Concert Adventures: Nathan Rateliff

Yesterday was a music adventure day. It was my day off so I was looking forward to chilling and going the see the Nathan Rateliff concert that evening. Now I had never heard of Nathan Rateliff until the week before when I saw a poster for the concert at UMD while waiting to see the Peter Wolf Crier show. Always looking to see a musical act in Duluth, I did some internet searching, found he was comparable to Bon Iver (in looks and sound), saw a write up of him in Q Magazine (the best modern music magazine on the stands), and enjoyed two tracks off his myspace. The concert was Free and I was fucking going.

Before going to the show I killed off some of the day by listening to Pearl Jam's reissue of Vs. and watching the watching the new episode of That Metal Show. Why the fuck was Ace Frehley on again? I like the show and I realize he's friends with Eddie Trunk, but goddammit man, let's not have repeat guests especially if nothing new is going on in their lives (I guess he did plug an upcoming book). I guess Ace didn't really bother me too much, he was actually coherent and funny for a change, but Eddie annoys the fuck out of me whenever Ace is around because he always goes into his fucking lecture on how Tommy Thayer shouldn't be wearing the Spaceman costume in KISS. While you have valid point Eddie, it ain't going to change so stop fucking bitching about it. Oh and insulting modern day KISS and Gene Simmons continuously will only further assure that they will never appear on your TV or radio show. Was cool to see Gilby Clarke on the show, but the interview with Billy Sheehan (bassist from Mr. Big) got the song "To Be With You" stuck in my head for most of the day.



Yesterday was a Tuesday, so that means new albums are out. Running errands with my wife, she curbed me from purchasing any new CDs as we passed by Best Buy and Barnes & Nobles, but her efforts were undone when I dropped by the mall before heading to UMD to give her some money for bus fair. On my way out I took a detour to Hot Topic and picked up the highly anticipated new disc from Swedish Death Metal band Amon Amarth. I haven't made it through the whole album yet but so far it's a fucking epic blaze of metal mastery. My car was roaring the whole way to UMD.

I arrived at the UMD Rafters right at 9pm, and was happy to see around 15 to 20 people waiting to get into the upstairs venue. You never know how many people are going to turn up for these weekday concerts at UMD, they're horribly adertised for, and college students often find other outlets for their weekday evenings. I've literally been to a show there where I was the only person in attendance, so I was happy to see a small group for Nathan.

The opening band was Russian Bride, a local duo consiting of Haley Prochnow and Adam Rosenthal. The group has been playing a number of shows in Duluth over the past few months and I was happy to finally see them. Haley has a amazing blues crooner voice, and her lyrics paint intense western landscapes full of raw emotion and simple observation. Her songs could just be hard poetry, but Adam brings them to life with rounding six string riffs any Black Keys fan will undoubtedly enjoy. Adam additionall doubles as the group's percussionist, managing a peddle drum and symbol with either foot while his hands handle the guitar. Russian Bride's whole set was wonderful, and the crowd gave them a warm reception after each song.

Next up was our headliner Nathan Rateliff, accompanyed by a full four piece band (I'm not sure what the backing band is offically called, might be the Wheel). It was Nathan's first time in Duluth and though he complained several times throughout the show of loosing his voice (forcing him to stick to "softer tunes" as he called them and avoid any encore) I though he sounded absolutely fantastic singing both soft emotive lines as well as high octave wails. I was hesitant to compare him to Bon Iver through most of his set, though he did sing several softer songs with deep emotions content similar to the style of For Emma, but when Nathan harmonized with his guitar and cello player the comparison was hard to deny. I will say that Nathan doesn't have the distinct voice as Justin Vernon and while Nathan's bands harmonies are comparalbe to Bon Iver's, they lack the mystical punch. That being said, I feel Nathan does have the superior band. The song structure and formal of the group's instumentals are far more varied than anything Bon Iver has put our so far, with punching guitars, hard drum lines at times, and perfect keyboard accompanyment. The songs are also a bit meatier than the minimalist lyrics on For Emma; not to say that means they're better.

Overall I absolutely loved Nathan and The Wheel's performance Tuesday night, and luckily got a chance to express that to both Nathan and his drummer. I picked up their 2007 album Desire and Dissolving Men for $10 on my way out, they didn't have any CD copies of their 2010 album In Memory of Me, but you can hear the entire album on their website. Maybe I should have bought their 2011 release Shroud.....but it's only available on vinyl....I have no record player.....Fun Fact: Nathan is good friends with Mumford and Sons.