the quality of the music – even during the band’s slow thumpin’ blues numbers, like “She’s So Scandalous,” they would fire off bold blasts that accentuated the music nicely.

During “Big Booty Woman,” the crowd was asked for a call-and-response, and it got the group fired up into dancing and shaking more than ever. By far the best moment of the night was the performance of “Bitch, I Love You,” which the boys have crafted into one sexy blues powerhouse. Lewis howled his way through the song, and when he chose to jump down into the crowd again, the bassist and guitarist took over and sang their lungs out.

“Master Sold My Baby” has always been a slow-burnin’ favorite of mine, and it rolled out last night with spot-on drums and bass. But then a beach ball came bouncing above the crowd, and even the band members gave it a look like, “Really? Is this what Portland brings to the table?” Thankfully, the thing disappeared after a moment, but it was definitely a strange arrival to the scene of the night.

Four members of the Hot 8 Brass Band, who opened for Lauryn Hill, and will also be for Mos Def later this week, showed up towards the end of the set and helped lay down a bad-ass instrumental jam. The snare drummer from the Hot 8 then stuck around for one of BJLATH’s songs, and a bunch of mad instrumentation was let loose from everyone on the stage. Lewis left after the song, but returned after wild cheers from the crowd. He prompted a call-and-response again, this time to spell H-I-G-H, and as soon as he spit out the word, turned and lit a joint, to which he passed around to the rest of the band. Nobody from Dante’s put a stop to it, and so the band was allowed to gleefully smoke their joint as they kept on pounding out the tune.

Lewis then used his tongue to play the guitar during the closer of “Please Pt. Two,” and added to the song with elongated howls of his sweet soul voice. Their encore revved up with the addition of two heavily tattooed ladies, clad in nothing but sexy underwear, who danced away to the great rock jam the band was putting out. After wrapping it up with “Baby I’m Broke” and another fantastic number, BJLATH left the stage so the Sunday night Sinferno could get going at the venue.

Much to my astonishment, the roof was still in place at the end of the night, and not torn off, as predicted. But still, it was one damn good show, and I’m already impatiently waiting to see BJLATH – and Those Darlins – again. Props to the Soul’d Out Music Festival for inserting a not-so-soul and a fantastically soul group into the middle of their line-up, because it turned out fabulously better than expected.

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