Lee Bains III With Passion and Purpose in Huntsville Show

Lee Bains III, rock n’ roller, outlier, hellraiser, activist, singer, guitarist, songwriter takes the stage at St. Stephens Music Hall in Huntsville, Alabama on Thursday evening. He performs, provokes, electrifies the thoughts of those there. For Bains Thursday night, music is a call to action.

He smiles the easy grin of a man: whose heart has joy, feels at place and at peace on a stage, finds comfort amongst a combination of fans and friends, understands with confidence the message of his music, applies love to his life. 

Those familiar with Lee Bains III’s shows know a raucous, ear-splitting, glorious excursion from life: work, bills, the leaky faucet, the new roof needed, the time speeding away. 

Tonight, Bains smashes all that. 

Playing solo, Bains reaches for the acoustic guitar for two songs only in the first set. The rest is electric. Bains forces the utmost from a Gibson Les Paul – not his usual Gibson SG – and begins with a tap of the foot here and there on a few pedals. A beat with accompaniment of bass begins. Bains controls the Les Paul and chords his opening song. A community begins. It soon thrives. 

Bains has with him the sort of oddity that captures the attention, shakes the preconceived notions, and gives another view. Bains uses recording backing tracks for each of his songs. Rather than being restrained by them, Bains utilizes those to push himself, to unlock new corners of his songs. His set, built around digital bass and drum loops, reinvents some of best, making each performance a reinterpretation rather than a repetition. Where some artists lean on a band for energy, Bains pulls it straight from his guitar, his voice, and the crowd itself.

Where some artists are handcuffed by a backing track, Bains opts for new lenses on each song, explores aspects unseen, creates a pleasant dissonance, and finds himself freed of constraints.  

The songs are a blueprint. The ideas, still present in each song, resonate anew, change expectations, present new images with stark clarity. 

Never hamstrung by the digital drums -- all recorded and immutable -- Bains took requests from his entire catalog; he played requests early and all. It was a feat of the assured as was his in-between discussions. “Lizard People” now set to the syncopation of a trap beat hi hat; “God’s A-Working, Man” slows where listeners now not only understand and hear but also feel the promise of praise and hope, of love and unity; a switch to the acoustic gave offerings to the personal with “Roebuck Parkway.” All of it, and no energy lost from no backing band. His singing perfect from many years on the road and in the studio. It was one of Bains’ best performances to date in a string of stellar shows. 

Any fan of Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires expect for Bains to speak to the crowd between several songs. An untrained or disagreeable hear may claim the talking to veer into preaching, yet it’s preaching Bains dismisses. 

Instead, he voices pride and love in work, in community, in unity. Unity became a refrain of his show on Thursday night in Huntsville, and many of his discussions help shine understanding to his compositions. These aren’t to be missed, either. 

If his speechifying Thursday evening brought tears to anyone’s eyes, no one would be surprised at the effect. Bains asserts that in order to love yourself, you may have to begin to love where you’re from and to love others, others who may have been denied what you or I have.  

Lee Bains III and his current solo show as a whole offer a message about the complexity of holding two or three juxtaposing thoughts in your head simultaneously and using those complexities of life to create unification and integration. It’s a theme he weaves throughout his show as he sings as loudly, perfectly, and solidly as any rock he has done before. 

“Look for the places where people are loving each other,” Bains argues. “Those in power of algorithms want you to feel despair” yet “human kindness is showing up everywhere.” We have to pay attention. 

One refrain from the theme of Bains’ current set of shows is that there are significantly more working class people than the affluent or the one percent of the rich. At St. Stephen’s Music Hall, Bains covers a note perfect “Working On A Building,” a timeless gospel number first penned by A.P. Carter. The original lyrics include “If I was a drunkard/I tell you what I would do/I’d quit my drinkin’/And I’d work on the building, too.” Bains includes patriarches, oligarchs, and many others in his version, shaking his finger at those intent on ruining not only the country but also the day-to-day living of the working class.  Bains doesn’t just sing about unity—he lives it. And in a time when division feels engineered, his music reminds us that real power lies in coming together.

The good news is that working class strengthens at displays like a solo Lee Bains III show. His music and rhetoric paves the way for cohesion, shakes the soul, electrifies ideas, rattles attendees to dance, builds strength in positivity, and respects labor of the body and mind. 

If those in power rely on despair, then a Lee Bains III show is an act of rebellion -- a loud, sweaty, undeniable reminder -- even if he's solo.

Lee Bains III is currently on tour across the United States. Find his shows and details for each here.