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Gonzo Report: Steel Beans' Jeremy DeBardi brings his high-wire energy to the Voodoo Room
A bizarro version of Jack Black
Steel Beans is the long-running music project of Washington native Jeremy DeBardi. His story was a familiar one: a local act playing original material to thin crowds for years on end, churning through various lineups and just scraping by. This changed in 2022, when DeBardi dropped a video of himself performing an original (“Molotov Cocktail Lounge”) on Instagram. The hook was that this wasn’t your typical social media teaser featuring acoustic guitar and vocals. In the clip, DeBardi sings, plays electric guitar, and plays drums simultaneously. He comes across as a manic one-man band channeling the garage-rock spirit of The White Stripes and The Sonics.
Three years later, the clip has over seven million views on Instagram, and Steel Beans (who now have arena gigs opening for Tenacious D and Tool under their belt) are in the midst of their Falling In Lava With You tour of California. I stumbled upon this House of Blues Voodoo Room gig while perusing concert listings and recognizing DeBardi from the viral video — plus other Steel Beans clips that had since infiltrated my social media feeds.
My main motivation was just to see how his clippy energy would translate live; the potential for a trainwreck seemed unusually high. On the night of the show, I was one of the first to arrive, and this was about half an hour after doors had opened. Perhaps viral clips don’t translate into ticket sales? Pre-show, I hung out near the bar in the lobby area, where I could clearly hear the wall-muffled audio from the full-on punk rock blowout going down in the main room: GBH and three other bands. (It’s notable that there was zero evidence of this noise inside the Voodoo Room itself during Steel Beans’ set. The House of Blues has their sound-proofing game down cold.)
I talked to a couple of other attendees pre-show, wondering what they were anticipating. They seemed as uncertain as I was. I was especially curious about the additional bass and guitar rigs that were present on the stage; I was expecting a one-man band one-night stand. Around 8 pm, he hit the stage, solo and behind the drum kit. He opened with a comedy bit in which he pretended to be on the phone and in the process of purchasing the actual House of Blues building. I’ve seen many a concert, but the negotiations-for-the-venue opening schtick was certainly a first for me. It left the audience of 40 or so people more bewildered than busted up, but it did set a good precedent for the rest of the night: numerous side dishes of hit and miss oddball comedy served alongside a main course of garage rock.
The one-man band act was an entertaining high-wire performance that often felt more like a magic trick being executed than a typical rock concert. That being said, it was a feat of extreme musicianship and coordination, and undeniably entertaining. The little nugget that really floored me was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when he tuned the high E string on his guitar mid-song. I mean…holy shit. That’s like tightening a loose door knob while playing hopscotch and juggling bowling pins at the same time.
Before the show, I had texted a couple of friends the “Molotov Cocktail Lounge” clip to entice them to come out to the concert. (Note: this didn’t work.) I had mentioned the old Chappelle Show line, “Cocaine is a hell of a drug” in relation to DeBardi’s bombastic playing. But his actual drug of choice appeared to be Red Bull, cans of which he downed one after another during breaks between songs. Small surprise he dude channeled the lunatic energy of teenage energy drunk mosh-pitters with the effortless aplomb of Robert DeNiro playing a mobster. On that night, the audience (which seemed about as random a sample as you could imagine) seemed to dig his antics, and most were still in attendance about two hours later when the show ended. This was also three songs after DeBardi had informed a rather disgruntled HOB employee that he had only two songs left in their set. Now that’s some punk rock.
It's also worth noting that DeBardi switched to guitar and was joined by a drummer and bassist for a final act. While the trio delivered a beefier and more fleshed out sound, the DeBardi solo experience was such a weird, funny, and unusual treat that the full band seemed like an anti-climax. This isn’t a knock on the band. It’s just that DeBardi is such a force of nature. He’s like a bizarro version of Jack Black, if Black never broke big with Tenacious D, but still soldiered on, playing local shows until a random video got him all the attention he deserved.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Gonzo Report: Steel Beans' Jeremy DeBardi brings his high-wire energy to the Voodoo Room
A bizarro version of Jack Black
Gonzo Report: Steel Beans' Jeremy DeBardi brings his high-wire energy to the Voodoo Room
A bizarro version of Jack Black
Steel Beans is the long-running music project of Washington native Jeremy DeBardi. His story was a familiar one: a local act playing original material to thin crowds for years on end, churning through various lineups and just scraping by. This changed in 2022, when DeBardi dropped a video of himself performing an original (“Molotov Cocktail Lounge”) on Instagram. The hook was that this wasn’t your typical social media teaser featuring acoustic guitar and vocals. In the clip, DeBardi sings, plays electric guitar, and plays drums simultaneously. He comes across as a manic one-man band channeling the garage-rock spirit of The White Stripes and The Sonics.
Three years later, the clip has over seven million views on Instagram, and Steel Beans (who now have arena gigs opening for Tenacious D and Tool under their belt) are in the midst of their Falling In Lava With You tour of California. I stumbled upon this House of Blues Voodoo Room gig while perusing concert listings and recognizing DeBardi from the viral video — plus other Steel Beans clips that had since infiltrated my social media feeds.
My main motivation was just to see how his clippy energy would translate live; the potential for a trainwreck seemed unusually high. On the night of the show, I was one of the first to arrive, and this was about half an hour after doors had opened. Perhaps viral clips don’t translate into ticket sales? Pre-show, I hung out near the bar in the lobby area, where I could clearly hear the wall-muffled audio from the full-on punk rock blowout going down in the main room: GBH and three other bands. (It’s notable that there was zero evidence of this noise inside the Voodoo Room itself during Steel Beans’ set. The House of Blues has their sound-proofing game down cold.)
I talked to a couple of other attendees pre-show, wondering what they were anticipating. They seemed as uncertain as I was. I was especially curious about the additional bass and guitar rigs that were present on the stage; I was expecting a one-man band one-night stand. Around 8 pm, he hit the stage, solo and behind the drum kit. He opened with a comedy bit in which he pretended to be on the phone and in the process of purchasing the actual House of Blues building. I’ve seen many a concert, but the negotiations-for-the-venue opening schtick was certainly a first for me. It left the audience of 40 or so people more bewildered than busted up, but it did set a good precedent for the rest of the night: numerous side dishes of hit and miss oddball comedy served alongside a main course of garage rock.
The one-man band act was an entertaining high-wire performance that often felt more like a magic trick being executed than a typical rock concert. That being said, it was a feat of extreme musicianship and coordination, and undeniably entertaining. The little nugget that really floored me was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when he tuned the high E string on his guitar mid-song. I mean…holy shit. That’s like tightening a loose door knob while playing hopscotch and juggling bowling pins at the same time.
Before the show, I had texted a couple of friends the “Molotov Cocktail Lounge” clip to entice them to come out to the concert. (Note: this didn’t work.) I had mentioned the old Chappelle Show line, “Cocaine is a hell of a drug” in relation to DeBardi’s bombastic playing. But his actual drug of choice appeared to be Red Bull, cans of which he downed one after another during breaks between songs. Small surprise he dude channeled the lunatic energy of teenage energy drunk mosh-pitters with the effortless aplomb of Robert DeNiro playing a mobster. On that night, the audience (which seemed about as random a sample as you could imagine) seemed to dig his antics, and most were still in attendance about two hours later when the show ended. This was also three songs after DeBardi had informed a rather disgruntled HOB employee that he had only two songs left in their set. Now that’s some punk rock.
It's also worth noting that DeBardi switched to guitar and was joined by a drummer and bassist for a final act. While the trio delivered a beefier and more fleshed out sound, the DeBardi solo experience was such a weird, funny, and unusual treat that the full band seemed like an anti-climax. This isn’t a knock on the band. It’s just that DeBardi is such a force of nature. He’s like a bizarro version of Jack Black, if Black never broke big with Tenacious D, but still soldiered on, playing local shows until a random video got him all the attention he deserved.
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