Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Live Review: The Samantha Fish Band - 3/12/22 Palladium NYC

The Samantha Fish Band
3/12/22 
Palladium, NYC

In the midst of her Northeast winter/spring tour Samantha Fish brought her band to the heart of Times Square for a Saturday night show, braving a deep March freeze which saw the wind howling to single digit levels on this night. Perhaps it was the below freezing temperatures or the fact that other New Orleans artists were playing the city on the same night (Galactic at Webster Hall and Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Brooklyn Bowl)  or simply Covid, but The Palladium on this night was only sparsely populated on this night. 

The show opened with the River Kittens who played soothing acoustical notes to the small crowd on guitar and mandolin. The St. Louis based folk-duo of Allie Vogler and Mattie Schell were excellent harmonizing together as they wrapped up their opening slot with a cover of The Faces "Ooh La La" which fit perfectly into their easy flowing, soothing sound. 

The four piece Samantha Fish Band took over the stage like the rock stars they are with The MC5's "Kick Out The Jams" blaring through the speakers while the four piece (Fish guitar, Ron Johnson on bass, drummer Sarah Tomek, and Matt Wade on keyboards) tuned up. The slide work on her cigar box guitar was working overtime for "Bulletproof" as the band blasted off focusing on Fish's recent release Faster

The rock got ramped up on the strutting "All Ice No Whiskey" while the bass growl from Johnson and the drumming from Tomek shined on "Twisted Ambition".  Fish dialed up the smooth soul vocals and shuffling for the slick "Kill or Be Kind" and "Crowd Control" while shockingly a fight broke out right in front of the stage as Fish briefly stopped the show and order was restored.

The set ended with blues guitar majesty as the River Kittens rejoined to add supporting vocals to "Dream Girl" but it was the front woman herself who stole the show delivering impassioned vocals and blazing guitar work on this highlight number. For any in attendance who doubted her talents, this song put it all into perspective, simply put Fish is one of the most dynamic performers in any genre playing music today. 

An added bonus found Eric Gales joining the band for a blistering version of Fish's "Black Wind Howlin'" which was pure heavy rocking, blues guitar heaven. The six string dueling crackled with excitement and spontaneity as the set climaxed.

Unfortunately I could only stay for two songs from The Devon Allman Project, so I can not give them a proper review, but hope to catch them next time they are in town. 
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Support both the bands, catch them on this tour and peep some video below from a few nights earlier on the tour:

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