On the last day of February I celebrated by seeing England’s folk/punks Skinny Lister at Seattle’s Barboza club. Despite the dreary weather outside, Skinny Lister hit the stage bursting with energy, charisma and downright fun. Every member knows how to rile an audience. Singer Lorna Thomas beguiled everyone with her unadulterated charm. When she wasn’t stretching her amazing pipes, she was spinning and dancing all over the stage all while wearing red heels. Her brother Max didn’t let his sister steal the show. He not only played accordion like a crazed mad man, he played the mandolin also while twisting and turning about and leaning into the crowd working them into a frenzy. The audience was as energetic as the band was. Even though this was an older audience, I was jostled about quite a bit.
When Max and Sam “Mule” Brace (concertina & guitar) performed a duet, they did so only with mics at the lip of the stage and this immediately engaged the audience into not only some wild dancing, but a sing-a-long as well. Michael Camino played either stand-up bass or bass guitar and added to the undying charisma exhibited by all the band members. Thom Mills drummed steadily or like a maniac, depending on the song and barely broke a sweat. I still don’t know how that was possible.
Skinny Lister puts on one of the best live shows I’ve seen in any band and they all just ooze charm from every pore. In fact, they oozed so much charm I wouldn’t be surprised if the stage floor was as sticky as melted sugar when the show ended.
Barboza is small, but it was packed. No one can say Seattle doesn’t love Skinny Lister.
Opening for Skinny Lister was an Englishman Will Varley. He was more than a troubadour with an acoustic guitar. He often stopped and engaged the audience by engaging sing-a-longs or telling jokes or funny stories. His sense of humor was boundless as was his charm. He sang songs about love, February snow and of a cat who did Kanye West impressions. The audience loved him. They sang along when requested and one audience member did an impression of a cat being thrown across a bar room (Will insisted no cats were actually harmed in the writing of the song). I really hope he comes through Seattle again, for if he does I will be sure to trek out to see him.
This was a fun night.
– All photos property of Holly Homan, all rights reserved.
