Live Review: Ezra Lee

With no support band to act as a buffer, it's a surprisingly empty Forbidden Temple at the LuWow that catches the start of Ezra Lee's two-set launch of Ca$hed Up'N'Crazy. Lee himself is concerned that the venue's GoGo Goddesses may not hang around, letting out a hearty, “Good on ya, darlin's,” once he finds out they will. With that taken care of, Lee and his band launch into Black Cadillac Hearse, taken from said album – it's a stomping number that effectively declares no holds barred on easing the audience into the full Lee experience.

The Hank Williams tune There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight, while adeptly covered, seems out of place with its lonesome, sorrowful nature, especially when thrown in the middle of Firefly and The Big Bopper's White Lightning, but is the only downbeat number for the remainder of the set. Lee and his guitarists, including guitar wunderkind Hank Green (of Hank Green's Blues), swap singing duties for a while, and the first set ends with Rock'N'Roll Piano Man, a number that Lee ever-so-blushingly admits is about himself. It's during this track that Lee channels his inner Jerry Lee Lewis, theatrically discarding his chair and pounding the keys like a man possessed.

It's impossible not to confront the obvious comparison between Lee and Lewis, the man whose name, for most, is synonymous with rock'n'roll piano. The comparison doesn't just end at their incredible piano-playing skills, but also reaches to appearance (the hairstyle and the clothes) and some of the moves. This is by no means a negative and there is far more to Lee than just being a wannabe Lewis.

Sadly, the second set, which starts off with another airing of Rock'N'Roll Piano Man (good for the many who have turned up late), is, effectively, too much of a good thing. Before long, this reviewer's interest has started to wane and by the time they play Smokin' Hash (does the world really need another drug song?), it's totally lost.

Over the past few years, it seems that Lee's onstage persona has gone from a rather quiet but incredibly talented performer to a brazen, fully fledged madman with a touch of lothario thrown in for good measure. (Maybe that's due to his, “Good on ya, darlin's,” comment at the start of the night.) Rock'n'roll definitely lives on.