St. Paul & The Broken Bones Kicks off the weekend-long Bourbon and Beyond music festival with a stirring and soulful performance with support from Louisville Bluesman Tyrone Cotton.
The off and on stormy weather that had been doing a number all around Louisville for the past couple of days cleared long enough for a great crowd to pile into the outdoor Iroquois Amphitheater, ready to dance and party. Tonight’s show was the officially sponsored kick-off for the weekend-long Bourbon and Beyond Festival at Champions Park. St. Paul is touring in support of their newest album, Young Sick Camellia which was released on September 7th.
As the house lights fall, St. Paul & The Broken Bones emerge on stage, greeted by a huge ovation as everyone is immediately up, on their feet. As the opening chords of the opening song, “LivWithOutU” are played, front man Paul Janeway unassumingly takes his place center stage, this time greeted by a bigger ovation and the night of off to a fast start.
Without taking a breath, the guys roll into “Flow With It” (You Got Me Feeling Like), and “All I Ever Wonder” from the Sea of Noise Album and “Like a Mighty River” from their debut album Half The City and the Venue is hopping with energy.
Taking a minute to catch their breath and address the crowd Paul Janeway says “Apparently whenever we release an album we come up to the Iroquois Amphitheater to perform, we are not complaining, this is a beautiful venue and we love Louisville” which drew a cheer from the crowd. “This is probably my favorite song from our first album, this is Grass is Greener”
Over the next forty-five minutes a solid representation of songs from the new album, Young Sick Camellia come rolling off the stage, each one seemingly more intense than the last including “Mr. Invisible,” “Convex,” “Nasa,” “GotItBad,” complete with a rocking extended horn/drum jam and “Apollo”. St Paul and the Broken Bones closed out their main set with the heavy, emotional and moving “Bruised Fruit” where Paul Janeway was clearly moved on stage as the lights fell.
Greeted by a huge roar, the guys were back on stage for a 4-song encore. Before they start, Paul was center stage apologizing for being so emotional during the last song (Bruised Fruit), “Performing that song, I’m trying not to get upset and emotional, I’m sorry if I made you all cry. Thank You for letting us live our dreams. I promise these next songs are not sad songs”
The encore set was a party all by itself starting with “Hurricanes,” followed by “Half the City,” huge hit and fan favorite “Call Me.” Paul, with a wired mic now in hand, started his way off the stage and into the crowd as the final song of the evening “Broken Bones & Pocket Change” starts. Fist bumping, shaking hands and high-fiving fans along the way the evening ends in dramatic fashion as Paul finishes the final 1/3 of the song in front of the soundboard, surrounded by fans. As the final notes are played and the final words are sung the house lights come up leaving those in attendance in awe of what they had just experienced.
St. Paul & The Broken Bones is front man Paul Janeway with Browan Lollar (guitar), Jesse Phillips (bass), Andrew Lee (drums), Al Gamble (keyboards), and Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Chad Fisher (trombone), and Jeronne Ansari (saxophone).
Opening the show this evening was Louisville based Blues Singer-songwriter-Guitarist Tyrone Cotton. Tyrone’s 30-minute set of melodic blues was tranquilizing, proving to be a perfect pairing for the evening.
