One of the most prominent and efficient bands atop the indie-folk rock scene, Seattle’s Band of Horses, returned to Cincinnati last night for yet another sold out show. It was the winter of ’08 that they last played in town at the historic Southgate House, and were touring in support of their sophomore album, Cease to Begin.
Oddly enough, last night’s show saw a slightly smaller crowd than that of ’08, at a venue that is not known at all for booking large scale indie acts. The venue, Inner Circle, is the former Annie’s on Kellogg Avenue, which in the past was typically known for booking mainstream hard rock acts like Seven Mary Three and Bret Michaels of Poison, as well as outlaw country singer/songwriter, David Allan Coe.
When the lights went out at 10 pm, Band of Horses came out swinging hard, with energetic sing-alongs and classics like opener “The Great Salt Lake” and “Is There A Ghost?”, which was followed up with the not-so-crowd-pleasing ”NW Apt”, from their recent release Infinite Arms. Much of their nearly ninety minute set featured older songs, which annoyingly all became sing-alongs for a crowd of mostly young twenty-something year old girls.
Although they maintained more of a straight-ahead rock and roll sound throughout their nineteen song set, BoH did slow things down for a few numbers like “Older” which was sung by primary keyboardist Ryan Monroe, and “Marry Song” and “Window Blues”, both of which saw former Hiders collaborator, Tyler Ramsey, on the pedal steel. I was actually quite surprised to see that BoH only played five cuts from the new disc, as well as covering The Replacements “Can’t Hardly Wait” during the four song encore, and just may have been better than the original.
I had always been skeptical about attending a show at this venue, not just because they’ve never booked an act that has sparked my interest, but because of a sketchy past that has involved several car break-ins and shootings in the parking lot. While it is obviously a good thing that there are those in town trying to give this venue another shot, I won’t hold my breath in thinking that this will become one of the concert hot spots in the Cincinnati area.
Setlist
The Great Salt Lake
Is There A Ghost?
NW Apt
Islands on the Coast
Weed Party
Compliments
Older
Marry Song
Laredo
Window Blues
Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
Factory
No One’s Gonna Love You
Ode to LRC
The Funeral
Encore
Our Swords
Can’t Hardly Wait (Replacements cover)
Detlef Schrempf
The General Specific