Eli Paperboy Reed at Whelans by Colm Kelly

Eli “Paperboy” Reed at Whelan’s, Thursday 24th April 2014

When Eli “Paperboy” Reed appears on the Whelan’s stage he looks a bit like if Tex Avery or Ralph Bakshi drew a soul singer. All suited and quiffed and ready to rock, he comes across every bit the professional showman. Not a strand of hair goes out of place, not a wrinkle appears on the collar of his shirt unless he absolutely intends it to, and he transforms before our eyes over the course of the evening from a dapper band leader to a bedraggled and unkempt rock ‘n’ roller.

Reed draws heavily from the well of soul music. His main influence you quickly realise is the screaming writhing Godfather of Soul himself, but the sounds of Sam Cooke (Grown Up, Not Even Once), Motown (Come And Get It) as well as rockabilly and gospel influences pop up frequently in his songs. His set up is that of the traditional funk band; sax, trumpet, electric guitar and bass, a very excited drummer and a rather sweet sounding hammond electric organ.

The thing about Reed’s sound is that as much as it reaches out for James Brown it takes a wild detour via Michael Bublé. This has the effect of watering down the soul sound, smoothing out the funk and latching onto more of a straight rock ethos. The band gives its all to be sure, but the stark turn into the realm of pop music – which Reed’s latest album ‘Nights Like This’ definitely was – leaves the usually funk-infusing brass instruments doing little more than augmenting the volume level.

It’s clear that Reed is casting his net as wide as possible with his latest album, with the result that he’s stretching his resources a bit beyond their natural limits. The show is always energetic, always at a level to make you believe you’re getting your money’s worth. But it’s not always attention-grabbing, which is why Reed’s shtick can become a bit grating from time to time: “clap your hands”, “I wanna see everybody get low”, and the rather demanding “shhh” (we all hate people who talk at gigs, but the latter quote is part of a fine tapestry of this-is-how-you-should-be-enjoying-my-music-isms).

Despite all this the man is clearly a professional with a tight band behind him so the gig naturally has some quality moments. Particularly stand out is a moment during his cover of Swedish synthpopper Robyn’s Call Your Girlfriend in which he nails the James Brown impression with an emotional howl into the microphone, silencing the music and the crowd for a brief instant. It’s a striking moment and Reed doesn’t milk it, just goes with, eyes closed, hunching over his microphone before launching back into the song.

It would be remiss to neglect to mention one thing that seriously scuppered the enjoyment of this gig and that was that sound system did not adequately adapt to Reed’s vocals, which leaped from hums to howls. The result was that there were times during the gig when the vocal became physically painful, like a little man with a big boot was kicking you inside your head. And this went on right through the gig, at least until the second last song in the encore which at one point became quite literally like torture. Not a common occurrence in Whelan’s by any stretch, but who wants to go to a gig to feel pain? If you do, that type of thing is usually stipulated beforehand.

Eli Paperboy Reed Photo Gallery

Photos: Colm Kelly