Any long time Bottle Rockets fan will tell you that their first three records are their best. Everything released since then has had its moments, but if you are looking for beginning to end hits you can’t go wrong with 24 Hours a Day, Brooklyn Side and their self-titled debut. The band would never admit it, but those three must be their favorites too. Either that or it was simply a matter of give the people what they want as they rolled out all the great ones for a New Year’s Eve show that was as good as I have ever seen them. It certainly went a long way to erasing a should-have-been forgettable show they put on in the final hours of 2002. Indeed, this is the way New Year’s Eve is supposed to sound.
As they celebrate 15 years as a band, one has to be impressed with the minimal line-up changes they have undergone. The core duo of singer/songwriter/guitarist Brian Henneman and drummer Mark Ortmann has been in place since the beginning. In the decade and a half that followed they have had only two bass players since Tom Ray and one guitar player since Tom Parr. Brian and Mark will be happy to tell you that this line-up, which includes guitar slinger John Horton and bassist Keith Voegele, is the one they wish they’d had all along. And I might have to agree with them. How can you argue with a band that seems this comfortable while sounding this tight?
As they rolled toward midnight with a killer set that contained fan favorites like “Kit Kat Clock,” “Radar Gun,” “$1000 Car,” and of course “Indianapolis,” I couldn’t help but feel that there was anything special about the night. It was just another kick-ass show from a band that I haven’t seen in far too long. In fact, no one even seemed to mind that when midnight actually struck, after a false alarm countdown earlier, they were in the middle of “Gas Girl.” In fact, I was so happy with the set just the way it was that I didn’t even attempt to get in a request for “When I Was Dumb.” Turns out I didn’t have to, because it turned up in the encore(!). Maybe they were already planning on playing it, but I like to think that they did it just for me.
They have always had a knack for picking the perfect covers, which more often than not are Neil Young songs, but they pulled out some new ones tonight. The last time I had seen Keith sing he was knocking out a perfect version of “Surrender.” And I’d love to hear it again sometime, but I was even happier to hear him do “Ooh La La.” Rumor had it the boys had been covering “Paint It Black” recently, so I was ready for that, what I wasn’t ready for was “Suffragette City.” Awesome. And of course, there was the almost obligatory Neil Young song, “Lookout Joe.”
Here’s to 15 years (and $5 T-shirts!) guys.
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