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Apples in Stereo The
Holmes Brothers |
The Bottle Rockets / Bobbie Bare Jr.
Wifey and I were at The Bottle Rockets show at the Next Decade eight or so years ago where even the openers, Marah, remember that night when the bar caught on fire and resulted in a song, obviously titled “The Bar’s On Fire”, on their next album. But being the big fans we were, the years following we didn’t hear much from these guys, other than Hennemann stealing my buddy Joe’s Christmas night show at The Hi-Pointe in St. Louis and promptly making it a yearly tradition. So when I got the new album, Zoysia, I can’t say I had huge expectations but after just one listen it was apparent that Brian and his ever-changing line-up (original drummer Mark Ortmann remains) had put together a fine piece of work. I was real adamant that I wanted to catch opener Bobby Bare Jr. so I headed out ahead of Wifey and as soon as my bike was flying down the hill I started to wonder if it would have been more considerate to stick around and help with the crying baby, hungry 3 year-old and stressed out Wifey. Too late now! I got to Club Café and Bare Jr. was on stage playing to a full house. I was a little skeptical at first but he and his band quickly turned the corner from folksy rocker to borderline punk by ratcheting up the noise and wailing away on the guitar with abandon. I'm gonna have to catch up with this guy. A quick beer and shot at Dee’s and a brief siesta in the alley and I was back at Club Café as Wifey had finally joined the throng. When Hennemann and the boys finally came out I was taken aback by his gaunt appearance. From what I’ve read he’s clean and sober now but the dude needs to lay off the exercise a bit. The band first played the whole new album, Zoysia. Usually a death knell for bands, this worked for me as a number of new songs compare well to the old “hits.” “Middle Man” is a tight song reveling Hennemann’s feelings about his place in the music world. “Happy Anniversary” had a jaw-dropping solo that my buddy Aaron didn’t want to end. “Where I’m From” sounded better than its recording and had another spectacular solo to boot. And “Zoysia” is a fine apolitical statement coming from a bunch of guys from Missouri. The “hits” set featured “I’ll Be Coming Around,” an always crowd-pleasing “Thousand Dollar Car,” one of my favorites “Radar Gun,” and a surprising cover of “Passanger Side.” The set was too short because of time constraints and I was wishing I had traveled to Cleveland the previous day with our friends Dave and Michelle because they sounded that good. At least now we have the choice. |
