Lord Huron / Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats / Caroline Rose at Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis (31 May 2016)

Caroline Rose

Opening up the show was Caroline Rose in “modern-day hobo” wear, complete with flip-flops. We previously seen the vagabond with Rateliff in 2014 and we wrote that they were “Americana” but noted that they seemed to go beyond that.



Rose is joined on stage by Pat Melvin on bass, Brett Lanier on pedal steel, and Dan Davine on drums. Notably gone is the upright bass!



Now that Rose’s national debut album I Will Not Be Afraid is out, the 26-year-old songwriter looked even more confident about playing to a large audience. Rose confessed that she wasn’t quite comfortable playing so early (7:30pm), after they finished playing their first song ‘When You Go’. They would play a few other songs from I Will Not Be Afraid on the rest of their brief 30-min set.

Nathaniel Rateliff

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats was next. We’ve been covering Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats since 2013, when the band first formed. We knew they were special when we noted that they were “channeling the dance moves of James Brown” and “Rateliff’s traditionally gentle and alluring vocals morph into that of a bellowing soul god with ‘Trying So Hard Not to Know’ the night immediately shifted from exciting to epic.”



It was all confirmed that the band had exploded when their lead single ‘S.O.B.’ (Stax Records) broke through to mainstream. By Summer 2015, the band found themselves on radio waves… and eventually lead to appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, etc. Currently, on the tour, the Night Sweats includes bassist Joseph Pope III, keys Mark Shusterman, drummer Patrick Meese, guitarist Luke Mossman, trumpeter Wesley Watkins, and saxophonist Andy Wild.



Unfortunately, it really felt like this was the wrong venue for this high-energy band. They’re used to seeing people dancing and moving to their music… not a bunch of people sitting down. So near the end of their set, Rateliff basically gave permission for people to stand up – and they did sure did.

Rateliff Setlist

As you can see from the photo of their setlist, they practically played everything off their 2015 self-titled album, including ‘I Need Never Get Old’ and massive hit song ‘S.O.B.’



Rateliff also threw in a couple of new songs, ‘The Intro’ and ‘I Did It’. They closed out their 80-min set with The Band cover song ‘The Shape I’m In’. As they exit the stage, Rateliff shouted out, “Vote for Bernie Sanders!!”



If you missed Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats on this tour, be sure to see them as the final band announced at Rock the Garden 2016 on June 18th. For lineup and details head over to news.weheartmusic.com.

Ben Schneider

Lord Huron (singer/guitarist Ben Schneider, drummer Mark Barry, bassist Miguel Briseño, guitarist Tom Renaud) closed out the show. We previously caught them in 2014, when they were out promoting their debut Lonesome Dreams (IAMSOUND).



We described their sound as bringing together a “Mumford and Sons-like bombast and Vampire Weekend-esque rhythms, with a pinch of Paul Simon/Peter Gabriel worldbeat made for bigger rooms, to their own unique take on modern folk.”



Now that their sophomore album Strange Trails (also on IAMSOUND) is out, it’s clear that based on their setlist and background display (showing a neon “Strange Trails” logo), that the band was still touring in support of their 2015 record.



Based on their interactions on stage, that the band clearly love playing live and having such a grand old time on the first night of this tour.



They ended their 100-min set with ‘Fool for Love’, leaving enough time before curfew to come back for a three song encore: ‘The Ghost on the Shore’, ‘She Lit a Fire’, and ‘The Stranger’.