Nathaniel Rateliff And The Night Sweats – Scoot Inn – Austin, TX 11/19/15 (SHOW REVIEW)

Remember when Mumford & Sons blew up seemingly out of nowhere and suddenly the masses were acting like folk and bluegrass was this incredible new discovery? Nathaniel Rateliff is just like that, but with soul music. That’s not to say this bearded bandleader isn’t talented and that he didn’t release one of the better albums this year, because both of those things are true. What’s also true is that there are no shortage of acts making neo-soul music – there are plenty. Rateliff and his band the Night Sweats are a classic case of right place right time. This is simply the nature of the music industry. Their rapid rise comes as the result of few appearances on late night TV and now a completely sold out tour, which hit Austin on Thursday night.

The crowd at the Scoot Inn seemed to know little about Rateliff’s history as a folkie singer-songwriter. It was a bandwagon crowd and they ate up every minute of the band’s short set. The new album dominated and those songs seemed to be exactly what everyone wanted to hear. Songs like “Howling At Nothing”, “I Need Never Get Old”, and “Thank You” were rambunctious and catchy with a loose, fun spirit that invited the fans to pull out their cell phone cameras and sing along. Rateliff’s polished band kept the mood high as they reveled in soul, gospel, R&B and rock and roll, clearly all surfing high on this wave of success. “Look It Here” – one of the highlights of the night – saw Rateliff showing off his love of the Motown sound and inviting the audience to join him as he belted out the chorus. It was exciting to see the band enjoying themselves so much even if the performance as a whole was a bit devoid of the kind of energy and showmanship one can expect from a seasoned soul act.

Not surprisingly, it was the final song of the night that got the strongest reaction. “S.O.B” is a clappy, ho heying chanter of a tune that exudes Rateliff’s folk roots and the kind of whimsical, poppy bliss that you don’t have to think about too much and of which has made stars out of groups like the Mumford boys and the Lumineers. Expect to hear it at every summer music festival. At that point Rateliff had the crowd in the palm of his hand and they would’ve happily chanted and clapped all night until he nailed a rendition of The Band’s “Shape I’m In”. There was plenty to enjoy about the band’s set even if it did all kind of blend together, but, ideally, acts like Nathaniel Rateliff are best digested as a sort of beginner course or rabbit hole to real soul music. Hopefully, Rateliff’s loyal fans left with a desire to go to their local record store and dig up the great Stax artists.

Perhaps the real star of the night was opening act Caroline Rose. The young Vermonter took the stage before a much smaller crowd, but that hardly deterred her and her band from playing as if they were headlining. Like Nathaniel Rateliff, Rose has reinvented her sound on each of her two albums. She has managed to do it on each album and each time the results have been nothing short of spectacular. Decked out in red stripes with her guitar strung up high, Rose played songs off her latest album, the more rocking I Will Not Be Afraid, with a few songs off her more Americana prior release, America Religious. Rose’s stunning, soulful vocals danced around the twang of the pedal steel on “Tightrope Walker” and “I Will Not Be Afraid”. “This Is What Livin Feels Like” was a positively upbeat folk rocker and “Yip Yip Yow” was rambling and exuberant with its bouncy chorus and bass line. Making it all better was Rose’s jagged, electrifying guitar playing, which often led to her squatting down to make love with a mélange of feedback and eerily striking noises. Much of Rose’s set was engulfed in smoke as if the stage tech had lost control of the fog machine, and for a moment it really felt like Rose and her band had started a fire with their scorcher of a set.

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One Response

  1. Appreciate the honesty in the review, as I would agree that there certainly a lot of band wagoners on the reto sound movement.

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