%uFFFDBuoyed by a crowd that would haveseemed large even if it had been a weekend instead of a Monday, the Cincinnati band played along, dynamic hour and 45-minute show that put her voice to good use. Alongwith The Black Keys, Heartless Bastards are the loudest rock band on thetraditionally blues-based label Fat Possum, and their set incorporated bothsounds, beginning with a patch of stern blues-rock numbers before touching onthe more psychedelic tones of the group’s 2009 album The Mountain. After an interlude of a couple rustic country songsplayed sans drummer, with Wennerstrom’s guitar accompanied by banjo and fiddle,the group closed the night with an extended finale of their heaviest, mostovertly Zeppelin-inspired fare. The set ended with such closure that there wasno need for an encore, but they eagerly played one anyway.
Portland, Ore., openers The Builders andthe Butchers were more butchers than builders, positing an ugly, off-key andout-of-tune re-imagining of the controlled chaos of White Rabbits and DeltaSpirit. They weren’t flattered any by an excruciatingly loud mix and muddy,blown-out acoustics that made them sound as if their gear had been badly waterdamaged.
Much betterwas Minneapolis’Peter Wolf Crier, an experimental folk-rock duo signed to Jagjaguwar records inthe label’s post-Bon Iver boom. Backed by heavy-footed drummer Brian Moen,singer Peter Pisano howled feverishly, his voice at times hitting the samebeatific highs as My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and at others living up to hisexpressive band name.
Photo by CJ Foeckler
