Live Shots

The Delta 72

Emo's, June 24

It's a groove thang, baby. To play R&B, it all starts with groove, the bass player and drummer in lockstep with each other while laying down a steady backbone that pulls more like a Cummins diesel than a hotrod, high-rev 440-cube V8. The problem with groove, though, is that if any groove gets dug too deep it can turn into a rut. The Delta 72 boys run that risk from time to time, but on a hot Saturday at Emo's, they never quite got that trench bulldozed to the point where the walls threatened to cave in on them. Relying on new material from their stomping new Touch & Go disc 000, the Philly-based fivepiece laid down slabs of sweaty Stax-style groove for an hour or so, and never let up. It's easy to ape Chuck Berry, the Stones, Faces, or your rock role model of choice (pick one) forever and much harder to take that sound and overlay your own imprimatur on it. Tough as it is, however, that's what the Delta 72 are on the verge of these days. After all, it's not the Sixties anymore and hasn't been for 30-some years. This night found them sounding more like the MC5 holding Otis Redding hostage and interrogating him on all matters mojo. With a set that was blissfully absent of hipster posturing, noodly solos, or stale punk rock polemics, the band clambered onto the P.A. columns, pummeled on keyboards (you have to hand it to any band who'll haul an organ around; it's kind of like carrying a Coke machine from gig to gig), and hollered largely unintelligible lyrics at the audience. Their forte has become slower, more down-and-dirty numbers like "Just Another Letdown," songs that actually work better than all-out rock flailers. Close your eyes and picture them with a horn section honking away and a trio of backup singers -- it wouldn't be a much of a stretch. Comparisons to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have dogged the band forever, but this incarnation is closer to J. Geils than to their bluesy-retrofit contemporaries. Unfortunately, where the Delta 72 still comes up short is in the songwriting department; there's a lack of grabbable hooks to snag the listener. What the band might miss in songwriting, though, they more than make up for in onstage energy. After this show, it's safe to say that few of Emo's jaded patrons came away feeling shortchanged. James Brown and the Famous Flames wrestling with Iggy & the Stooges in a no-holds-barred, winner-take-all loser-leave-town cage match? Well, pretty close, anyway.