Photos | Jonah Tolchin + Christopher Paul Stelling + Haunt the House @ The Columbus Theatre
Photos by Boston Concert Photography
There’s a certain air about some shows. An air that you can feel as the music begins (or even before) and that lets you know you were partisan to something pretty damn special.
As part of a tour supporting Jonah Tolchin‘s (pretty fucking amazing) sophomore release “Clover Lane,” Tolchin, Christopher Paul Stelling and Haunt the House strolled into one of my favorite places in Providence — The Columbus Theatre — last Friday night and laid claim to the best show of the weekend.
Haunt the House (a.k.a. Will Houlihan) more than filled in for a stranded-without-a-car Ron Gallo, the bills original opener. Also playing in support of a new album — Jack Rabbit Jones — Mr. Houlihan lured the audience in with hushed tones and then propped us up with some amazing falsetto numbers. Will certainly be picking that one up for some summer listening.
Second came the always dynamic, Christopher Paul Stelling. Opening with thanks for those in attendance and for those running the Columbus (where he recorded a majority of his upcoming new album,) CPS wasted no time ripping and soaring through songs both old and new. Lay that new album on us man. We’re ready.
And lastly came Tolchin and his band of musical characters, The Lonesome Angels. Playing songs mostly off of the new effort, the band accompanying Jonah through his tour played extremely well with and off of each other. Leaving just enough room for the blues and soul of Clover Lane to come through in the way that it should — organic and pinned to the undercurrents of emotion in the songs themselves.
I won’t try to hide the fact that Clover Lane is one of my favorite albums of the year. Sometimes when you like a produced album that much, you end up a bit disappointed when you’re able to finally experience it live. That certainly wasn’t the case on that evening. My gut tells me I’ll continue to be extremely happy about making the choice to see Jonah and his crew perform over and over again (like at the Sinclair on July 12.)
Get on board with this one, folks. You won’t be disappointed.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nybrq37-tlA[/youtube]
