Saturday night at The Bowery Ballroom Jesse Malin and Steve Wynn and The Miracle Three literally blew the doors off a packed house showing what a great Rock & Roll show is all about. The sound was impeccable and the musicianship was extraordinary. This is the best show I've see this year so far. The show opened with a young Ryan Adams type Singer-Songwriter named Trapper Schoepp with barely a third of the room filled, but by the time Steve Wynn & The Miracle Three took the stage the place quickly filled up. Guitar rock at it's best, high energy, blistering guitar interaction between Steve Wynn and his long time guitar partner Jason Victor. Relentless, driving drums from my newest rock n roll infatuation Linda Pitmon and steady hard hitting bass from Dave DeCastro. I couldn't stop moving and I'm feeling it today. And the show was just getting started Jesse Malin started off with the single off the new record "Addicted" which his loyal fans have already known from his live performances over the last 18 months or so, but that the rest of the world just discovered within the last two weeks. He quickly followed that with one of his all time favorites "Wendy" from the record "The Fine Art of Deconstruction." Those two songs set the stage for what would be a marathon of great rock n roll mixed in with Jesse's occasional poet prophecies. It was mix of his new material and his most cherished songs from his career. Backed up by four other musicians, most notably Catherine Popper on bass who most recently played with the all girl alt country trio Puss n Boots but who is a seasoned and well traveled musician having played with Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Levon Helm, Joseph Arthur, Michael Stipe, Rhett Miller, Mark Olson, Kevin Kinney, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and Jack White. Jesse's long time partner Derek Cruz played an incredible lead guitar, there was also a keyboardist and animated three piece horn section. The new record has several hits on it including She Don't Love Me Now, Turn up the Mains(Dedicated to Mink Deville, Jim Carroll and Lou Reed), Boots of Immigration and Oh Sheena. He also did his most loved songs Brooklyn, Hotel Columbia, Burning on the Bowery, Almost Grown and All the Way to Moscow. There was also a song that we're playing on the show tonight called Here's the Situation that he said would be on his next record, but if you had subscribed to the pledge music project you would have gotten as a bonus track. He ended the show with a song we played on the Homegrown Sunday Ramble a few months ago that was a preview track to the new record and is unavailable anywhere called "You Know It's Dark When the Atheists Start to Pray" as he and his horn section marched through the crowd and out the back doors of the Bowery Ballroom to roaring applause. This is why you want to see live music. I wish I was 20 years younger or in better shape so I wouldn't feel so spent today. But if you are a young person(or any person for that matter) and you want to see what a great rock show is all about. Don't miss this tour and especially don't miss it while Steve Wynn is supporting. You will be Addicted to live music forever after this.
