Watching Will Hoge on a concert stage is a visceral and divine incident. I've been trying for the last seven years to put into words the range of emotions that can be stirred up from within watching him sing and play his guitar. The guitar and his voice are more than instruments but extensions of his core. I've seen Hoge perform with well over a dozen different musicians and each and every time he manages to knock the crowd out with his wholehearted blend of rock, soul and country music. I've seen him perform to as few as forty people and it never matters, he plays each and every night like it's the Super Bowl throwing himself and his band into the performance. No two shows are ever alike and often the arrangements from show to show often have changes pulling you in closer and changing your opinions on songs you may have already given a verdict to. As I stood inside the Double Door I was surprised to find myself gripped. There's a reason why I was relieved to see him still leaving a pint of the blood every night on the stage. It pains me to admit this, but his latest record Number Seven left me underwhelmed.

Number Seven (**1/2) is by no means a dire record or an embarrassing one. I simply feel it does not play to his strengths and does not contain his strongest songwriting. Hoge is an artist I hold in high regard; he had three albums in my Top-20 of the decade. Twice I placed records of his at the top of my year end list (The Man Who Killed Love in 2006 and Draw the Curtains in 2007). Others may find the record more endearing but I simply felt this isn't a collection of songs I want to revisit. The album has three great songs; "Fool's Gonna Fly", "When I Get My Wings" (the lead single) and "Trying To Be A Man", the latter of which left me breathless. It's a tear-jerking song that lyrically takes you on a ride through a moment that should have evoked elation but it turns like a knife-in-the-gut and becomes a pain no one should experience as a father tells his child how their mother died giving birth. It was an eye-opener in Hoge's songwriting to create something that tore me up inside. I didn't see it coming and didn't expect it after nine songs that I didn't feel showed me anything new. "Trying To Be A Man" is the Will Hoge I love who doesn't necessarily need a first person experience to write about it. Going outside of his comfort zone he captured pain in a way few can. The flipside if tracks like "Nothing To Lose", "Goddam California" and "American Dream" all are perfectly nice songs with somber arrangements but they don't pierce the my skin and enter my heart. I am pleased to report that each of the songs performed off of Number Seven were far more invigorating on the concert stage reminding me that Hoge has now released three studio records since his last live album release. "No Man's Land" is a prime example of a song that felt inert on record but in concert the song evokes the Faces "Ooh La La" in a marvelous manner. It felt like a cover but it wasn't, it was full of joy and the crowd welcomed it with open arms. I just wish the same spirit could be felt on the album. There's no better time than now to start recording future shows for a new live record to show off this drive and stage gusto.

"The Illegal Line" was better than the recorded version featuring some fine electric guitar work by Hoge. Under the lights of the stage, Hoge's voice echoed a sense of urgency on the superb "Gone" which spilled over to the band. On record it's paint-by-numbers but live it's full of life. "Too Old To Die Young" flew by me on the record but here in concert Hoge talked about bumping into a friend who told him of a friend from his youth passing away. He went home and wrote this song. It resonated. It went beyond my ears and into my heart. His guitarist Adam Ollendorff played some wickedly cunning slide guitar adding dimensions to what I once viewed as a gray area song, but here is was a flush with color. Like a voice from the heavens, the slide guitar ascended throughout the Double Door opening up worlds. One thing I have to give Hoge is he is a powerfully keen observer of life. Some of his songs and themes don't directly relate to his life and yet I'm absorbed by the bare emotion within each of them.

The rest of the show focused on his hefty catalog. The boogie-woogie bar room brawl "Sex, Lies and Money" gave a tip of the hate to John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen'" in an extended rip-roaring version. "Say Goodnight / Say Goodbye" found the crowd whispering along to every lyric. There was a countrified version of "Baby Girl" that he has been pulling out on every other Chicago stop. Then there was a stop-in-your-tracks performance of "When I Can Afford To Lose". Hoge's current stage line-up consists of a mere four musicians including himself. For this number, he sat behind the piano and belted out a gut wrenching rendition of the song. It's these moments that set apart Hoge from other acts I see. I sincerely believe he's working his way through something when he sings these songs. This isn't mere performance but a confessional from deep within. Some acts perform and others live it; Hoge lives it. "Just Like Me" featured a toxic guitar solo by Adam which segued into "Better Off Now" with its tongue lashing proclamation of independence and "All Night Long" found Hoge and Adam Ollendorff played paroxysmal guitar solos off one another. "When I Get My Wings" was a vocal showcase for Hoge with it soaring high on the lead single and arguably the best cut on Number Seven. "Ms. Williams" blistered with force while "Let Me Be Lonely" was urgent. Moments like these remind us that rock n' roll may take detours into arenas and stadiums but it's never more real or authentic than it is when performed in bars. The performances are not for the faint of heart. Song after song, they delivered top tier renditions and although there were tens of thousands of bands in bars all around the globe I doubt anyone on this particular night could match the sweltering believability Hoge and his band brought to the stage.