Stew & the Negro Problem at Barbès

It’s not every Thursday night that Stew and Heidi Rodewald, and an eight piece version of their band, Stew & the Negro Problem, set up shop in the tiny back room of Barbès, Park Slope’s eclectic bar and music space.

In fact, this rare performance in a small venue, which Stew said was a benefit, was actually an opportunity to workshop some of the group’s new arrangements.

Ten o’clock on Thursday night I’m usually home watching 30 Rock so it takes a lot to get me off the couch. But Stew, who won a 2008 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for the acclaimed Broadway musical, “Passing Strange,” is just the sort of must-see-live performer that can get me out the door.         

When I walked into Barbès’ tiny back room with its smattering of chairs and tables and the Hotel D’Orsay sign on the back wall, I was shocked by the size of the crowd. As is often the case at Barbès, there was nowhere to sit and audience members were hovering expectantly as Stew, in a white ski cap, tuned his electric guitar.

Rodewald, who lives in Park Slope and is the decidedly less flamboyant of the two, is Stew’s co-writer and creative co-conspirator. In a black suit and a white t-shirt, she plays bass in the band, which includes Mike McGinnis on sax, Brian Dye on Trombone, Jaco Garchik on accordion, two percussionists, a sitar/mandolin player and Joe McGinty, of Loser’s Lounge fame, on upright piano.

Last fall I was lucky enough to catch “Brooklyn Omnibus,” a song cycle written by Rodewald and Stew, which was performed as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival. A hyperactive mix of inter-connected musical short stories on the theme of Brooklyn, the show was well-reviewed and I’m guessing will be moving on or off Broadway at some point.

As Stew said in an interview video on the BAM website, “We’re not experts on Brooklyn, we bring to it who we are.”

I was hoping they’d do some of the songs from “Brooklyn Omnibus” at Barbès and they did quite a few, including “Brooklyn Mothers,” a sexy ode to the stroller set on Seventh Avenue.

The show moves through Brooklyn neighborhoods like a driver from Eastern Car Service. From Bed-Stuy and Bushwick to Fort Greene, Park Slope and Flatbush Avenue, the songwriters mirror back what they see and feel about this borough and its people. 

 “The history of this place is coming, staying, going. That’s the rhythm of life here and that’s also the rhythm of the piece,” Stew said in a video on the BAM website.

Stew, who has lived in Los Angeles and Berlin, is a larger than life personality with talent to spare. He’s so multi-dimensional; it’s hard to imagine a venue or genre (musical or theatrical) large enough contain him. And yet, in the intimacy of Barbès, he managed to forge an intimate connection with the audience and even the reporter sitting in the front row (I finally did get a seat).

 “Would it compromise your journalistic integrity to help me?” he said as his microphone stand started to fall.

Reader, I helped.

Stew’s verbal riffs between songs, largely improvised, attest to his great storytelling ability and strong performing chops. He conducts the musicians as he sings, modulating the mood, rhythm and mode of the songs. With this ability to free associate, the show is musical stream of consciousness just this side of masterful mayhem.         

The crowd – a mix of Slopers, Barbès regulars, and the European tourists who frequent the club – knew they were witness to something very special and impromptu. The audience was riveted for the entire two-hour show. Many in the crowd called out favorites.

 “We’ll stop when they throw us out,” Stew said at one point. And he did stop once when the waitress made the usual speech about Barbès lack of a cover fee.

“Please put at least $10 in the jar. The money goes directly to the musicians not to the club,” she told the crowd.

Stew stopped playing while the jar was passed around.

“I feel like I’m in church,” he said and McGinty launched into a gospel piano ruff.

Bill Bragin, who used to program for Joe’s Pub and now runs two summer programs at Lincoln Center, was in the crowd sending out tweets: “Barbès goes nuts for ‘Sexy Brooklyn Mama’” said one.

The show was yet another reminder of what a great venue Barbès is, with its eclectic mix of musical styles and up close and personal shows that make you feel a part of the music as if its being created for your benefit one Thursday night at ten.