I've been working my butt off pretty much since the first of the year and oh so needed a break Friday night. I needed some music and a few laughs not to mention some tequila. Luckily we had tickets for Paul Thorn and I don't need to be suspenseful here, it was going to be a great night.
The only disappointment of the evening was the tequila. The Coach House doesn't have much of a selection. One shot was all I really needed to take the edge off (I was driving after all).
Up first was "The Missiles of October". The lady selling the CDs was really selling them hard: "You're going to love them". And she was actually right. In many ways the leader of the band, Poul Finn Pedersen, reminds me of John Hiatt. The songs ranged from rockin' to soulful ballads with a few Caribbean numbers thrown in to get the feet tapping. The band was tight and really projected the songs out there. It was afterward that I found out that the guitarist was Richard Bredice. If you are a hardcore music person you know Richard from Jules and the Polar Bears (Jules Shear's wonderful band from the late 70's). I believe he does more production these days (they recorded at least one of their CDs in his home studio). His guitar solos where right on throughout the 1 hour show. What a wonderful surprise to start the evening.
I've never seen Paul Thorn with his band, and what a treat it was. Paul has a not so smart and a bit naive southerner routine going; both in his songs and his raps in between. He was killing us with some of his new stories about marriage and the old days in the trailer park. The truth is, he is just like the rest of us, making mistakes in his life and finding love in all the wrong places. His songs seem so simple, yet they speak to all of us. Well, they speak to the white trash side of us anyways. And the band just takes it up a notch, really rocking when the songs call for it. He opened with "Mission Temple Firework Stand" and pretty much closed with "Burn Down the Trailer Park" and we really had trouble staying in our seats (it's a no-no standing at the Coach House unless you go to the side of the stage). But the lyrics are really what Paul is about, so part way through the set, the band left and Paul did a few acoustic numbers. What was interesting about this was that he used this time to play songs from his new CD. This allowed us to hear the lyrics and made it an obvious decision as to buying it (yes we did). Otherwise, he played most of my favorites and I'm sure most of the crowds, but mixed in a lot of new songs. What a fun evening we had. I'm telling you, don't miss him next time around. There is really nobody like him. Go check out his web site at http://www.paulthorn.com and you must listen to "Ain't Love Strange", one the great unknown CDs.
