About a week ago I got the chance to see Jesse Malin & the St Marks Social perform at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Jesse Malin is a true rock & roll singer, with a great stage presence and storytelling skills. The guitarist is also fantastic, and I will go so far as to say he is one of the best I have seen in this decade. There was a lot of energy from the entire band. You could tell the members had a great rapport and enjoyed playing together on stage.
One thing worth noting (outside of the band’s performance) was the audience. For one thing, there was an expansive age range in this crowd (something I believe I mention in my last review I did from my first time seeing the band live). The other thing worth noting was the connection Malin had with the crowd. He even leapt off stage at one point to interact with them for a song. I mentioned the stage presence he had, and the best example of this was a line directed at the audience when he wanted them to clap and sing along.
“I see what it is, you guys are a singing crowd. You don’t get a singing crowd to clap.”
And with that we all sang along, old and young, to one of the best rock bands we will ever have the pleasure to know.