[photo by Pierfrancesco Baccaro from Instagram]
After more than a decade of music, the Heartless Bastards continue to keep things fresh. Erika Wennerstrom, the group’s frontwoman, heart, and soul, continues to refine what has proven to be one of the great rock voices of the early 21st century, defining a sound that is contemporary and classic. Those of us who heard the show’s opening intro now know where it comes from — Erika’s grandmother, who had quite the pipes of her own.
At this juncture, the Bastards are past the point of being either a hot new thing or a flash in the pan. Rolling into their fifth proper album — their second for Partisan Records — the band sounds like the experienced travelers they are, with a honed sound and a stable of fans who follow it. This show at Webster Hall served as the night-before release show for Restless Ones, and became the first exposure to several of the new songs for most of us. This was the band’s longest show we’ve seen yet, and one that let them try on a number of different sonic textures from song to song. The new songs veer a bit further afield from the bluesy barroom sound of the band’s earlier efforts, as on “Gates of Dawn.” That song’s placement at the front of this set, between the very straightforward “Simple Feeling” and “Gotta Have Rock N’ Roll,” underscored the point. As is often the case, the band let things stretch out for its epic, Sabbath-inspired “Down In the Canyon,” which followed the new album’s “Into the Light,” one of several decidedly downbeat songs on the new record. If the printed setlist was to be believed, our encore had “All This Time” planned, but was dropped in favor of “Only For You,” which was followed by one of the new record’s most stylistically adventurous songs yet, the noise-dirge “Tristessa.” Even without one of our all-time favorite Bastards songs, this was easily one of the strongest sets we’ve seen yet from this band.
I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41V supercardiod microphones mounted inside the soundboard cage combined with a stereo feed from the band’s touring FOH, Reggie. While most of one encore song (“Only For You”) was lost due to technical problems, the sound of the remainder is outstanding. Enjoy!
Thanks to Partisan Records and Paul from Webster Hall for making this happen on short notice!
Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]
Stream the complete show:
Heartless Bastards
2015-06-15
Webster Hall
New York, NY USA
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack
Schoeps MK41V (DFC, PAS)>CMC6 + Soundboard (engineer: Reggie)>Roland R-26>2x24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.5 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Tracks [Total Time 1:33:39]
01 Simple Feeling
02 Gates of Dawn
03 Gotta Have Rock N Roll
04 Black Cloud
05 Journey
06 Hi-Line
07 Skin and Bone
08 Pocket Full of Thirst
09 The Fool
10 The Mountain
11 Into the Light
12 Down In the Canyon
13 Late In the Night
14 Gray
15 Wind Up Bird
16 Only For You
17 Parted Ways
18 [encore break]
19 Only For You [mostly cut]
20 Tristessa
If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT the Heartless Bastards, visit their website, and buy Restless Ones from Partisan Records.
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