This past Saturday night, the fantastic Bobby Bare Jr. and the current iteration of his backing band, the Young Criminals’ Starvation League, came through town, playing one of his favorite venues in town — the always perfect Tractor Tavern. I’m glad I got to see Bobby come through this time, because he’s one of my most favorite acts to see live, and it had been nearly three years since I’d last seen him — the longest such stretch I’ve gone without since I first saw him ten years ago.
The band played a 90 minute set full of songs both old and new. For this go-round, The Young Criminals’ Starvation League had two members in addition to Bobby — Matt Rowland (with a massive beard) on keyboards and backing vocals, and Doni Schroader (dressed in a skeleton costume) on drums — and they played well. Both Rowland and Schroader helped Bobby make his new album Undefeated, his fifth album with the YCSL, and eighth full-length if you include his Bare. Jr. albums and the live album that came out in 2006.
While Bobby proceeded to get drunk on stage, encouraging the packed-but-not-quite-sold-out crowd to drink along with him, the band would play classic rock standards in the background. Per usual, Bobby did a lot of talking with the crowd, and the crowd was more than happy to converse with him, even though his speech grew slurred by the end of the evening. His drunken state didn’t slow down the songs, or Bobby’s ability to absolutely slay them on stage. Bobby’s style is sloppy even when he’s sober — the words don’t roll off with clarity, but with a slight, purposeful off-beat slowness to them. Bobby’s a kind of country/rock n’ roll Snoop Dogg. And it’s brilliant.
He of course played “I’ll Be Around” — arguably his biggest “hit” to date (excepting the grammy-award winning work Bobby did as a kid when singing with his dad, Bobby Bare, Sr.) One of the highlights of the set was “The Cover of Rolling Stone,” which you’ll probably remember from the song’s 1972 version, sung by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. The song was written in the early 70s by Shel Silverstein (of Where the Sidewalk Ends fame), who has a long history with the Bare family. Silverstein, Bare Sr. and Bare Jr. teamed up on many a song when Bobby was younger. To hear Bobby perform this song here, today, it’s nothing short of pure magic.
The band ended up playing two encores — one of which was entirely faked. “We’re going to pretend we just walked off stage and then came back.” They then played one song, and left the stage for what I thought would be for good. But no, the house lights and music didn’t come up, so the crowd kept cheering, and the band came back out in short order. They then proceeded to get the entire crowd moving with “Rock n’ Roll Halloween” — an awesome, name-dropping sendup of people in famous costumes.
This wasn’t the best Bobby Bare Jr. show I’ve seen. But, at 11 performances logged, there’s bound to be some good ones and some “just fine” ones. This was in the “just fine” category for sure, and I’ll come back next time he comes through town, expecting nothing less than the same.
