Live Concert Photography: Bowlive 6: Wolf! feat. Scott Metzger, Soulive, Soulive with Charles Bradley, The Shady Horns and Special Guests
Brooklyn Bowl
March 12, 2015
As many of you who follow JOVM will know by now, the last few weeks around here have been insanely busy, and over the upcoming few weeks I’ll be catching up on much of the live show coverage I’ve been running around to do. Now when I heard that Soulive would be starting their annual Bowlive residency at Brooklyn Bowl with the great Charles Bradley, I immediately thought to myself “I need to go and check that out.”
Opening the night was guitarist Scott Metzger’s band Wolf!, a band that has opened for Soulive a few times during their run and although I was never that impressed by them or their sound, this set was by far the worst set i’ve ever seen them play. The material felt and sounded like listless and uninspired noodling by a band that was still feeling each other out, than a band playing with a real purpose or intention – and a result their set felt painfully long.
Soulive’s set and a half felt was a whole different thing altogether. Even with various members being so busy that Soulive hasn’t recorded a proper album in some time, they’re still incredibly tight – and they manage to play a wide range of material with an effortless self-assuredness and an intensity that made Scott Metzger and Wolf! seem amateurish. But it was Charles Bradley’s four song appearance that seemed to really heightened the crowd’s energy. With Soulive backing him, Bradley and company did loose yet earnestly soulful versions of “The World Is Going Up in Flames” and “Heartaches and Pain” off his debut effort, No Time For Dreaming and “Ain’t It a Sin,” a single he did with a mysterious band that went byThe Bullets, released for Record Store Day a few years ago. Just like with his various backing bands, Bradley at times commanded and pleaded with the band to slow it down, to let him riff on the nature of love or something else that caught his mind, which often gives him the air of a Baptist preacher, who knows how to get a crowd in his hand. It was just incredible to see.
Check out some photos from the show.
Wolf! feat. Scott Metzger
Soulive
Soulive with the Shady Horns
Soulive with Charles Bradley
The London Souls’ Tash Neal also came along to cover a song.
For these photos and more, check out the Flickr set here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/yankee32879/sets/72157651301465679/
