Tonight I went to see Butch Walker! I have not been into Butch for all that long. He is one of those people I kept seeing mentioned all over the place so I gave him a try probably about six months ago or so. At first, I didn't think I liked him all that much aside from a few songs but I kept finding myself listening to him anyway and slowly realized that I liked him a lot. So when I saw he was playing Webster Hall, and Locksley was opening, I figured why not!
Locksley was a lot of fun, as I expected from having seen them open for Tinted Windows last year. I only have the album before their most recent so I didn't know a whole lot of songs they played but they are so full of energy. They also have so many bro moments. They're always sharing microphones really close to each others faces, putting their arms around each to play each other's guitars, kissing each other when amplifiers don't work, the like. I like them a lot. And they closed the show with my two favorites songs from the album I do have, "She Does" and "Don't Make Me Wait". Yay!
Butch started his set alone at the keyboards and the first song he sang was "Cigarette Lighter Love Song", which made me super happy because I adore that song. I think it goes back to his pre-solo days but I have the version from his live album and it was pretty much exactly the same. I didn't realize just how incredible his voice was until I heard this song live. He has so much range and his falsetto is amazing! After that, he sang "I Passed Your Place, I Saw Your Car, I Thought of You" on the Wurlitzer, also very cool. I'm not going to lie, I was a little intimidated of him at first, in his leather jacket with his arm sleeves peeking out and his mustache. He just seemed kind of serious and closed off. But that soon changed once the band came out!
Butch's band, The Black Widows, were kind of a show onto themselves. They were such a hodge podge of individuals! His lead guitarist looked like he woke up in 1973. His name was even Fran. His bassist looked like he woke up as Tom Petty. His keyboardist looked like he woke up as a pot-smoking 15-year-old. His rhythm guitarist looked like he woke up as a punk-rock Rastifarian. And his drummer looked like he literally just woke up after passing out in his Lazy-Boy recliner after drinking too many 7and7s while watching Magnum P.I. reruns. They were all incredible musicians though!
Once the band was on stage, the show was pretty much hopping for the rest of the night. I don't know everything he sang since I don't have all of his albums but it didn't matter because it was all that good. He has an incredible stage presence and is so funny between songs! He kept telling stories and writing songs on the fly and playing various instruments like a banjolin and swigging from a bottle of Jameson. Among the song he definitely did play were "Pretty Melody", which I was impressed that got the super pretty instrumental intro perfectly recreated, "Trash Day", "She Likes Hair Bands" introed with a song he wrote while he was singing it as a disco ball turned overhead, "Ponce de Leon Ave." and "The 3 Kids in Brooklyn" which was so super fun and felt like a pub song as he seriously rocked out on mandolin. He also did a cover of "Laid", like Matt Nathanson does, AND a cover of "Rich Girl" and y'all know how I feel about Hall and Oates covers! The last song they played before the encore, I'm not sure exactly what it was, but every single band member sang lead for a verse and then Butch kind of lost his shit for a good five minutes. By the end of it, the jacket was off and he was all tattooed and wifebeatered, he was covered in sweat, his acoustic guitar was down to three strings as he flung it and himself around and then he perched himself at the edge of the stage with the microphone cord around his neck. It felt so intense and raw and intimate, my mouth was hanging open!
Webster Hall is also a dance club and the entire show, Butch was convinced they didn't have much time until they had to stop because the dance music would penetrate the floor below us and take over. For the last song, he was like "they would come up here, cross their arms and be like 'lame'! So, we're gonna be as lame as can be!" And he came off the stage literally right to two people from where I was standing and proceeded to start a rock out dance party. Everyone around me kept trying to get closer to him and touch him and stuff and he was just rocking the hell out, arms in the air and then he got all of us down on the ground and it was very much like that part of Fuerzabruta and we were yelling shit and flung back to our feet and jumped around some more and then he found his way back to the stage and the show as done!
So. Yeah. Butch Walker is kind of awesome. I'd go see him again in second. I love rock music. I love live music. I love rocking out to live music.
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