Just one song into Dana Fuchs’ Jan. 29 concert at the World Café Live’s Downstairs Live, one could feel the love between he singer and the large number of her more than 100 die-hard fans. The venue, located across the hall from the WXPN 88.5 FM, resembled an expanded-purpose jazz club, but for one night Fuchs transformed the place into an all-out-rock-’n’-roll venue.
It was clear the attitude, gait and swagger of rock’n’roll has not only been a dutifully studied pursuit, but may in fact be her life. In addition to having vocals that could strip the paint off a 1976 Camaro, Fuchs commands the stage like some otherworldly paisley rock goddess.
It’s no wonder that when producers saw her audition for the off-Broadway hit “Love, Janis,” based on the life of blues chanteuse Janis Joplin, she was immediately cast as the titular queen of rock.
In her current live show, the affable banter in between songs could almost seem overly sentimental and constructed if it wasn’t for her contagious ebullience in her delivery of every melody, mic thump and crystallized Robert Plant-like yelp.
As she came dancing out to the thumping roots rock of her meat-and-potatoes backing band (two guitars, a bass, and drums — no more), the crowd became enamored, and all of the idolizing Bryn Mawr girls truculently pumped their fists in the air as Fuchs shook hands and thanked them for being in the front row.
The band, who is in the process of finishing a yet-to-be-released, untitled album, was thankful to be in front of such an energetic audience.
“I love being in the studio,” she said, out of breath between numbers, “but nothing is like being here, with you guys.”
Though she is prone to monologic breakdowns in songs, free styling and rock’n’roll scatting, her tone is universal, and on a dime, can go from delivering a heartbreaking recounting of her and her late-sister’s relationship, to comic and ironic stories of past and present stalkers alike.
The evening’s entertainment was brought to a head when, seeing that her band needed to tune up for an older song, Fuchs launched into an impromptu, all-inclusive, classic singalong to the highly underrated Beatles gem “Don’t Let Me Down.”
She handed the mic to a young girl in the front row, and after instructing her to continue the melody, the singer gave each of her front-row fans a peck on the cheek.
Fuchs is keen to sharing the spotlight with not only the audience but with her band as well. She understands the band is fundamental to both the sound and the energy of a show.
The set ended with the gates-of-hell-crashing cacophony of “Helter Skelter” complete with a ragged jam into Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”
Seeing Fuchs and her band play, it is obvious why she continues to do what she does in the way she does it — to rock’n’roll, and nothing else. SPR
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