It was a warm night outside but everything was cool inside the Beachland Ballroom. The Beachland Ballroom is such a gem of a concert hall for Cleveland to have. I keep preaching the gospel of Paul Thorn and followers keep being converted. Hoss and Basha are two new Paul Thorn believers. Paul Thorn converted the Beachland into his own church for the evening. With his songs of twisted faith, good and evil, trailer parks and being a long way from Tupelo.
He starts out the night with a rocking, gospel tinged, sing along "Promised Land".
He moves into a bluesy "Walk Without My Crutches".
Of course there has to be a cheating woman with Aqua Velva on her breath, "Burn Down The Trailer Park".
Paul does a cover of the Elvin Bishop tune "What The Hell Is Going On?", which is also the name of the Paul Thorn Band's new album. He tells the crowd you are going to hell if you don't buy a CD after the show.
He gets a little moody in "Mood Ring".
And keeps it slow with "Love Scar" about a tattoo that was gotten when a girl was in love and then finds out it was only a one night stand.
Paul covers a Lindsey Buckingham song "Don't Let Me Down Again".
Swings into a sexy song "Walk In The Shadow".
He sings a song that reveals how he grew up with a father who was a preacher and an uncle who is a pimp in the delightful song "Pimps and Preachers".
Paul now goes acoustic solo on "He Knows When I'm On Your Mind".
He covers a Donnie Fritts song "She's Got A Crush On You".
Still going it alone acoustically he wonderfully sings "Lift Somebody Up".
The full band joins Paul again in a swampy song called "Snake Farm", which had a real nice fade out at the end.
He gets the crowd revved up with "I Don't Like Half The Folks I Love".
He Keeps rolling with bring me a hoe there's "Weeds In Your Roses".
The band gets a little bluesy on an Allen Toussaint song "Wrong Number".
He sings of throwing a man off a bridge into the river on a Wild Bill Emerson song "Bull Mountain Bridge". Great harmonies with the whole band on vocals.
They get Funky on "Ain't Love Strange".
A crowd favorite, a song of hope "I Have A Good Day Every Now And Then"
Paul will only tell his wife when he comes home late one night that he was "A Long Way From Tupelo". This is one of Paul Thorn's best songs.
After lying and cheating in the last song he wants us all to "Rise Up".
The Encore is a 50's style rocker where Paul ends up walking through the crowd shaking hands and kissing women "Take My Love With You".
Paul Thorn is one of the great story teller, song writers of our time. We need to get more converts coming to his shows. When you leave a Paul Thorn show you have a smile on your face because you have truly been entertained for the past two hours. I must say that his band seems to have stepped up their game some. Billy Hinds is definitely a great mood setting guitarist. Michael Graham may sit in the back of the stage but his keyboards are right out front on many songs. Ralph Friedrichsen can be bluesy or funky or country on his bass. Jeffry Perkins keeps the whole band together with a good back beat.
As always Paul Thorn puts out a 5 twirl show.
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