Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears @ Crescent Ballroom

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

Location Info

Map

Crescent Ballroom

308 N. 2nd Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Central Phoenix

Photos

2 user reviews	Write A Review
	0

Details

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears are scheduled to perform on Wednesday, November 9, at Crescent Ballroom.

Related Content

• Joe Lewis of Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears on Clubs, James Brown, and Scandalous
  November 2, 2011
• Fayuca Announce Spring Tour on Way to SxSW, Nominated for High Times Doobie Award
  February 16, 2012
• Hooves Announce Phoenix Tour Stop
  February 9, 2012
• What's Selling: Stinkweeds Top 10 Selling Albums of the Week
  November 28, 2011
• The Sheepdogs and Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears at Crescent Ballroom, 11/9/11
  November 10, 2011

More About

• Richard Pryor
• James Brown
• Austin
• Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

When operating in a genre that's decidedly retro, a little bit of self-awareness is necessary. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking like you're living, writing songs, and performing in a hermetic time-warp bubble. Someone like the fiery Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are a terrific band — but their lyrics and arrangements lack in the surprise department. Some of the new crop of soul singers, though, tip a hat to the past without genuflecting completely. Take Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, for instance. While the band plays muscular, energetic R&B numbers — heavy on the rhythm, heavy on the blues — the lyrics flirt with eternal soulman woes (no cash, too many exes) in a decidedly contemporary way ("Bitch! I love you"). Lewis' raunchy songs and performances sometimes wink at the audience too predictably, but Lewis never goes over the edge into camp territory. Lewis and his Honeybears' self-titled 2009 debut EP was an efficient four tracks, packing power, wit, and charisma into the tunes, which found the common ecstatic link between James Brown and Richard Pryor. This year's Scandalous followed up the band's first full-length Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! It's irreverent, it's good, and it's doing for R&B and soul what bands like The Pogues did for traditional Irish tunes.