Butch Walker

Central Presbyterian Church, March 14

With a résumé that includes Southern sleaze metal (SouthGang), cheeky power pop (Marvelous 3), and Top-40 hack work for Pink, Avril Lavigne, etc., Butch Walker has proven himself a genial polymath with a yen for hooks. His own music often makes ironic commentary on this business of show, but took on a self-reflective, narrative air Thursday – perhaps appropriately, given the church setting. Opening with a pair of piano ballads, the pompadoured popsmith rooted through his past with a surprisingly pretty tenor and unguarded heart. Picking up his guitar, he continued the theme with the visceral self-help of “Going Back/Going Home,” and by the time his band joined him, the pews of acolytes rested comfortably in the palm of his hand. Walker treated the crowd to a new tune, the countrified childhood reminiscence “Let It Go Where It’s Supposed To,” but mainly stuck to crowd-pleasers, including sing-along “The Weight of Her,” Muscle Shoals’ ballad “Closest Thing to You I’m Gonna Find,” and the pop pastiche “Synthesizers,” complete with a chorus of “Come On Eileen.” Ending with the balls-out rock of “Bodegas and Blood,” Walker came full circle, re-establishing the ironic decadence of his early work while retaining his mature introspection.

This article appears in March 22 • 2013.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.