November 16th, 2008 * The Rudyard Kipling * Louisville, KY
MP3:
These United States started as a songwriting project of Washington D.C.’s Jesse Elliot. In March, this project released Elliot’s first batch of songs under the album title A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden. He toured the songs extensively for a few months, making a pet project out of playing with a different backing band in every city and eventually met with some kindred rock n’ roll spirits.
It was this carnation that helped Elliot flesh out the follow-up to A Picture. Released just 8 months after the first disc, Crimes takes the potential of A Picture and injects it with swagger, steel guitar and sing-along choruses to the most enjoyable of ends.
It was mostly from this second batch of songs that Elliot and company pulled from Sunday night at the quaint Rudyard Kipling on the outskirts of downtown Louisville. The mostly empty room, lit with a shadowy mix of chandeliers and Christmas lights, served as the perfect place to let the band relax in front of a small audience – many of whom seemed to know the band in some way. Elliot started the show by admitting that the group was mostly still fighting off hangovers.
“We’re going to keep it kinda low-key,” he said. He lied.
The night started with “First Sight” and “Kings and Aces” from A Picture, before the band settled into material from Crimes. Elliot stuck to lead vocals and his nylon-stringed acoustic, while the rest of the band switched instruments throughout the entire set, moving from bass to guitar to pedal steel to harmonica and banjo.
Part of what makes Crimes the album so enjoyable is the sense of camaraderie created by regular sing-along choruses, filled in by members of the band in response to Elliot’s leads. It creates on record the exact experience that the band was able to re-create onstage. The room at the Rudyard Kipling was intimate enough for the band to shout their background vocals without the use of microphones. This allowed the different players to be possessed by their instruments without being tied to one place, lending a very organic “jam session” feel to the entire evening.
The group divided the night into two parts. Part one was played as just a four-piece; For part two, the more rock-oriented of the sets, the band was joined by a friend from the region who sat in on bass guitar.
SET ONE
First Sight
Kings and Aces
Pleasure and Pain and Pride and Me
We Go Down to That Corner
Burn This Bridge
Get Yourself Home
Study the Moon
SET TWO
West Won
Six Fast Bullets
[???]
Honor Amongst Thieves
When You’re Traveling at the Speed of Light
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