No one is clamoring for Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
But their act, the Blues Brothers, deserves a lot of credit for helping revive the careers of legends like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles while introducing a younger generation to an underappreciated genre.
Bill Murray is taking a page from his former “Saturday Night Live” castmates with his engaging side project, Bill Murray and the Blood Brothers, which stopped Thursday night at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre.
The star of “Groundhog Day” and “Ghostbusters” might have been the main attraction, but the main goal here was to spotlight the talents of blues guitarists Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia, who both seemed to have graduated from the Stevie Ray Vaughan School of Rock. At times, there was almost too much talent and testosterone vying for our attention, with the two playing so fast and furious you may have thought they were trying to disturb the AC/DC concert down the road.
The band, which sometimes stretched to 11 members, also included Jimmy Vivino, a longtime member of Conan O’Brien’s house bands, and Chris Barnes, who captured the spirits of both Jake and Elwood Blues in “Bad News Travels Fast” by donning sunglasses, blowing harp and thrashing his body around.
Murray was not nearly as animated. He didn’t say anything about all the times he visited the Twin Cities when he co-owned the St. Paul Saints. He spent much of the first hour fiddling around in the background with different percussion instruments that he appeared to be picking up at random.
When he did step up to sing lead on the Kinks’ “Tired of Waiting For You” and the Dave Clark Five’s “Catch Us If You Can,” he struggled to make any real connection. It was hard to tell if it was a problem with the sound system or his enthusiasm. Either way, he came across like Nick the Lounge Singer after three too many martinis.
And then, for the last 30 minutes, Murray came alive.
