In September of 2021, multi-award-winning Tommy Castro & The Painkillers released what many considered (at the time) to be the finest album of the artist’s and band’s storied career, the “roots music odyssey” Tommy Castro Presents A Bluesman Came To Town. Both a commercial and critical success, the album garnered multiple awards at the 2022 Blues Foundation Awards ceremony, including Album of the Year, B.B. King Entertainer of the Year (for Castro), and Band of the Year (for Casto & The Painkillers).
It’s the kind of thing entertainers dream about – creating and releasing a project that validates everything they’ve worked so hard to obtain. But it can also be something of a nightmare. I mean, how in the world do you follow up on something like that?
For Castro, the answer was to go back to the basics. For the entirety of his incredible three decade plus career, Castro has wanted to release a throwback blues record. And not just any throwback blues record. One that overlooks the obvious and targets the heart of what traditional blues music is all about.
On February 7th of this year, Castro and his Painkiller mates released Closer To The Bone, a collection of fourteen songs – three originals and eleven lesser-known covers – that truly took the artists back to their roots.
Touring in support of the new album, Castro & The Painkillers took the stage last night at the Oriental Theater in Denver, for the second of four Colorado shows in five days. Two nights earlier, they opened their Colorado stint at The Armory in Fort Collins. Tonight they’re at Stargazers in Colorado Springs. And Saturday night they’re playing The Arts Campus at Willits in Basalt.
While I did attend the Tuesday night show in Fort Collins as well as last night’s show in Denver, this review is for the Denver show only.
Given that the Oriental show was billed as an album release show for Closer To The Bone, it was no surprise that the evening’s setlist would draw heavily from the new record. Six of the seventeen songs played came from Closer To The Bone. Another nine came from seven different Castro albums, dating back to 1996’s Exception to the Rule. The remaining two songs were classic covers… Taj Mahal’s “Leaving Trunk” and John Lee Hooker’s “Serves Me Right To Suffer.” (See the photo gallery below for the full setlist, in order.)
Foregoing an opening act, the band opted instead to play two sets, with a thirty(ish) minute intermission between. (Castro spent most of that “break” time working the merch table, interacting with the crowd.) The total running time for the two sets, plus the one-song encore, was a hefty one hour and fifty minutes.
The overall regular set opened and closed with two of the deeper cuts of the night… “Bad Case Of Love” (from 2003’s Gratitude) and “Can’t Keep A Good Man Down” (from the 1997 album by the same name). On a personal note, I was absolutely delighted that the set included “She Wanted To Give It To Me” (from 2014’s The Devil You Know) back in the rotation. That song is the perfect funky party tune and has been a favorite of mine since I first heard it more than ten years ago.
Castro’s voice was in exceptional form – perhaps the strongest I’ve heard in the many live Castro shows I’ve attended. And the guitar work was phenomenal, especially on the evening’s lone slower tune (“Blues Prisoner” from A Bluesman Came To Town). And then there was the absolutely scorching slide work on “Freight Train (Let Me Ride),” from Closer To The Bone. Seriously tasty.
The band ended their first set with a longstanding staple of Painkiller shows, their own highly stylized cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Serves Me Right To Suffer.” For last night’s show, Castro did something I’ve not seen him do before… he left the stage for a walkabout through the crowd in the lower, standing and/or dancing area in front of the stage. He did the same thing on Tuesday night in Fort Collins. But the stage at The Armory (in Fort Collins) is only about a foot off the floor, making that move pretty easy to pull off. It was a bit more challenging at the Oriental, but damned if he didn’t do it… to the delight of the completely enthralled crowd.
Castro doesn’t tour with a harmonica player, even though a number of tracks from his studio albums do feature that instrument prominently. When he’s playing in Denver, Castro regularly invites Denver’s own Jimmy Junior (https://www.jimmyjuniormusic.com/) to sit in on a couple of tunes. An honorary Painkiller for the night, Jimmy absolutely tore it up on “Ain’t Worth The Heartache” and “Leaving Trunk.”
My only “complaint” about the setlist – and believe me when I say that I’m hesitant to even list this as a complaint – is that it only included one track from A Bluesman Came To Town. I would have liked to have heard at least one, and perhaps two additional songs from that incredible, award-winning album. But what would have had to be left out to accommodate them? Forget I ever said anything.
As great as the music was – and trust me when I tell you it was great – what really pushed this show over the top was the obvious fun the players were having on stage. Castro & The Painkillers have been together for a long time, and they clearly enjoy each other’s company. There’s an infectious playfulness between the members of the band. Castro gets most of the between songs mic time, but bass player Randy McDonald, who has been with Castro since the very beginning, gets his fair share as well. Mike Emerson on keys and Stewart Burr on drums are more laid back, but no less spirited, deferring to Castro and McDonald as co-front men. The two spend a lot of time engaging with the crowd, telling stories, making jokes, and in general pulling the crowd in as part of the show.
Bottom line… an incredible show by a band that somehow just keeps getting better with age. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the new album, you should do that post haste. And if you missed the two Colorado shows this week… well, you’re probably out of luck this time around. By the time this piece posts on the website, they’ll likely be getting ready to take the stage in Colorado Springs. Then it’s the final Colorado show in Basalt tomorrow, before they head home for a short break in advance of a trip to Europe for a set of shows beginning in mid-April. Just do yourself a favor… keep your eyes open for the next time they return to Colorado and commit yourself to not missing them again.
You can thank me later.
Before I go, huge shoutouts to the outstanding, raucous crowd at the Oriental show, as well as to the always gracious and hospitable staff at the venue itself. If you’ve never attended a show at the Oriental, bad on you. Check their website (https://www.theorientaltheater.com/) for a list of upcoming shows and get yourself grooving.
Story and photos by Rick Witt www.rickwittphotography.com
