Chez Shaffner

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Cowboy Mouth at The Middle East

Above: Cowboy Mouth rocking The Middle East, Cambridge, Mass., 1/31/2007 (5 Stars)

This is a piece I wrote a few weeks back, but missed the editorial deadline for Being There Magazine so I thought I may as well share it here...

Every night is Mardi Gras for New Orleans-based rock band Cowboy Mouth, even a frigid January Wednesday in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hyper-energetic drummer/vocalist Fred LeBlanc forces the crowd to abandon their stresses, forget about the sub-freezing temps, and celebrate the joy of being alive. He accomplishes this not only through lyrics and beats, but by rallying the crowd and demanding that we work to earn his performance. Cowboy Mouth insist upon energy, putting the show on hold until our collective exuberance matches theirs.

Fred opened the set alone at center stage with an a cappella version of “Over the Rainbow” that makes Catherine MacPhee’s American Idol version dull by comparison. The rest of the band joined him for the dramatic transition into the high octane “Light It On Fire.” Noticeably absent from the stage was longtime guitarist Paul Sanchez, who left the band in October 2006 after more than fifteen years. Although Vance DeGeneres (yes, that’s Ellen’s brother, another New Orleans native) proves a solid replacement, Sanchez’s absence from the stage surely affects the band’s song choice. Missing, for example, was Cowboy Mouth standard “Hurricane Party,” typically performed by Sanchez, forcing concert-goers to chew their Tootsie Rolls rather than launch them toward the stage.

Particular highlights included an energetic cover of Bo Diddley’s “I Can Tell” and an extended funk digression midway through “Voodoo Shoppe.” The band played only three tracks from their most recent release, Voodoo Shoppe: the title track, “Joe Strummer”, and “Winds Me Up,” instead choosing to reach back into their back catalogue for inspired versions of “Easy,” “Man On The Run,” “How Do You Tell Someone,” and “Take Me Back to New Orleans.” Lead guitarist John Thomas Griffith, a former resident of Allston, Mass., as Fred made a point of reminding us, took his turn at the microphone, belting “Here I Sit In Prison,” “Winds Me Up,” and “Everybody Loves Jill” (red spoons hurtling past Fred’s ear).

By the time Fred asked the crowd to join the “rock n’ roll orgasm” integrated into traditional closing number “Jenny Says,” we had surely forgotten all our troubles. Minutes later, we faced the wind chill again, but the lingering euphoria from their performance kept us warm.