It’s always a pleasure when musical legacy acts are appreciated. The sold out crowd at The HiFi Saturday night was testament. Alt-country old schoolers The Bottle Rockets still bring out the loyal fans for its brand of crunchy rock. Power pop legend Marshall Crenshaw‘s timeless classics sound as fresh today as they did in the 1980s.
The Bottle Rockets opened with a one hour set split between catalog stand-bys and new tracks from their upcoming record. Twenty-plus years since the band’s debut, and the four-piece Bloodshot mainstays still rock with purpose. Perhaps more importantly, they’re having fun, which translates. The band appears happy to give the fans what they want, so the crowd got the requisite Kerosene, $1000 Car, Radar Gun, and, of course, Indianapolis. And they sounded fantastic.
The Bottle Rockets returned to the stage a short while after their set as Crenshaw’s backing band, which gave his material extra muscle. Crenshaw doesn’t release albums anymore, just vinyl EPs, so his set was sprinkled with newer songs from those releases. Most of the crowd appreciated the new songs, but were waiting patiently for the classics. Crenshaw didn’t let them down. Cynical Girl, You’re My Favorite Waste of Time, Someday Someway, Mary Anne, Whenever You’re On My Mind, Better Back Off — all had the fans singing and dancing. The covers, Buddy Holly’s Crying, Waiting, Hoping and a cracking version of Richard Thompson’s Valerie, also landed squarely.
For 90 minutes, Crenshaw and his cohorts treated the fans to what they paid to hear. My guess: Everyone left happy. Excellent show.