Written by: Geoff Tischman

Still reeling from the kind of rock and roll logistical hell where sleeplessness, travel and stress are commonplace, the road weary St. Paul And The Broken Bones confessed to the crowd the other night in New York that they were beat.

But, singer Paul Janeway said, the band draws their energy from the audience so everything was going to be just fine.

I was pretty weary myself. Like St. Paul, I had been going from photography job to photography job and I was tired, too. In fact, I wasn’t sure if either of us would make it to the end of the show.

Was I ever wrong.

St. Paul and the Broken Bones, to put it simply, are the greatest live band on earth and they blew through their set with energy, power and soulful authority.

Drawing from their old material as well as from their upcoming record Sea of Noise (Sept, 2016), the Alabama band was in blistering form and the sold-out audience at the Bardavon Theatre in Poughkeepsie loved every minute of it. “Don’t Mean A Thing” was a stomping winner; “Sanctify” was absolutely perfect and the electrifying “Like A Mighty River” sounded like a modern classic.

Not only did I make it to the end of the show, I was positively energized as the set ended.

It was a night of revival and it was utterly perfect.