Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Palace Theatre, St. Paul (13 January 2018)

With a blanket of snow on the ground and frigid temps still in the air, the New Year brings a new beginning- renewed hopes and dreams of a New World Arisin’ and Big Head Todd and the Monsters aims to help provide its soundtrack, as evidenced by their very well-received recent headlining set at the Palace Theatre in downtown St. Paul.

The blues often sounds best when served hot on a cold night and that was the case as a good friend of the headliners, Chicago-based guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks opened with a sizzling full hour with his band, including an absolute Monster on bass (literally, as BHTM’s Jeremy Lawton provided the bottom end).  Brooks previously joined up on the band’s last Blues Club tour, which hit town in late 2016. 

Brooks displayed his own formable guitar chops (inherited from his father, the late Lonnie Brooks) and is in support of his latest full-length, Times Have Changed (Provogue Records) “…they certainly have”, Brooks mused before playing the title track, even bringing Todd Park Mohr on stage early, for the new album’s collaboration, ‘Doing Too Much’. 

During a jumping Muddy Waters cover, Brooks asked the crowd to join along which they did tepidly at first, with Brooks remarking, “that was all right… for Iowa!” after which, the crowd learned their lesson. Brooks remains proud of his latest record, the last recording to feature his father as well as Bobbie “Blue” Bland and proudly continues the blues tradition of his father and forefathers.

Todd Park Mohr and band (Brian Nevin– drums; Rob Squires– bass; Jeremy Lawton– keys / pedal steel) have been a band for thirty-two years now and made their new album, New World Arisin’ (on the band’s own Big Records) “to show we still could” and Big Head Todd and the Monsters still showed their formidable live chops with a two-hour set of the band’s own unique blend of Colorado rock, blues, and soul.    

In front of a trippingly-illustrated backdrop and amongst simple but effective lighting, the foursome took to the stage beginning with a cut from one of Mohr’s biggest guitar heroes, Jimi Hendrix.  BHTM mostly let the music do the talking, eager not only to play songs from the new album, but also to work in as many crowd favorites in, as possible too.

‘Bittersweet’, one of the musical benchmarks from 1993’s breakout album, Sister Sweetly, still resonates emotionally as well as sonically, with 1997’s ‘Please Don’t Her’ sounding like a musical next chapter.

BTHM was clever in showing their other musical influences as the set progressed, working part of a Marvin Gaye classic into their own ‘It’s Alright’’ and an instrumental Led Zeppelin passage as they dialed way back to place it in seamlessly on the back end of 1990’s ‘Moose Song’.

The heavy gospel title track of the new album, was prefaced by Mohr speaking the song’s chorus “There’s a New World Arisin’…but that old world will fight you, ‘til your dyin’ day”, underscoring his most dominant lyrical theme of conflict and feeling trapped, and the main set ended with biggest hit, ‘Broken Hearted Savior’. 

The three-song encore began with new track, ‘Glow’ which Mohr actually composed twenty years ago- “turn the hurt into a song” he wailed vocally as well as on guitar. 1993’s ‘Circle’ followed, and the evening ended as it began, with a Jimi Hendrix cover, as Ronnie Baker Brooks rejoined on stage to put the exclamation point on things, Mohr singing “I took my spirit and I crashed those mirrors, and now the whole world is there for me to see”.

For better or worse, 2018 is here, a New World Arisin’, but with legacy bands like Big Head Todd and the Monsters still in fine musical form, this year already looks to be better than the last.  

Remaining tour dates: