Black Joe Lewis live with Handsome Jack in the 9th Ward, Buffalo, NY

DSP Shows Presents Black Joe Lewis live in the 9th Ward with Handsome Jack

7pm Doors, 8pm Show

Tickets: General Admission Standing $25 available at TixR.com or in person at the Babeville Box Office (M-F 11a-5p) – 3% credit card fee, no fee for cash

Black Joe Lewis is the realest motherf**ker there is. When Covid sidelined his touring this past year, he started laying concrete to help support his baby mama and his kid. That’s f**kin’ real. When Joe and his band, the Honeybears, popped onto the national stage over a decade ago, many critics embraced him but still, there were some that maintained that they hadn’t paid their dues. Joe’s still here. Still going. Still cashing checks and snapping necks. The dues of hard work; the delirious heights of the industry as well as the disappointments and low hanging fruit. Through this all, Joe’s only honed his mastery over gut bucket blues guitar and his true voice. It’s a vital and distinctly American voice that never anticipated the attention he wound up receiving, never went looking for it either. It just started happening. The garage, the blues, the propulsive and synergistic live performances that inhabit the spaces of James Brown, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and the MC5…those things happened naturally from the very beginning and could only be accurately communicated in the live experience, not a press release or a slick brand campaign. Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Cedric Burnside and Lightnin Malcolm, The Dirtbombs, Detroit Cobras, the Strange Boys; these are some of the artists that Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears shared countless bills with; almost a roll call of the most influential soul and garage bands of the last twenty five years. Has the soul blues garage explosion from that era been commodified or worked into the overall template of pop rock? Sure. But the ground floor was a vital space for people that like guitars and grease and at this point Black Joe Lewis is one of the last standing that was there. Last of a dying breed. Or maybe a missing link. Does this make him a throwback? A throwback to a throwback? It’d be tempting and easy for Joe to go along with that but nah, we don’t think so. We know that Joe Lewis is genuinely doing his thing and that he’d do it regardless of what’s coming down the pipe. A stone cold original and a veteran at that. If you like whistling in your music and some floppy hat, quaky kneed dudes cloyingly singing at you, then you might not “get it” but whatever…there are enough intrepid, degenerate weirdos that do. Those are the folks Joe cares about. Not the glad handing set. Not the fair-weather friend set getting down with the flavor of the month. Like the title of his last album says, “the difference between me and you” is Joe defining for himself that there’s the belabored wannabes and then there’s dudes that actually “HAVE the blues”…whatever the hell THAT is! Joe’s concrete pouring boss is gonna miss him.

Handsome Jack opens the show! Hailing from Buffalo NY, Handsome Jack has been named the “Best Blues Band in WNY”. However, Handsome Jack is more than just a blues band. This all original band writes songs that are a powerful and emotional fusion of boogie, soul and rock n roll! They have earned the admiration of fellow rock travelers such as Chris Robinson (CRB, Black Crowes), Zachary Gabbard (Buffalo Killers, Black Keys), and Ben McLeod of All Them Witches, who produced their record “Everything is gonna be alright”.
Ever the road warriors, Handsome Jack is back in the USA after embarking on a rigorous 2 month European Tour in May and June of ‘23. They’ve toured the US and Canada extensively over the last 15 years sharing the stage with the likes of The Sheepdogs, All Them Witches, King Buffalo, Govt Mule, Rival Sons, Monster Truck, Cedric Burnside and Robert Randolph, just to name a few.
Their Newest effort “A Good Thing” is a 4 song EP that channels the warm bushy beards of ZZ TOP, yet still manages to infuse the boogie soul sound that makes Handsome Jack unique.

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