Eli “Paperboy” Reed at Galatos April 29, 2011

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If you were trying to avoid the Royal Wedding, there was no better place to be than Galatos on Friday night. Boston-based Eli “Paperboy” Reed brought a trimmed down version of his band The True Loves (no horn players) and entertained a small but enthusiastic crowd for just over 90 minutes.

Reed has released three albums full of retro-soul, the most recent being his Capitol Records debut, Come And Get It. Although all the songs were written by Eli, they sound very much like classic soul tunes from the late sixties and early seventies. The crowd at Galatos was treated to amped-up versions of these tunes…21 in total.

Eli and the band began with, of all things, an organ-driven version of Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades. It may sound unlikely on paper, but it works. From there, they slipped effortlessly into Am I Wasting My Time from their 2008 album, Roll With You.

Reed proved that he has the vocal chops to pull this type of music off live, emitting screams that Wilson Pickett or James Brown would have been proud of. Help Me, from Come And Get It, got the audience singing along early in the set and that was followed by the frantic potboiler The Satisfier. Just Like Me featured some fine backing vocals from the band along with a guitar solo from Reed. Many of the songs, such as Stake Your Claim, You Can Run On and Come And Get It, found the band breaking down in the middle of the tune and then revving back up to generate excitement.

Two of the ballads, It’s Easier and Time Will Tell sounded very much like something Otis Redding would have performed at Monterey Pop in ’67. And Eli got down to a like preachin’ and testifyin’ at the end of Come And Get It. The regular set ended with Explosion, which was, indeed, explosive.

For the encore, Reed dedicated I’m So Glad You’re Mine to the Royal Couple after thanking his fans for showing up instead of watching the wedding on TV. He had a good natured give and take with the crowd, one of whom urged him to “sing naked”. Fortunately he didn’t. Instead they closed out the evening with the organ-driven dance number (Doin” The) Boom Boom and the upbeat soul-rocker Take My Love With You.

I admit I have my doubts about Mr. Reed. While I love the music that he is emulating, there seems to be something artificial about slavishly recreating a sound from 40 years ago and not adding anything to it. He put on a fine show and his band was tight and exciting, but still, I felt like I was listening to something closer to karaoke rather than music that had a true emotional center. That said, I still had a good time.

Marty Duda

Click here to listen to Time Will Tell performed live:

Click here to listen to the 13th Floor interview with Eli “Paperboy” Reed.

Marty Duda
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