A review by PHIL GALLO
Posted: Sun., Oct. 26, 2008, 12:23pm PT
The premiere of Southside Johnny’s big band project with trombonist Richard “La Bamba” Rosenberg was executed impressively in moments of power or playfulness, although the two-hour show was a bit out of sync early on and slightly drowsy at the end. The program, like Southside’s new self-released album “Grapefruit Moon,” is all Tom Waits songs, and with Southside’s voice sounding like a warmer version of Waits’ earliest gravel tone, Friday night’s show reveled in the balance between familiarity and invention.
The songs of Waits provide Southside Johnny Lyon with an opportunity to add an element of cynicism and noirish qualities to his soulful music, which has long been based on gritty horn-based blues and R&B of the 1950s and ’60s. Many of the songs performed have long been abandoned by Waits, tunes from the 1970s that he penned when Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Warren Zevon were among his peers.