There was only a handful of minutes between Chicago’s Post Animal’s set change and when J Roddy Walston and the Business descended from the green room and down the awkward stairwell to the Royale’s knackered stage. JRWB’s fans erupted with whistles, clapping and ecstatic bouts of joy as the band took their mark and without hesitation, tore into the raucous hit “Don’t Break the Needle”.
J Roddy (piano/guitar/lead vocals), Billy Gordon (lead guitar/vocals), Logan Davis (bass/vocals) and Steve Colmus (drums) chose one hell of song to start the first night of the tour’s set with on January 26th. Throughout the night, Walston flashed the genius flair of Jerry Lee Lewis’ manic fingering on the ivories combined with the appearance of a young Leon Russell, while making sure to find a well-played balance of the fast, the slow, the old and the new, by including nuggets “Marigold”, “Same Days”, “Take It as It Comes” and two choice cuts from their most recent release Destroyers of the Soft Life.
“The Wanting” and “Bleed Out”, with its Kings of Leon-esque anthemic-vibe, provided a smooth transition into a rockin’ seventh-inning stretch with “Used to Did” and the sing-along “Midnight Cry” before the band waved and left the stage. After a quick breather, JRWB returned to the mound for a blistering encore that included the primal, hypnotic and Zep-riff infused “Sweat Shock”, the frenetic and pointed “You Know Me Better” and the scorching barnburner, “Heavy Bells”. “Bells” brought those in attendance to fever pitch and almost certainly caused hearing loss to those who went rogue without earplugs. As JRWB continue to hit the road, they will certainly bring listeners a new taste of bygone rock.
