The Rosebuds : Live

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/therosebudsjan18.jpg" alt=" " />Brooklyn barely knew what hit it when The Rosebuds came riding in to town....

  Husband-and-wife duo Kelly Crisp and Ivan Howard got a chance to show off their wide and varied songbook, going from disco-dance to country-drive, and everywhere in between.  Playing only a handful of dates on this East Coast mini-tour, the excited crowd at the Music Hall in Williamsburg (QRO venue review) on January 18th left damn sure happy they came.

Crisp and Howard opened things up with “Hold On To This Coat”, a disco number that slid well out of disco ball-spinning openers, Tigercity.  But things didn’t really get going until the following “Cemetery Lawns”, which combined danceability with a driving beat.  These two pieces, both off The Rosebuds’ latest, last year’s Night of the Furies (QRO review), did herald that it was going to be a dance party.  But it was one that everyone was going to participate in: “Hold Hands and Fight” and “Leaves Do Fall”, a down-tempo and up-tempo country-time tracks, respectively from 2005’s Birds Make Good Neighbors, dabbled quite a bit in audience participation and sing-along, another hallmark of the evening.

However, things slowed down with “Unwind”; the title track from the 2005 EP was certainly nice, but felt a little out of place on the set-list.  Not out of place was the following “Governor’s Daughter”, despite Howard’s fears.  Featured only on their summer of 2007 tour EP, it was a fan request submitted via e-mail on their MySpace page, and Howard joked, “If this messes up the show, it’s your fault!”  However, the sweet, relaxed number got an extra spark from the crowd.  The Rosebuds kept that ball rolling with Furies’ “My Punishment For Fighting”, a darker piece that really drove its point home, while the rockabilly “My Downtown Friends”, from their 2003 debut, The Rosebuds Make Out, seemed to acknowledge the crowd’s fervor (whatever bite of the Big Apple they were from).

Coming out of that with another slow & sweet Unwind track, “El Camino”, would seem to invite the same problem as “Unwind”, but, by that point, the sheer momentum couldn’t be stopped (and an assist was provided by guest saxophonist Gary Olsen, of label-mates The Ladybug Transistor).  The Rosebuds went bigger as they headed into the encore break: Furies’ “When the Lights Went Dim” and “I Better Run” kept up the disco style, with Crisp dancing among the fans during “Run” as Howard encouraged the “Whoa!” sing-along.  Between the two came Birds’ “Boxcar”, and ending the set was Make Out’s “Drunkard’s Worst Nightmare”; the two wistful-rock pieces played more epic live.

The Rosebuds playing "I Better Run" live @ Music Hall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY:

As great as things were going, you really couldn’t say that the encore return wasn’t the night’s highpoint.  Furies’ “Silja Line: On Settling For a Normal Life” lulled the crowd in with its slow sweetness, but just got bigger and bigger as it went along.  But the hands-down crowd favorite had to be Make Out’s “Back To Boston”, renamed “Back To Brooklyn” for the evening (though references to Harvard and Somerville weren’t replaced with Columbia or Park Slope); another wistful-rock number, it just got a real rollick that night from the set.  And The Rosebuds ended things as the night began, with some upbeat disco-dance, courtesy of Furies’ excellent “Get Up Get Out”.

Despite the energy the Raleigh couple had in spades on stage, they won’t be hitting the East Coast again until the fall.  But even if the weather’s cold up in the North, these Southerners will always be welcomed warmly in Brooklyn.

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Concert Reviews
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