Last night, the crowd at the Town Ballroom was treated to an incredible and memorable night of pure American music courtesy of the UK's Little Barrie and the "Screaming Eagle of Soul" and "Soul of America" Charles Bradley. We got it all last night: rock, soul, church, philosophy, and unstoppable mojo.
I'll admit it, I got a little panicked when I surveyed the thin crowd that was there for show opener Little Barrie. Was Buffalo gonna sleep on and thus let down Charles Bradley? I didn't think it was possible, and thankfully my fears were entirely unfounded. A mighty crowd was indeed there for Charles Bradley, and all was well... except for the fact that many people missed out on an exceptional opening set from Nottinghamshire, UK's Little Barrie. I know I'll probably catch some shit for going there but to hell with it- watching them I easily thought of (in no particular order) Cream, The Who, Sabbath, Zepp, and Paul Weller. And it's not like Little Barrie was specifically referencing any of those bands, far from it, rather their heavy, heavy duty r&b effortlessly channeled all of those legendary British bands, bands that frankly and implicitly fetishized American black culture and music (with the exception of Sabbath, who fetishized darkness and dark blues riffs).
Little Barrie was awesome, and I had no problem parting with $10 to get their cd at the merch table. In fact I did so with joy in my heart.
Of course, the crowd that was there (eventually) was there for Charles Bradley... and he did not disappoint. After a short soul interlude warm-up from his rainbow coalition Extraordinaires, the Man himself took the stage, crushed "Heartaches and Pain," the climax of his debut album No Time For Dreaming, and immediately established a connection with the audience that he maintained and built on throughout his blistering set. The Town Ballroom crowd reacted emphatically to the utter lack of artifice, the power of the music, and the fact that he was leaving it all on the stage, and that only drove Mister Bradley harder. I was curious to see how the Extraordinaires matched up with the Menahan Street Band / Dap-Kings who backed him last year when he opened for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and was gratified to see that they were more than up to the task, bringing a sense of heft to the already mighty soul music of Charles Bradley.
Good news for Prince and Prince fans: when Prince is in his early 60's his sexy moves onstage will still work, judging from Charles Bradley's emergence as a sex god and the reaction that he got from the ladies in the audience. I didn't remember the whole sex god thing from his opening set last February, and being near the front I was more bemused than anything else, but the crowd behind me went nuts. Charles Bradley and his mojo could do no wrong, and he didn't, whether he was ripping up material off his debut album (No Time for Dreaming, on Daptone Records), the early Daptone single "This Love Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us" or Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." His life is in his music, his music is his life, and he nakedly gave us his all, plus some hard won wisdom about loving each other and this planet.
Exhibit A:
Charles Bradley gave us his love, and we gave him ours right back. Until next time, to quote Don Cornelius: "Peace, love, and soul."
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