Hawksley Workman @ La Tulipe

Running late as usual, I ran into la Tulipe last Friday night right at the end of Hawksley Workman’s second song of the night.  I must admit it was my virgin experience with this multi-talented performer and I was not prepared for the banter. 

Hawksley Workman loves to talk. On my entrance to what I thought would be a musical journey, in which I was excited to hear some old songs, mixed in with the new songs from his recent MeatMilk and albums, I was not prepared to hear story after story.  It almost felt like I was watching a TV special. 

Something else you notice right away is that he changes guitars almost after every song.  When I entered the venue, he was playing a Les Paul standard.  He then went to what looked like from my viewpoint as a standard telecaster, only showcasing his collection of these fine instruments.  

“Amsterdam is where love goes to die,” Hawksley said, explaining his time living there. However this was to the chagrin of some audience members, who booed at this statement.  This did not seem to faze him at all as he led into his sad “Piano Blink” song from the 2008 album Los Manlicious.   

When he did sing, I was captivated by his voice. He had explained that he was feeling under the weather at the beginning of the concert, but you would never have known it.  His vocal range is impressive at best.  It ranks up there with some of the most talented rock voices out there.  I even compared it to my beloved Freddy Mercury.  That could be going to far for some that will read this, but all the same this musician is talented and quite the showman.  His comfort on the stage is quite evident.  The way he plays his guitars, and moves around, often flailing his arm around in the air, makes you feel like he was born up there. 

Around mid set, the whole band all came off stage except the violinist, Jesse Zubot, who dazzled the audience with a stellar solo.   

When the band finally returned to the stage it was an amusing scene.  It is a normal occurrence to see the lead singer change his wardrobe, but the whole band?  Hawksley Workman came back with what looked like a “car-mechanic-gone-country-rock” outfit which was a chocolate brown studded coverall, while the rest of the band either changed their shirts, and/or their pants.  Pianist Todd Lumley for some reason, also threw on a baseball cap. 

With time a wasting, Workman told the audience that they had to get it rolling as La Tulipe likes to turn into a dance club.  So it was at this point that the banter completely stopped and we got to see this musician do his finest.  He led right into “Robot Heart” from his recently-released Milk album and continued with two more songs from this album, “We Dance to Yesterday” and “Who do They Kiss.” 

Workman ended the night with “Dirty and True” from his 2001 album Last Night We Were. The Delicious Wolves and played a three song encore set that included “Devastating” from Milk and “We’ll Make Time (Even If There Ain’t No Time)” from Meat. 

Although, I was thrilled to hear him finally just belt out the tunes, I found I missed the crazy story telling he did at the beginning of his show, only proving that Hawksley Workman can balance the music, with the banter.