Colorado troubadour via Missouri, Nathaniel Rateliff, tweaked his sound and now everybody is taking notice. From rocker to folk singer and now neo-soul artist, Rateliff & the Night Sweats aren’t creating a new movement. What the team of Denver all-stars are doing for music is making it fun to dance. Enough with the facade that it isn’t cool to dance.
Saturday’s beyond sold out show at the Ogden Theatre served as a homecoming for Rateliff and the boys after an exhausting second half of the year that saw the Stax Records’ act tour the United States and across the Atlantic. Don’t worry, they’re just warming up. In less than a week, the Night Sweats sold out the iconic Denver institution of Red Rocks for a summer show in 2016.
Nathaniel took to the stage with an extended take of “I Need Never Get Old.” However, the extremely talented horn section owned the scene. It wasn’t until “Look it Here” where horn player Wesley Watkins really dug in his teeth to an already special evening. The well bearded Rateliff brought his signature gruff croon that slayed the Denver crowd. Duh, of course they played “S.O.B.”
Saturday evening at the Ogden more than filled the beard quotient for the rest of the year and the start of 2016. It’s been a long strange trip from playing the Meese Underground Music Showcase party in the backyard of a house in Baker, sold out EP show at the Hi-Dive two and half years ago to poster boys for Beats Audio. Nice first act, fellas.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats unite us with the sounds of S.O.B. and the Beats Pill+
