The Glorious Sons w/ The Velveteers at The Madrid Theatre, Kansas City MO (2023-10-13)

Friday the 13^th in midtown Kansas City wasn’t superstitious…, it was Glorious–

Kingston, ONT Juno Award-winning, best-selling band The Glorious Sons made a local stop at the Madrid Theatre as part of The Glory Tour, that takes them to just a couple more US cities before a very extensive Canadian run, in support of their fourth album, Glory.

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To begin the evening, one of our newest live favorites, Boulder, CO trio The Velveteers performed in support of 2021’s Nightmare Daydream (on Easy Eye Sounds, Dan Auerbach’s custom label) and are composed of dual drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig and singer/ baritone guitarist Demi Demitro.

We saw them outdoors earlier this summer, opening up for their label head’s band (aka The Black Keys) and, shhh… we think they stole the whole show! Their sound is undoubtedly heavy, grunge-like, and recalls the mid 90’s with an updated twist, but the band really shines live, and has become one of those bands we want to always catch, when in our area.

The band started with 2021’s “Motel #27” and continued their sonic assault, almost non-stop, with drummer Fig taking a small drum into the crowd to complete a song, singer Demitro standing tall atop the drum platform, and even laid her guitar down, to let anyone along the front, strum to contribute to a song. While you can probably dial up clips online, this is a band more than worth witnessing live, and one we’ll be keeping tabs on.

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A month into their 57-date North American Tour, The Glorious Sons have definitely hit a collective synchronicity and are playing a musically tight show, for anyone able to catch them live. Lead singer/songwriter Brett Emmons has a contagious feeling of catharsis when he performs, almost preacher-like in emoting some of his most personal lyrics, and happily incites the crowd on their more anthemic songs.

Musically, the six-piece (Emmons along with brother Jay Emmons – guitar; Adam Paquette – drums; Josh Hewson – piano/guitar; Peter Van Helvoort – bass; and newest addition Steve Kirstein – guitar) can be musically sneaky – with Brett starting a song acoustically with a sparse arrangement, before volume raises and the twin guitar attack led by his brother Jay and then the rest of the band fully kick in, to elevate the song exponentially.

The most fortunate feeling, were the handful of Canadian fans in the crowd – giddy and positively thrilled to catch their favorite homegrown band, playing in venues a fraction of the size they would play north of the border.

Like the openers, the band didn’t say too much between songs, preferring to let their music do the talking; and often, letting the fans do the talking, make that the singing, as in singing the choruses back to the band.

If fans thought the group took a musical hit after hearing the news that longtime guitarist Chris Koster had left the band, just a week before the start of this tour, we can safely attest that new guitarist Kirstein is more than musically able and already seems like he’s showing natural chemistry, with guitarist Jay and the rest of the band.

The setlist seems to noticeably change per show, which is musically healthy and ranged on this night from their earliest singles of a decade ago, “Mama” and “White Noise,” to a generous helping from the new record, (though not its lead single, “Mercy Mercy”).

The main set would end on the very positive note of 2017’s “Everything is Alright” as singer Emmons reassured us that “Everything is alright, If only for the night” and the band departed backstage, only to return again shortly.

Many bands return to play a one or two-song encore; but leave it to the Canadians to outshine most others as they returned for what could be considered almost a second set- a five-song performance, beginning with the heartfelt, “You Stay Young,” from the new record.

2019’s “Lean on Me Love” was one of those extra emotive songs for Emmons, pleading that “you’ll be better for knowin’ me” and the coup de grace to end the evening was a 2019 spanning “Pink Motel” with Emmons inviting everyone to leave it all behind- the noise, the tech, the chaos, of the modern world, as he’s got the key to our collective escape (which most in the crowd seemed willing to do).

No cracked mirrors, no black cats or bad luck for anyone seeing The Glorious Sons and The Velveteers in concert– just a musically satisfying evening that defied the reputation of the day and proved to be the opposite of any unlucky Friday the 13^th.

 (Click on any image to enlarge and see in full)