Steppenwolf may have famously sang that we were born to be wild, but on a hot late November night in New Orleans the band sitting with me upstairs at the House Of Blues looks just a little frayed around the edges, as if they could stretch out on the couches and go soundly asleep. It is the official last show of their long tour and Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights are feeling mixed emotions.
“It’s bittersweet,” guitar player Brandon Pinckard explains. “I’m a little bummed that it’s going to be over but I’m pretty ready to be home for a minute”. “I’m going to sleep,” sighs Tyler from across the room. But vocalist Mo Brown has other plans for when she gets home to Texas: “I’m shutting myself off in my room and play all kinds of crazy music and run around in my panties.” “Me too,” laughs Pinckard.
The band has spent a long time on the road promoting their hot 2010 album Pardon Me and I am wondering if they will have the energy to, as Tyler tweeted earlier in the day, go out with a bang. “We just got here a few hours ago,” explains drummer Jordan Cain about their ride in from Mobile, Alabama, which is about three hours from the city. “We stopped half-way here and watched the Cowboys play and then headed down here.”
Will they be planning something special tonight? “We can’t spill the beans now,” jokes Pinckard. “We have two new songs that we’re playing now in our shows,” Brown reveals and the band perks up at the mention of something different on the setlist.“We’re going to record a new album first thing in 2012,” Tyler explains. “Yeah, to add ten or twelve more songs to the mix would be cool,” added Pinckard. “Help the show and revitalize it a little bit.” “We’re very excited about putting out a new album,” added Cain. Plus, it’s Mo Brown’s birthday tonight and the band is planning on giving her a great birthday gift. “A shot,” says Pinckard and everyone laughs.
A few hours later, following a funky 70’s-cool set by another up and coming Texas band called The Happen-Ins, Tyler leads his bandmates onstage and begins to jam in a pulse-raising wave of southern rock. “Bright Energy” and “Young & Free” are both lively and a great warm-up for the now revitalized musicians. With the Stones classic “Honky Tonk Women” in the hands of the Northern Lights, it becomes a dirty hymn that Pinckard takes to its knees. Keith Richards would be proud.
The two new songs, “Skin & Bones” and especially “Walk On By”, which Aerosmith will wish they had written, gave hints of what is to come in the new year, while an older tune called “She’s From The Other Side” solidified that they are not a one-hit-wonder. Tyler is an exceptional musician, playing guitar on the tune with a soulfulness that can at times send chills down your spine, while emoting out lyrics that come from some troubled places in his heart. With new bass player Chase McGillis bringing a new throbbing fire to the mix and Brown’s get-down backing vocals, the road is going to be a lonely quiet place until they return.
The Happen-Ins, who have been playing with JT for the past several months, have a finger on the pulse of what they could one day become. Starting just a little slow, they found their momentum and kicked into gear, leading a man standing near me to remark, “The more I hear them the more I like them”. “Be Yer Fool”, “Ruby Red Lips”, “Die” and “Caged Beast” go down into a funky psychedelic blues tunnel, coming out with bits of seventies-era spangled Stones, T-Rex and a pinch of Allman Brothers Band. It’s an interesting eclectic mix. One thing for sure is that they will need a bigger stage just to contain guitarist/co-vocalist Sean Faires. He spins and slinks around in an almost musical trance, so into the music he might never come down from the high it brings him.
Sharing lead vocals is Ricky Ray Jackson, who has enjoyed playing shows with JT. “We really grew to love those guys like brothers,” he told me a few days following the show. “It’s really important to try and establish a good relationship with anyone when you are going to be out there that long. We had a lot of fun. I know cause there are more than a dozen nights that I don’t remember.” The Happen-Ins will also be hitting the studio early next year.
But the night belonged to Tyler and his band. One couple told me they had driven in from Texas just to catch this particular show … although Tyler remembered out loud the last time they had passed through the Big Easy and sheepishly apologized for his “meltdown from drinking at that freaking bar” and repentfully tore the hell out of “Devil’s Basement” from Pardon Me. “Time For Love” featuring Tyler’s piercing guitar solo led into a bluesy jam that blew the roof off the place, while “Bring It On Home” spotlighted Pinckard’s solo and an extended breath-taking harmonica powerblow by Tyler. Tyler also shined on the quietly humble “Paint Me A Picture” alone with just his guitar and his unique voice cracking with emotion. And not to be outdone by the boys, Brown got sassy and brassy with an out-of-this-world turn of her own on “Crazy Feeling”, which she sprinkled with a bit of mid-section rap.
The band has been together since about 2007 and has spent the majority of the years since then out on the road playing for the people. “Every single day something random and crazy happens,” Tyler told me a few months ago about their touring life. “But you get so used to it happening that it’s almost like you live in a gypsy circus.”
The evening ended with a fun rock-out jam with The Happen-Ins on “Crosstown Traffic” that spotlighted some individual musicianship, a happy birthday serenade to Brown and Faires falling over the monitors without missing a note. If there is one young band that holds the key to a successful future in music, folks, you were just looking right at them.
