The Record Company at recordBar, Kansas City MO (2024-09-16)

4^th time’s a charm! —

In support of their latest release “The 4th Album,” LA blues rock trio The Record Company returned to downtown Kansas City on their “Roll with It Tour 2024” with an elbow-to-elbow capacity show at recordBar.

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The evening started with an eight-song opening set from Nashville (via Hammond, IN) country folk singer-songwriter Kiely Connell in support of her second studio album, My Own Company (released July 19), a lyrically spanning album that reveals hard truths, life’s uncertainties, relationships, loss, recovery, and managing mental health.

Dressed in a cowboy hat, jacket and silver boots, there’s a somber undertone to most of her songs, each of which she briefly explained before singing with a Patsy Cline-like lilt to her voice, often holding a note for an extended time, to emphasize an end lyric with the staying power of her voice.

“Coming Up Empty” was about the sad end of an eight-year relationship, but the next song, the empowering “Beautiful” spoke to the value beyond outside appearances. “Anesthesia” was about her recovery process from that relationship during a first holiday alone and the album’s title track, “My Own Company” reminds her to love herself first, in order to successfully push forward.

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“It might be Monday on the calendar, but we’re gonna have a spirited Saturday night!”, singer Chris Vos announced, just before counting in bassist Alex Stiff and drummer Marc Cazorla for The Record Company’s ninety-five-minute headlining set. The trio is still out in support of their aptly named “The 4^th Album”, out last Sept (via Round Hill Records) which sports a fan made metal sign on its cover, from a maker in St Louis (which they played the night before KC).

Opening with 2016’s upbeat “Feels So Good” we noticed the full room had fans of all ages- from grandparent age down to college student, showing how generational their appealing modernizing sound of traditional blues and rock, translates to their loyal fans.

And, we’ve been used to having them booked in bigger rooms in the past (even opening in arenas), so we’ll call this a “big band /small venue” show, and everyone present was fortunate to get to see them in a most intimate and experiential way.

Vos may sing “I don’t dance on Mondays” on their recent single, but the crowd sure tried anyway, grooving in small space as best they could, all the way to the back from the crowded floor and along the top balcony, and 2016’s “Rita May Young” about a painful and emotion separation was played with so much joy, it was hard not be happy as they played it live.

A short acoustic set happened early on, after just a handful of electric songs, with Vos and Stiff taking to stools to begin with “Talk to Me” from the new record. The Dylan cover of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” was a nice surprise to hear, with its sped-up and complicated lyrics (some of which Vos had taped to the inside of his monitor speaker) and the mini-set concluded with “You and Me Now” from their 2018 second album.

Vos moved to pedal steel towards the end of the main set, with the crowd roaring especially on radio hits, “How High” and their 2016 chart-topping breakthrough song, “Off the Ground” which found Vos launching the instrument up and around his back and he finished the end jam.

The two-song encore kept things in party-mode, opening with a classic Stones cover and ending things with the harp (harmonica) driven “I'm Getting Better (and I'm Feeling It Right Now)”, turning the small club into a rocking juke joint, with Vos stomping about the stage and the audience all clapping along.

“I'm getting better night after night…I'm getting better, and I'm feeling it right now” were some of the last lyrics sung on the night, and gauging by the crowd’s enthusiastic reaction to the band’s energetic performance, all are in total agreement with The Record Company.