Bobby Mahoney and the Seventh Son – The Garage, Boyds, MD on March 21, 2024
Bobby Mahoney and the Seventh Son are a band from New Jersey that plays that rock ‘n’ roll these kids need today – the life-affirming kind of music that involves way, way more than wearing a flannel shirt and swaying listlessly behind the microphone gaping longingly at the stage floor. This reviewer does not wish to dissect Bobby Mahoney’s songs for deeper meanings – although they are certainly there to be found, nor does he wish to probe the psyches of the individual band members (Bobby Mahoney, songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, front-man, chief cook and bottle-washer, etc.; Andrew Saul, guitarist, vocalist; Jon Chang-Soon, bassist, vocalist and James McIntosh, batterie) for their sage wisdom – although they each have plenty to share. This reviewer simply wants to get you off your ass and out to one of their shows. Agenda unhidden. Cope.
Watch these guys play, and you’ll see the results of many years of hard work paying off. Their performances – always high-energy, never scripted, and designed to be rough around the edges – do not wow their audiences by happenstance. Bobby’s authenticity and the band’s finely honed work ethic drive that agenda. Bobby was writing and recording, and he and his band have been out on the road playing paying gigs before they graduated high school back in 2013 or so.
As a well-oiled touring and performing machine, they’ve played 20,000 seat arenas (opening for Bon Jovi back in 2018), major festivals (as I write this, they are performing their way back to The Garden State, after sharing a bill with Soraia, Slim Jim Phantom, The Cocktail Slippers and, my latest faves, The Jellybricks at the legendary Continental Club in Austin as part of Little Steven’s Wicked Cool Records Review at SXSW), random basements, and, in the case of the subject of this review, garages on horse farms in the middle of nowhere.
No matter the venue, Bobby Mahoney and the Seventh Son deliver each show like their lives depend on it – because their lives do depend on it – they never phone it in. Between Bobby’s walk-on “How the fuck’re you doing?” and his “How the fuck’re you doing NOW?” which preceded the final song in a set of music that spanned the band’s many years together, the difference in the room’s energy was palpable. Prior to Bobby’s set at this very DIY venue, the slightly aloof audience, drifting by the fringes of the room, had drawn closer to the stage and were clearly connecting with what Bobby and the band brought to the table. That, dear reader, is why we get off our asses and go to shows – to exchange some of the band’s energy for our own – moment by moment – and walk out of the venue changed from what we were when we walked in – and we buy the records to keep those moments perpetually fresh.
Next time Bobby Mahoney and The Seventh Son plays near you, get off your ass and go. Buy the album and the t-shirt and tell your friends. Be inspired by the spirit and determination they bring to the stage and remember, dear reader, that if you do whatever you do as well as Bobby Mahoney plays rock ‘n’ roll, you will be rewarded beyond your wildest imagination.
Read more about Bobby Mahoney and the Seventh Son here: https://www.bobbymahoneymusic.com/
