Butch Walker Band • Page 10

Haha I blared it yesterday on my way to work!

 

Always glad to see new Butch fans. His music ages very nicely. His newer records are so damn good. It's music for anyone which I appreciate.

 

I wrote about my first concert experience for Behind the Setlist, which was seeing Butch in 2006 on the hottest day of the summer in a Detroit venue that didn't have air conditioning. One of the most fun pieces I've ever gotten to write.

In the Heat of the Night with Butch Walker, August 2006 - Behind the Setlist

 

Great article! I've gotta see him live someday. I've seen full live sets on YouTube and his shows look incredible.

 

Can confirm a) the song I was referring to was lights out and b) maybe I don't know what rockabilly is haha.
I really like State Line as well. Any idea why it wasn't just included in the track list? Ends the album so well!

 

I've never understood why he made "State Line" a bonus track. It's pretty much universally adored among the fanbase as one of his best songs. And it's not like he ignores it, either. He's kept that one in the live rotation over the years, whereas he almost never plays "Thank You Note."

 

"Lights Out" was my favorite Butch song for a while. So catchy and high-energy. It's just a blast. I've always wanted to see that one live.

 

He's better at the club show than anyone I've ever seen. It's a wash between him and Springsteen for my favorite live act, but he's easily one of the most fun guys to see.

 

true life i like "thank-you note" way more than "stateline". story in the former hits harder cus of life experience

 

I'm hoping it will grow on me. Kind of sticks out like a sore thumb among the ballad-heavy back end of the album. I do like the part 3/4 through when the instrumentation really lets loose.

 

I think I only saw him play "Lights Out" once, at that first show, but it was straight fire. He came into the crowd for it and the entire crowd was just fucking drenched and it was feverish and insane and awesome.

 

He did "Lights Out" a ton back when he was first touring on Letters. I saw both of those tours with American Hi-Fi and he did it then, along with the version of "Best Thing" where he'd rip out the strings on his guitar mid-song.

 

I wish I would've known about Butch back when he was touring with AHF. I missed out on seeing some of those Letters and Rise and Fall era tracks live, and AHF is probably the band I've been following the longest that I've still never seen live. I'm sure those shows were awesome.

 

Not to make you feel worse, but I saw Butch so many times during that era, both solo and full band. He came to Chicago a ton between like 2004 and 2007 and I went pretty much every time. Still some of the best shows I've ever seen, he put so much energy and emotion into each performance.

 

They were soooooo good. He'd come out at the end of Hi-Fi then do "Every Monday" and "So At Last" before Hi-Fi came back on to be his band

 

Damn. If any of you have discovered time travel, go back to 2004 and tell high school me to take a break from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge for an hour and give Letters a try.

Also, try to talk me out of the beard.

 

If you haven't already, go listen to This Is Me . . . Justified and Stripped, his live album from 2004. It captures his shows pretty much perfectly from that era. The only issue I have with it is that the crowd is a little too loud in the mix, but I think that was unavoidable because they were just so into it.

 

My first show too, I get sweaty just thinking about it. Good read

 

I'm pretty sure I almost melted writing it.

 

Brought back a lot of memories. Amazing how similar our experiences were. We paid off Papa Smurf, enjoyed As Fast As (I still enjoy every release Spencer Albee puts out), though about two songs into Boys Like Girls we vacated to the air conditioned basement. Also my air conditioner was broken on the two hour drive there (worked on the way home strangely enough). I've got some photos somewhere. Maybe I'll have to dig them up

We swore off St Andrews Hall over how hot it was. Probably 7 or 8 years later decided to give it another go. In August. I can verify that at that point at least, the place was still an oven.

 

I lost track of Spencer Albee after that record. Where should I dive back into his stuff? I still really like that album.

The air conditioner being broken on the way there is just extra brutal. Ours was working well, as far as I remember. We blasted it hard on the way home.

Would love to see photos, if you've got any. I didn't even have a cellphone when this concert happened, so it's one of the few I've been to where I was just completely in the moment the whole time. Definitely a fond memory.

I went back to St Andrews twice last summer, actually, and both times they had air conditioning and it was working just fine. The first show was Brian Fallon at the end of June, which actually fell on a cloudy, overcast day where the temperatures were in the 60s. It was freezing in the venue because they were cooling it like it was peak summer. The second was Butch around Labor Day, which was a hotter day I think, but still comfortable inside.

They definitely seem to have improved the acoustics, too. I went to a Gaslight Anthem show there in 2012, and they played like the greatest setlist of all time but the sound was not quite up to snuff. But the Fallon and Butch shows last year were two of the best sounding concerts I've been to.

 

He's done things under a number of different name, but for starting I would highly recommend his album Mistakes Were Made from a couple years ago released under his own name. It's readily available on all the usual digital platforms. If you like that one his new album Relentlessly Yours just came out and continues in a similar style.

My other favorite of his was an album called Candy, Cake, and Ice Cream released under the name Spencer and the School Spirit Mafia. This one is mostly acoustic based, but the band had 11 members, so there's always a variety of other instruments, flutes, trombones, all sorts of stuff. Unfortunately this tends to be one of the harder ones to find.

EDIT: There's also a collection called Signature Half Step which is a pretty good collection of tracks from everything prior to Mistakes Were Made. Gives a nice overview of his various style deviations.

Well good, they were in desperate need of some AC in that place. Maybe I'll actually have to make it back out that way. But now that I'm closer to Cleveland than Toledo, I don't hit as many Detroit area shows.

 

Dug some up. Quality isn't top notch, but should ring a few bells

 

Nice! I think I was a little further up and a little to your left.