by Brian Weidy
A little more than seven months ago, Tash Neal was on life support after suffering life-threatening injuries in a car accident. In spite of these injuries, however, Tash and his band The London Souls found themselves not only headlining but selling out Bowery Ballroom Tuesday night, kicking off a two-month tour that will take them from D.C. to Los Angeles in support of their forthcoming album, Here Come the Girls.
The trio (Tash Neal on lead vocals and guitar, Chris St. Hilaire on drums and vocals, Stu Mahan on bass) hearkens back to an era when power trios were commonplace. The band's eponymous first album, released in 2011, was marked by charging leads and pocket grooves, with Neal's voice seamlessly threaded in with the rest of the band.
Opening with "She's So Mad" and "Someday," the band proved that they were ready right from the get-go. As Tash tore through solo after solo, you could see his level of onstage comfort growing, along with the rest of the band's confidence to take songs out into previously uncharted territories.
With a cover of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Want to Rock 'n' Roll)" in the middle, the band played more than a half-dozen songs off of their upcoming release, as well as former set-mainstays "Steady Are You Ready," "The Sound," and "All Tied Down," to a more-than-excited audience.
Towards the end of the set, Mahan sat in a corner of the stage while Neal and St. Hilaire played "Isabel" and "Six Feet," a haunting tune that resonated with relief due to Neal's life-threatening accident. The band closed with "I Think I Like It," which Mahan started with the bass line to Frank Zappa's "Apostrophe," setting off a display of fretboard fireworks from Neal as he relished the opportunity to play in front of his hometown crowd.
But even after playing for an hour and a half, the band came back to play a double encore of covers, including The Faces' "Stay With Me." Even in the face of adversity, The London Souls have managed to grow, which they will no doubt continue to do.