If you believe everything that you hear at a gig, then The Felice Brothers are self-confessed scumbags! They also pack enough extrovert performers into their closely knit group to go toe-to-toe with a half-dozen Big Brother households… and win. Indeed, thinking about it, given the width that the always grinning James Felice is casually able to expand his accordion to, he probably has the reach of a professional heavyweight,to go with the prerequisite showmanship.
Unsurprisingly, though, I digress already. So getting back on track…
The band earned their chops busking in New York and, like other such artists who have gone on to bigger things, it does show in their live performances. Blending toe-tapping Americana with a healthy respect for how Bob Dylan both wrote and sounded, the result is an eccentric and engaging live performance. Indeed, playing for nigh on two hours on Monday evening, it turned out to be a set with plenty of variety – from the varying tempo of the songs, to the use of four different lead vocalists, to the onstage antics, to one very memorable way to bring the curtain down on proceedings (more on this anon – promise!).
The band were undoubtedly at their best, though, on their rowdier numbers with the big karaoke choruses - be it the rapturously received Frankie’s Gun, Take This Bread, or Love Me Tenderly from their 2008 eponymous album or Chicken Wire, Penn Station, or Run Chicken Run from their current one. These songs usually involved brother Jimmy sashaying forth from behind his keyboards to take up position alongside brother Ian at the front. The crowd were simply soaking up his good-natured charm, Hudson-wide grin, and whisky-lubricated banter. Throw in the hyperactive Yankees cap-, gold medallion-, and white T-wearing Greg Farley on fiddle or washboard and the place was really hopping.
Admittedly, it did take brother Ian over half of the show to fully get into his stride. By the time of the raucous Penn Station, though, which closed the main set, he had straightened up into being the band’s focal point – save for when Farley decided that it would be a good idea to dive full tilt into the drum kit, of course. For the encores, brother Ian then played a duet of Saint Stephen’s End with bassist Christmas, before being joined back on stage by the other three for the aforementioned Run Chicken Run.
However, the band was not quite done yet. Inviting some girls up onto the stage for the last song, they got more than they bargained for when one budding transexual leapt up also, pulling his t-shirt forward to mimic boobs in the way that we once did in primary school. He was soon followed by twenty or thirty more punters, including a couple of auld fellas, who suddenly felt like they were fifteen again. Somewhere, in the middle of this velvet stage invasion, the band, joined by support singer A.A. Bondy, kept on singing away. Hilarious in an odd way. Sort of like the band really.
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: The Felice Brothers
