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| All photos by Agatha Donkar |
If I could spend every Halloween with Heartless Bastards, I would like Halloween way more than I generally do. I highly recommend it as a way to spend Halloween!
The Haw River Ballroom is such a big space, but it doesn’t always feel like a big space. With a full crowd, it can feel just as intimate as a much smaller venue, because it’s got a truly rich, warm sound, which is a testament to the renovation of the room (the space was originally a cotton dye house, for a mill operation; the renovation is gorgeous). Last night the room was only half full, but Heartless Bastards filled it up the rest of the way — certainly they have a reputation, well-deserved, for being loud, but last night they were also just huge, guitars and Erika Wennerstrom’s voice, resonating all the way up through the floor and across the walls and the vaulted ceiling.
I wish had a better description for last night’s show, but enormous is the only one I can come up with: just a wide sonic landscape, the hairs on my arms standing up, the bass and wall of guitar sound shaking up through the floor right into your bones. A stunning night in a spectacular space.
Full set, including openers Wussy and Futurebirds, is here.
