(Photographs by John Miller)
It felt like a hot Cajun night inside Mercury Ballroom on Wednesday. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue brought their musical crawfish boil to Louisville with an explosive concert that showcased profundity of the musicians on-stage superbly. The band’s high energy show reaffirmed for me how they become one of the biggest bands on the festival circuit.
Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is a powerful, high energy front man with charisma; and even though he almost always had a trombone or a trumpet in hand, he managed to control the crowd’s attention like some sort of Mafeisto with brass strings. He demands the stage with the cocky swagger of an overpaid rapper, rather than an indisputably underpaid horn player. While, granted I have no idea what he gets paid, but if scale is based on talent…I assure you he’s not paid enough.
The rest of the band clocked in on overtime, as well. Peter Murano on guitar, with Dan Oestreicher and BK Jackson on baritone and tenor saxophone, respectively – make the band swell with just a flurry of notes flying around the room. And the rhythm section comprised of Joey Peebles on drums and Mike Ballard on bass never stops for even a second. The driving force that allows Trombone Shorty to peacock in front of maddening crowd.
The instrumental “Slippery Lips” is one hell of a way to make an entrance – the band blowing out full force (pardon the pun). From there the setlist staggers, focusing more on older albums “Backatown” and “For True,” with blistering renditions of songs like “Hurrican Season,” “Something Beautiful,” “One Night Only (The March),” “Buckjump,” and “Do To Me.” They only drug out three songs from the band’s latest album “Say That to Say This” with inclusion of “Get the Picture,” “Vieux Carre,” and “Fire and Brimstone.”
By the time the band left the stage, the audience seemed as exhausted as the musicians on-stage – because a brass band like that simply won’t allow your body to stand still for long. Thank God they finally wrapped up their set or I might have died of a New Orleans overdose.
