Sonny Boy Thorn At The Satellite, Monday July 20th 2015, Review
Sonny Boy Thorn
July is Sonny Boy Thorn residency at the Satellite and Los Angelinos should check them out for free before the band is part of KROQ Weenie Roast lineup. You may even recognize a few familiar faces because this new project is the brainchild of guitarist-songwriter-producer Christopher Thorn of the multi-platinum Blind Melon and vocalist-songwriter Davie Dennis, who was the frontman of the LA indie-rock band Voxhaul Broadcast.
I don’t know why this band broke up but this new one deserves a bit of background: Christopher met Davie at a radio station in 2008 and produced multiple songs for Voxhaul Broadcast a few years later, before co-producing Awolnation’s hit ‘Sail’. Christopher even went on tour with Awolnation as a guitarist,but recently, he and Davie finally found the time to write songs together for their new project, Sonny Boy Thorn. They recorded 13 tracks with an amazing lineup of musicians, Rami Jaffee (Foo Fighters, The Wallflowers), Matt Flynn (Maroon 5), Glen Graham (Blind Melon), Hayden Scott (Awolnation). Frank DiVanna (Trashcan Sinatras), and the legendary Jim Keltner. And if you want even more celeb musicians in the story, just watch this, Christopher recently performed with B!tch and broken-leg Dave Grohl.
No Foo Fighters on Monday night though, but who needed them? The energy did reach the roof during Sonny Boy Thorn’s set, thanks to Davie’s bold, in-your-face vocals, muscular bluesy guitars, and pounding drumming. They had overall an ambitious and loud sound, quite ready for the arena and accentuated by these long, almost-Boss-like howls. They sure had a few catchy songs, combining their fontman’s grand gesture, his very R&R screams and influences all over the place,… still a very bluesy and rocking kind of place. And talking about influences, I may have heard a bit of everything from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Tom Petty to the Killers…
You may hear their song ‘Wild and Free’ a few times this summer, I would not be surprised if this particular one takes off, it starts a bit like a Squeeze song but turns into an anthem for freedom that you have no choice but to sing at the top of your lung. On stage, they had the right amount of aggressiveness, dynamism and swag, and Davie Dennis was constantly pointing to the crowd whereas the musicians’ silhouettes were shining between bright yellow lights and fog machines. This wasn’t your ordinary small club performance, and the four of them seemed totally at the top of their game, ready for the big thing.
The crowd got very enthusiastic as Dennis’ charisma was working, especially when he jumped in the crowd for one of their last songs, ‘Waking up Swinging’, a slow-burn cathartic soulful number, exploding into a fantastic 1000-watts yell
For the grand final, they brought a member of the previous band, The Shelters, which had also played some excellent and explosive catchy-bluesy-poppy songs by the way, for a sing-along drunk-party as they covered Bob Dylan’s ‘Rainy Day Woman’… As I said, go see them before they sell out a stadium near you.
Setlist
Bound to Fall
Beware
Wild and Free
Shelter
Party
Seems Absurd
Dance to the Beat
Bang
Waking up Swinging
Rainy Day Woman (Dylan cover)
