Looking out from the balcony of New York City’s Bowery Ballroom this past Wednesday evening, one couldn’t help but notice the constant stream of long gray and white hair below as the nearly capacity crowd of old school rockers, ex-hippies, and rad dads filed in for three hours of blue collar rock n’ roll from two of the hardest working bands in the biz: The Bottle Rockets and Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express.
The Bottle Rockets took first shift and got straight down to it with “Monday (Every time I Turn Around)”, a rumination on the inherently repetitive nature of a workingman’s nine to five lifestyle. A cut from The Bottle Rocket’s most recent release, South Broadway Athletic Club, it appeared to have hit home with fans and become an instant classic as many in attendance sang the lyrics and more than a few air drummed Mark Ortmann’s drum fills in perfect time. Other standouts from The Bottle Rockets’ sixteen song “mullet setlist” included the chilled-out, almost Greatful Dead-esque groove of “Ship It On the Frisco”, the ever poignant “Welfare Music” from 1995’s The Brooklyn Side, and “Thousand Dollar Car”, an ominous lesson on the woes of used car ownership that encapsulates The Bottle Rockets’ signature ability to take the simplest of topics and turn them into interesting and compelling songs.
After a solid night’s work from the first crew, Chuck Prophet and his four piece backing band, The Mission Express, punched in and forged into their nearly two hour set of fist-pumping, Americana rock with Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins, the title track from their newly released LP. Despite its inspiration, the tragically short life of 60’s rock n’ roller and frontman of the Bobby Fuller Four, the song had an uplifting almost celebratory feel, its propulsive rhythm, chiming guitars, and anthemic quality instantly bringing to mind the likes of Tom Petty and the Boss. Although Bobby Fuller was just released last month, the crowd of seasoned vets were clearly hip to it, coming in right on cue for the song’s call and response style chorus and proving that they didn’t buy tickets with their hard earned money just to hear the old classics.
While just about every tune The Mission Express played possessed a sort of timeless pop sensibility and walked the line between fresh and familiar, a definite standout was another new song, “Bad Year For Rock and Roll”. Once again demonstrating Prophet’s knack for making triumphant anthems out of seeming melancholy subject matter, the song was lifted by beautiful, Beach Boys-inspired vocal harmonies from Chuck’s wife Stephanie Finch and drummer Vicente Rodriguez. While everyone in attendance could agree that 2016 really had been an awful year for rock n’ roll, they also took solace in knowing that there are still great bands like Chuck Prophet and The Mission Express to go see on Wednesday – so life ain’t that bad, is it?.
Some other fine points that should be noted included the inspired, gospel sermon meets surf rock introduction for “You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)”, “We Got Up and Played”- Prophet’s working class ballad and ode to bar bands everywhere, and the final song of the night, “You and Me Baby (Holding On)”- another epic ballad which closed the show in glorious fashion with its soaring four-part vocal harmonies.
