Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears – Lee’s Palace – February 27, 2017

Last night I was sincerely overwhelmed by the performance of Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. Their show was like a rising wave that was constantly threatening to come crashing down and smash the audience to pieces. Just when you thought they couldn’t possibly throw any more of themselves into their music they would up the ante again and somehow the next song would be even more intense. In fact, around the middle of their set I started making assumptions about their ability to continue just based on the band’s massive energy output onstage. I suppose I was projecting my own feelings, that is, I was getting worn out just watching them perform with such vigor.

There are certain bands that have the potential to truly inspire you with their live act. Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears fall into this category for several reasons. They happen to play funk-laden, blues-fuelled rock and roll with a grungy punk rock edge. For people with my particular tastes this style represents a glistening high water mark in the world of contemporary music. They simply don’t make them like this anymore and I am not sure they ever did. Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears have a much smaller audience than they deserve, but they keep soldiering on regardless. I was legitimately shocked by the fact that Lee’s Palace was just shy of sold out for a band that has been blowing people away with their own brand of ‘punk funk’ for the better part of a decade. They would be quite at home opening for the Rolling Stones or the Alabama Shakes.

The show itself was a wonderful sweaty experience that was quite reinvigorating for me, and my love of live music. At one point I actually thought Joe’s guitar would short out because he was sweating on it so much that you could actually see it dripping. My only complaint about the whole night was that the opening band was a completely inappropriate match for  Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears,playing a brand of melancholy Indie Pop Rock that was quite juxtaposed to Joe’s raw juicy blues-based romp. Overall I would say the show was a wild raving success. I felt a sense of despondency because I believe that this band deserved to be packing a much larger venue, but I also felt very lucky that I was able to see them at such a small one. So if you live for blues based funk at a punk pace you simply have to check out Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears.

Review By: Gideon Greenbaum-Shinder
Pictures by: Gideon Greenbaum-Shinder
Edited by: Jesse Kline