Steamboat
Sneaky Dee's. Saturday, May 17, 2009.
What better way to celebrate the release of a twenty minute EP than with a two-and-a-half hour performance?
Headed down not knowing a lot about Steamboat. I know I've just missed seeing them two or three times in the past. and I knew I had seen various members ably performing in other bands — including, convincingly, The Old Soul. Plus, there was an impressive list of guests slated, so it seemed like a no-brainer. For six bucks cover and a seven dollar CD, it was incredible value for money.
Steamboat on their own roll five deep, such excellent players all that it'd be unfair to single any one out1. Imagine the grease'n'gravy of Booker T & The MG's leavened with a soupçon of The Band, able to provide sympathetic backing across a variety of genres — specialists in all styles, to borrow a phrase. Over the course of two generous sets, the band played a lot of covers, with some of their own material thrown in — and given some of the top drawer stuff they were covering, it's a complement to say the originals, written and delivered by Matt McLaren in a soulful voice, fit in well. If there's any criticism to be made — and its a small one — it's that (at least as of yet, maybe) the band doesn't have as much of its own material to rely on. But besides relying on themselves, they also got by with a little help from their friends.
The first guest up was Doug Paisley, whose name was not immediately familiar to me2 who mixed some country dust into the formula, performing a pair of strong tunes, including the ripping "If I Wanted To". Next up were Ian and Simone from $100, duetting on George Jones/Tammy Wynette's "Golden Ring" plus a roaring take through their own "Tirade of a Shitty Mom", the band bringing the menace to the latter. The first set ended with Alex Lukashevsky joining the band for a couple covers, including a bit of reggae-lite on Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come".3
After a break, the band threw down a few more numbers, before being joined by Sandro Perri and Mantler. I'm familiar with Perri's avant-pop stylings, but had not been exposed to Mantler, wearing a white tuxedo and taking over the electric piano, delivering some smooth, lounge-y tunes, leading off with "I Guarantee You a Good Time". Perri took a turn at the mike for an original (I think) that developed into an extended slinky groove of a coda.
Andre Ethier4 took over and led off with a tune which sounded like "You're a Big Girl Now" in a mellow car crash with "Dress Rehearsal Rag", a sax mourning the scene, and followed up with a powerful Joe Tex cover. Following that, the focus was back on Steamboat themselves, augmented for the rest of the night by an excellent Stax-styled horn section, which was put to good use on a ripping take of Eddie Floyd's "Big Bird" and a few more.
As the set wore on, the original groups of women dancing in front of the stage were increasingly replaced by tall dudes, bro-ing down and reaching over to grab each other's shaggy hair, celebrating some sort of drunken ritual. It was just the sort of night where there was so much music that at one point or another, a break was indicated, and there was a lot of turnover near the front of the room. After being on stage for over ninety minutes for their second set, the band ended with a one-song encore, fabulously tearing through "Can You Picture That?", originally by The Muppet Show's Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. Matt McLaren admitted that this was a favourite song from his childhood, and, in this context, it felt like a telling formative influence. It was somewhat amazing that the band still had the energy to play with unabated energy all the way through. Added up, it was a thirty-plus song marathon — my second wind needed a second wind to keep me going through it all, but this was totally a lot of fun.
It's worth passingly noting that if a band were to come up with subtle variations on some post-punk group from some bleak Northern English town, they'd be hailed as visionary, but anyone working on subtle variations on some soul band from some bleak Southern American town is usually dismissed as merely retro. This is probably incorrect thinking. Steamboat are working and sweating, generating radiating waves of fun with excellent craftsmanship. There's serious talent in this band, both as sympathetic backing musicians and on their own stuff, so hopefully this EP is just a start. Daunting thought: how long will their release party be for a full-length album?
Listen to a track from this show here.
1 Although perhaps I will single out Christopher Sandes' organ — complete with Leslie Speaker — which really tied everything together throughout the night.
2 Though it turns out that I have seen him perform in his Dark Hand and Lamplight project.
3 Interesting fact: a reggae-lite version of "The Harder They Come" with Alec Lukashevsky on vox sounds not entirely unlike "Two Princes" by The Spin Doctors.
4 Andre was playing one of those... what d'you call those four string guits that are bigger than a ukulele? One of those.
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