Soul-Filled Evening at The House of Blues
Jul 29th, 2007 | By Script | Category: Concert Reviews, The Latest Groove
Well you didn’t have to search for soul on Friday night at the House of Blues in Chicago, the place was drenched in it, with performances by Marc Broussard and Toby Lightman. Toby Lightman was wonderful to hear in person, I had heard of her, mostly through youtube clips and a feature piece on VH1. I enjoyed her performance thoroughly and was driven to purchase her CD, Bird on a Wire, immediately after the show, I am excited to give it a listen and I will devote an entire post to her performance in another post very soon.
I have been waiting for Marc Broussard to make a return trip to the Chicagoland area since his nearly rained out performance, due to an electrical storm, at Summerfest last year in Milwaukee. Where despite the torrential downpour he still came out solo and played a few acoustic songs and took pictures with the devoted faithful who stuck around during the rain, in order to hear him perform. At the House of Blues show he put on a fabulous performance. From the beginning to the end Marc brings it on stage! His newest CD is entitled SOS (Save our Soul). For part of his live show he performed songs from the newest CD. The atmosphere on stage was reminiscent of the time when real soul music was being made. A time back before we had the industry packaged homogenized “pseudo-soul” music that lacks the passion, grit and funk that made soul music, “happening” music in the first place. Through his newest CD and his stage show Marc is introducing a new generation to real soul music, and he performs it in a way that remains true to the original and yet he still interjects his artistry into every song. Although Marc showcased his new album he also performed favorites from his other two studio albums, Momentary Setback and Carencro which included one of my personal favorites, “The Wanderer”. The atmosphere when he entered the stage felt to me like those great soul shows would have felt; the band got the audience movin’ and the Marc hit the stage in full groove mode, no warm up needed.
On stage Marc moves you to feel the song, as he delivers the lyrics in his bayou- drenched, gritty and soul-filled voice. He possesses the gift of being a natural-born performer, able to draw the audience closer to the performance and convey the truthfulness in what he is doing to them. 
From my initial seat I could hear the chatter from the first row, some sang along to familiar tunes but everyone was focused on the performance, their faces were dialed in and they were treated to a wonderful night of music. Marc’s versatility as a performer in some ways, reminds me of Prince. In that I’m saying he can do the soul drenched number, the rocked out hard driving tune and then sing a beautiful ballad; and he does them all with the same level of conviction and honesty in his performance.
The audience was blessed with a magnificent experience and they were extremely grateful. After taking some up close pictures I walked around the venue near the end of the night, in the hope of getting a good picture and to a person, everyone was focused on the performance. Chicago audiences can seem jaded at times, we get a lot of opportunities to hear great music on a nightly basis, but this night they were genuinely into it; And they showed their gratitude when, after the show, they called for and encore with a full chorus of sustained enthusiasm until the band and Marc retook to the stage.
As an artist Marc exudes soulfulness, sensuality and raw passion on stage, with the perfect amount of humbleness at the place he finds himself in, at this moment in his career. His thanks to the audience at the end of the show for, “making his dreams come true” was heartfelt and sincere. I had the good fortune to meet Marc after the show and he is as down-to-earth and genuine in person as he is on stage. I for one hope all of his musical dreams come true.
Pictures from the House of Blues Performance by Marc Broussard
note: about the pictures…I brought my camera along and thought I would be able to take a few shots from the audience level but I was shocked when I was allowed to sit in “the pit” and take pictures. It was overwhelming especially when an actual photographer showed up with real equipment and I was sitting there with my little glorified point and shoot. I think I was suffering from lens envy for a moment but I pulled it together and these are the photos I captured please feel free to leave a comment, I hope you enjoy..
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