Bottle-Rockin'

The Bottle Rockets
Smith's Olde Bar
Atlanta, GA
2/27/10

The Bottle Rockets are a band who I regret not getting into years ago. There's really no good reason why I never did; I just haven't. They've been touring at the 300-ish capacity venue level for years and years, they have strong ties to the Uncle Tupelo-Son Volt-Wilco family tree, and they have a heavy reputation as a great live band. I've been aware of them for some time, but until recently, if you'd asked me about them, I would just tell you that I'd heard they were good, and that Brian Henneman did a fantastic job playing the lead guitar part on Wilco's first album, A.M. Well, I picked up the vinyl copy of their latest release, Lean Forward, and that piqued my curiousity. The record is good, not great, but upon first listen, I had a feeling that they were a band who suffers from what I call The J. Geils Syndrome. What I mean by that is that they're a band who are so good live that it's impossible for even the best producer to capture the energy of their live show in the studio. (For further listening, check out the first two live J. Geils records, Full House, and Blow Your Face Out, and you'll see what I'm talking about.)

Well, I finally got to check these fellas out, and my suspicions were confirmed. The Bottle Rockets did nothing short of rock my face off. They epitomized what a 2-guitar band is supposed to be, with twin lead parts, harmonizing parts, and a good bit of weaving between Henneman and John Horton. They tore through a set of classic songs, all of which sound much better when played live, with a level of intensity that most bands simply are not capable of producing. To describe it in the best way I know how, I felt like I watched a band play an entire set where every was rocked out extra hard like it was an encore. Yes, that's it. The Bottle Rockets live performance is like a 60 minute encore. Drummer Mark Ortmann and bassist Keith Voegele deserves a lot of the credit for this, of course, because you can't pull this kind of feel off without a stellar rhythm section. These guys have the country/rock/boogie style down to a T, and this was one of the best shows I've seen in quite some time.

I'd like to continue to describe what I saw for you, but it's really hard to do for those who weren't there, and I'm afraid I would fall short. If the band can't reproduce their amazing live sound on record, how can I do it justice with mere words? You'd be wise to pick up some Bottle Rockets records, but you'd be even wiser to go and catch them live. These guys are real pros, and I can't wait to see them come back to town.