[ATTENDED: October 21, 2021] Bartees Strange
Lucy Dacus announced that she’d be playing Philly on the birthday of someone in my family. Clearly I wasn’t going to go to the show. Shamir was opening that show.
That sold out pretty quickly and she announced another show the next night. For some reason Shamir wasn’t going to open, but instead it would be Bartees Strange. I have really loved Bartees Strange’s album and his Tiny Desk Home Concert was great. So I was really excited to see him–I’m sure I’ll see Shamir again some day.
Bartees started the night with a solo rendition of “Far.” It was good, and showed off his voice, but I was a little concerned that he was going to be by himself.
But I needn’t have worried, as the band barreled out for a rocking “Mustang.” It got us all moving and showed off how great his band is.
Then he shifted gears for “Kelly Rowland” a rap that deals with poverty. And shifted gears back to play a new song “Weights” that was an intense ride. If that indicates what his new songs are like the next album will be outstanding.
For “Flagey God,” Bartees switched to bass and talked about that deja vu. But the coolest moment came when his lead guitarist took out one of those toy megaphones with the red lights and began shouting into the pickups of his guitar, making a crazy kind of sound that was hard to place but was really fun to watch.
Bartees has a history with The National and so they played a chill version of “Lemonworld.”
Then after a slow-building “Stone Meadows,” the band rocked out with a killer version of his big hit “Boomer.”
It was everything I wanted from him.
- Far
- Mustang
- Kelly Rowland
- Weights
- 17
- Flagey God
- Lemonworld (The National cover)
- Stone Meadows
- Boomer
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