So I finally had a chance to see Willis Earl Beal at Cole’s Bar on Tuesday night.
It was a spur of the moment thing, but there was no way I was missing the free 7” release show (yes I got one) put on by Saki and BVChicago, after everything I have been reading and hearing about the guy.
In two words it was stupefyingly amazing.
Here are some of my thoughts and reactions:
Before the show Mr. Beal was just calmly sitting in the corner of the room with his sunglasses on, and a toothpick in his mouth. It sounds contrived, but it wasn’t. From what I could tell he was incredibly gracious to everyone that spoke to him, but he also had a highly focused intensity to him. My Friend Joshua put it best when he said, “If someone told him that his only job was to look like the coolest MF’er in the room without even trying, he definitely succeeded.”
When he got on stage, Willis Earl just sat in that same way in a chair, while two guys set everything up. He just looked totally calm and secure with what he was doing. It was impressive. Then when he got up to sing, he was gyrating and sweating and pumping his hips all over the place. It was like a slowed down more intense version of Elvis up there or something.
Let me say this though, he IS a weird and intense and charismatic dude. There’s a temptation to think that his whole backstory is a put on, but when you see how he carries himself, and the kinds of things he says/writes, he has an undeniably unique personal aesthetic.Creativity just pours out of him. Not in a pretentious or contrived way, but as if that is what he was made to do. He just seems incredibly honest, while also being aware of how this whole thing is being constructed, if that makes sense.
I think it’s important to note that in and of it self, nothing he is doing is outrageously groundbreaking, but when you put all of the pieces together I think that he is an incredibly compelling person/artist/character. This was further solidified by the show the other night.
Also, I was able to get ahold of his first record “Acousmatic Sorcery”, and have been listening to it over the past few days. Super duper low-fi, and aspects of it are incredibly dissonant and almost offensive, but overall, the man has a way with words and telling stories that is really very special.He hasn’t played out much, but I was extremely impressed by his level of comfort and command of performance. He even handled a heckler adeptly, though I’m not sure how well his act would play in larger settings unless he gets a band. Then again, getting a band might interfere with what he’s all about.
His voice/presentation reminded me of a mixture of Al Green, Howlin’ Wolf, Tom Waits, Wesley Willis, Daniel Johnston and James Brown. It’s definitely a low-fi approach that mixes all sorts of genres. It will be interesting to see how this develops as more eyes and attention are focused on him. I have a weird feeling that he will be able to handle it, but won’t be a pop guy in any way because he doesn’t seem interested in writing hooks.
The craziest part to me was that he seemed to be re-writing songs/lyrics on the fly, and that when the show was done, someone suggested that he do one more song. He decided to do an acapella track, and started it by having the whole room stomp and clap. It worked so incredibly well that I couldn’t believe he wasn’t planning on playing that song. It was the perfect ending to the show, and it had the feeling that he just decided to do it because it felt right. Again just really impressive, and cool. I’m glad we got a chance to see him before the hype machine kicks into high gear.
So yeah. Needless to say, I would highly suggest checking out Willis Earl Beal as soon as you get the chance. One way to that is to watch his recently released self-written, self-produced new video for “Evening Kiss” below or catch him in person at The Hideout in April.
