The first thing that struck me were the hats.

I myself wear a "Country Gentleman" fedora, and on any given night, it is likely to be the sharpest lid in the joint.

But not Tuesday night at Harlow's.

Soulive was in town in support of their "Rubber Soulive" album, and the crowd was brimming with hats of all shapes and styles. 

There were a smattering of standard-issue baseball caps and beanies, even beanies with brims.

But those aren't the hats I'm talking about.

The hats I'm talking about are your father's hats.  And your grandfather’s (great-grandfather’s?) hats. Fedoras galore, both "Bogart" and "Safari." Newsboys. Buckets. Porkpies. I didn't see any top hats or fezzes, but pretty much everything else was represented.

My Country Gentleman wouldn't have even sniffed the top-10 were there to have been an impromptu "Keenest Hat of the Evening" competition. (Brought to you by Hyman's Haberdashery!)

It is fitting that the chapeau selection in the crowd would hark back to a time when men regularly wore hats with wonderful names like "porkpies" and "newsboys." The Soulive members themselves are a throwback, comporting themselves with an early '60s kind of cool.

I had a fair amount of time to consider the millinery in the building as I sat, eagerly awaiting the opening act – fellow Royal Family Recording artist Nigel Hall.

I'd been told over the phone that Nigel would be taking the stage at 8 p.m., but being the grizzled concert veteran that I am, I pooh-poohed the notion. 8:30 p.m. – that's the ticket.

I arrived just before 8:30 p.m. and took a seat in front of the stage. With no Nigel to be found, I turned my attention to the slowly (but steadily) growing crowd.

8:30 p.m. came, and went.

9 p.m. brought nary a peep from the stage. (But a sweet short-brimmed Panama hat joined the crowd).

9:15 p.m., and the natives began to get restless. (A snappy herringbone newsboy pulled up a chair to my left).

9:26 p.m. – The Nigel Hall Band, to the crowd’s great relief, took the stage.

TNHB is made up of Nigel Hall (sporting an oversized newsboy) and Evans brothers Neal (rocking a derby and mirrored aviators) and Alan (his impressive Sideshow Bob-like ’do probably proves headwear prohibitive).

The boys opened with a raucous "Leave me Alone," and the long wait was immediately forgotten.

All three men wore coats and ties, Alan pulverizing the drums stage right, Nigel front and center on keys, and Neal stage left, with a four-level rig of keys splayed out in front of him.

They slowed it down on the second song, the classic Leon Russell tune, "A Song For You." The song has been recorded by dozens of acts ranging from The Temptations to Ray Charles, Whitney Houston to Neil Diamond, The Carpenters to Bizzy Bone (seriously), but Nigel absolutely crushes it. His soulful crooning lends itself perfectly to the track, laid down so expertly by one of the best rhythm sections going. It was a simply beautiful rendition.

I wasn't able to place the third song, but I can tell you was a slower love ballad. Nigel loves you, "even if your breath is a funky in the morning," and "sometimes you make the toast a little crispy in the morning." So there's that.

They closed the abridged set with a rollicking Motownesque jam, and a Nigel Hall original, "Gimme a Sign."

After a very brief set break (one cigarette long, if that cigarette happens to be an American Spirit.), Soulive took the stage to boisterous applause. Harlow’s was only a little more than half capacity, but it felt like more with the inclimate weather (and crunchy jams) keeping everyone inside.

Neal and Alan returned to the stage, but this time they were bracketing guitarist Eric Krasno (also in jacket and tie, sporting a short-brimmed grey fedora). Neal had ditched the aviators. Alan had swapped out a bottled water for a Heineken. Other than that, the bookends were identical for both headliner and opener. The Royal Family is, for lack of a better word, incestuous. Of the 11 acts listed on the label, one or both of the Evans bros are in no less than six. It's a good thing.

Soulive opened with one of its classic tracks, "Rudy's Way", a bouncy, jazzy track off its first LP, “Turn it Out,” released in 1999.

It got the place jumping.

The trio followed that with a searing version of "El Ron", off Soulive's eponymous 2003 album.

It melted the paint off the walls.

Alan took a moment to address the crowd as it caught its breath. "How y'all feeling? We've been having a real good time on this tour. Looks like we're going to continue to do so." As you might imagine, the crowd responded very positively to his prognostication.

Up next was "Turn it Out," the title track on the aforementioned 1999 LP, and also the last track on the 2003 album. Neal absolutely blew the doors off on this one.

Neal Evans is one of the most amazing keyboard players on the planet. He plays bass and keys at the same time, and it's pretty spectacular to watch. For the entirety of both sets, Neal had a group of keyboardophiles smashed up behind and to both sides of him, straining to admire his digital dexterity. His phenomenal phalangeal ferocity?

Dude’s a beast on the keys.

They finished up the old-school opening portion of the set with a third track off "Turn it Out," “Uncle Junior.”

Next to "Uncle Junior" in my notes, I have written, "Forget it. Unreal."

I wish I could do you better, but for a moment I dropped my press hat and put on my dance pants. You're just gonna have to live with that.

We then entered the "Rubber Soulive" portion of the show. Their most recent album, for which they are touring, is made up of 12 instrumental Beatles covers, from throughout the Fab Four’s oevre.

They announced that they would be playing some tracks off their new album and went right into the unmistakable opening riff for "Come Together." (Shoom Boom, ba da bee. . . doo).

Without a singer, the vocals are mostly "voiced" by Erik Krasno's deeply emotive guitar playing.

Of course, every chorus and many of the verses are vocalized loudly by the enthusiastic fans in the crowd.

"Come Together" started off slow but built to a crushing crescendo. By the end of the jam, I thought a couple of the superfans perched over Neal's left shoulder might collapse in fits of keyboard-induced ecstasy. If they had, it would have been totally understandable.

They slowed it down a bit with another monster hit off "Abbey Road," the George Harrison-penned "Something," which is the perfect vehicle to showcase Krasno's affectional guitar work.

They then reached further back into the Beatles’ canon with "Eleanor Rigby," off the Beatles’ 1966 "Revolver." This may be my favorite of the tracks they chose to cover – it really lends itself beautifully to the trio. They absolutely destroyed it. Eleanor Rigby evolved into "I Want You (She's so heavy)," the final Beatles cover of the evening.

Nigel Hall returned to the stage to play a couple Royal Family mainstays, "Do the 2" and "Too Much." On the latter, Nigel and Krasno performed a dueling guitar of sorts, with Nigel mimicking guitar licks with Ella Fitzgerald-style scat singing, which Krasno answered with actual guitar licks.

Nigel took the time to thank the crowd for coming out and bringing the energy on this chilly and rain-soaked Tuesday evening, but he offered that it could be a lot worse. Some wiseacre-sometime-journalist who happened to be in the crowd offered up, "We could be in Maine", knowing full well that the singer made his bones in the Portland, Maine, music scene. The singer glanced over at the culprit, and replied with a smirk, "Well-said, brother."

Then they proceeded to absolutely obliterate the Tears for Fears '80s classic, "Rule the World," which Nigel proclaimed to be one of his favorite songs. As far as Tears for Fears songs go, "Rule the World" will always be second to "Mad World" in my book, but after seeing Soulive play it, the gap has lessened.

They finished the set with an extended jam on "Tuesday Night Gang," the high point of which was when Nigel joined Neal on the keys to stage left. The two kept alternating sides of the keyboards, swapping positions in an instant without missing a beat in the jam.
The Tuesday night gang that (half) filled the venue just ate it up. I'm pretty sure that one of the superfans next to the keyboards actually entered the throes of passion.

It was pretty epic.

They left the stage for a moment before returning one last time to encore with Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." A fitting way to end the evening, and a great song, but I'd say it was probably the least-interesting cover of the night.

It was an outstanding performance by a formidable band. Next time Soulive, or Nigel, or any of the Royal Family is in town, do yourself a favor and go check them out. You certainly won't be disappointed, and you'll most likely have your socks knocked off.

Now where in this town can I buy a fez?  I gotta step my game up.

All of the images are the work of the supremely talented and staggeringly well mannered Steven Chea