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Concert Wed Sep 21 2011
An Intimate Evening with The Bottle Rockets
For most of their career, St. Louis' Bottle Rockets have languished as something of an alt-country wallflower. While their formation in 1992 certainly qualifies them as one of the genre's seminal groups, their bio at times reads a little a hard-luck depression era novel, filled with near misses close calls. It's fortunate for us, then, that a band that has rightfully flirted with fame and just not quite gotten there to date is still around for us to enjoy.
Often criminally overshadowed by contemporaries Uncle Tupelo, the Bottle Rockets' earnest folk rock style remains an exemplar of the genre. More or less, they inhabit the live space like the Platonic Form of what a bar band should be. Recently, the band has rolled back the chicken wire cage and retreated a bit from its honky-tonk roots with an acoustic album Not So Loud - An Acoustic Evening with the Bottle Rockets on Chicago's Bloodshot label. The album showcases the group's tight songwriting, which draws comparisons to Woody Guthrie, and stands up to the work of any working folk songsters of the modern age.
The Bottle Rockets are opening the show at the Old Town School of Folk Music for singer, songwriter, DJ, and general musical yeoman Marshall Crenshaw. Crenshaw has penned songs for a bevy of other artists, and know inhabits an interesting space as a DJ for New York station WFUV, drawing from his personal record collection.
The Bottle Rockets and Marshall Crenshaw perform at the Old Town School of Folk Music tomorrow night, Friday, September 23rd at 7pm and 10pm. Tickets for the 10pm show are still available at Old Town School's site.
