speed of dark

Cincinnati's Heartless Bastards played at Spaceland last Friday night, and I am really bummed that we did not go. Unfortunately, both of us are really busy right now. However, Uncle T, a big fan who is responsible for introducing me to them in the first place, did see them at Austin City Limits in September. I am going to take a chance and post his review. Cross your fingers that the blog-gobbling monster lets it stay.

~alt-gramma~

The Heartless Bastards

Erika Wennerstrom

This was a wonderful set. Again, I was right near the stage in the middle. Erika did her own sound check before the set, and during the set made sure the sound was right for the additional musicians sitting in. They had a new bass player, who also played banjo on two songs. The original Heartless Bastards’ drummer Dave Colvin was back, replacing Kevin Vaughn. A lap pedal guitarist and a violinist joined in for several new songs as well.

They did six or seven new songs from their upcoming CD, which all sounded very good. The crowd loved them. A gentleman on my left came all the way from Oklahoma to see them.

Band members:
• Erika Wennerstrom: lead vocals, guitar
• Jesse Ebaugh: bass and banjo
• Dave Colvin: drums
• lap pedal steel guitar (2-4 songs)
• violin (3 songs)



Set list included:
• New Resolution (live at Lollapalooza 07): They started the set with this nice rocker from their first CD.
• Done Got Old (live at ACL 07): I always love hearing Erika belt out this Junior Kimbrough blues song.
• Blue Day: Next they did this song from the second CD. Very nice. Once they’d gotten the familiar preliminaries out of the way, Erika introduced a number of new songs and the additional musicians helping out on them
• The Mountain: I heard this excellent new song on their MySpace. They had a lap pedal guitarist join them onstage to play on this one. Very nice.
• 5 or 6 new songs (with violinist; 2 with banjo): They did a number of songs, rockers and slower songs. Everything sounded good, and they were well received by the crowd.
• Swamp Song (live at ACL 07): They ended the set with this tempo shifting rocker from their first CD.

The new album, The Mountain, a powerful howl, is due February 2009. You can hear an unmastered, rough version of the title song on their MySpace page, and it sounds strong.

MySpace | Website | Label: Fat Possum Records
Buy at Heartless Bastards Merch, Amazon.com, iTunes, and eMusic