Bacon Brothers concert 11/18 report

By Michael Deehan

Kevin Bacon came, he saw, he shook his butt.

Thursday night at Northampton’s Calvin Theater, The Bacon Brothers put on a surprisingly lively and energetic performance. The duo, made up of brothers Kevin and Michael Bacon, took to the stage armed with material from their previous three releases and a few select cover songs.

As the audience began to pour in, a startling theme revealed itself and did little to heighten my expectations: the entire audience, it seemed, was made up of women (some accompanied by husbands) of at least 35 and up. I began to worry that this was a bad idea.

Opening the show was newcomer Melani Smith. Performing with her simple backing band, Melani showed her vocal chops on such songs as the politically charged “God” and the love-gone-bad piece “Simple Girl.” Perhaps the most powerful portion of Smith’s set was the personal letter put to music called “Mr. Smith.” In the song, Melani recites a letter she wrote to her father, who left his family when the songstress was young. The song proved to be thought provoking and haunting in its simplicity and significance.

The Bacons stage setup was sparse, just a few guitars and other assorted instruments littering the stage. After a huge ovation for Mr. Kevin Bacon, the audience settled down for the Bacon Brothers’ patented folk-rock combo. Michael Bacon proved his talent right from the start of the show. Within a few short songs’ time, the elder Bacon had done everything from accompany his brother on guitar, to sing the lead of a song (with a voice that sounds remarkably like Christopher Guest’s folk singing character from the film “A Mighty Wind”), to playing an incredibly moving solo on the cello. This classic cello solo soon turned into a cello/rock jam, and then into the song “Supposed to be Tuesday”. The song featured Kevin Bacon for the first time truly showing his musical and vocal skills, a feat that finally won over the skeptical audience.

The rest of the set was made up of cuts from the Bacons own catalog as well as the Beatles song “If I Needed Someone”. Some of the more upbeat songs, such as “I’m So Glad I’m Not Married,” resulted in the country twang-inflicted actor Kevin dancing around on stage to the delight of the adoring crowd of middle-age women. And yes, there was much butt-shaking.

The rock continued with a cover of The Rolling Stones “This Could Be the Last Time” and a medley featuring riffs by Jimmy Hendrix, Aerosmith and the legendary rocker James Taylor.

The biggest surprise of the night came at the very end of the encore set. The band came back on stage to the shouts of a deservedly riled crowd. That’s when all hell broke loose. With the first few words of Kenny Loggin’s song “Footloose,” the estrogen inside the Calvin Theater reached a boiling point. “Footloose” was made famous by the Kevin Bacon-starring movie of the same name – and people remembered it. The ensuing mob of gyrating and “dancing” fans made the night complete. I came away from the performance with a newfound respect for The Bacon Brothers as a true, genuine group of artists that just happens to have a famous, butt-shaking actor for a singer.