Heartless Bastards got added to the Duck Room’s calendar last week and I thought I would go check them out. It’s a small club in the basement of a popular restaurant here in University City where Chuck Berry plays every month as well as other bands.
I got there in the middle of the opening band’s set. It was a group called Male Models, also a three piece like Heartless Bastards. There was a farfisa organ involved and, by the end of the set, every member of the band was playing a key instrument, but I liked it. Male Models commented more than once that Heartless Bastards were gonna come out and “blow our faces off”. I thought to myself, “Oh really?”
As for Heartless Bastards, they didn’t blow my face off but they were good. I liked the heavy bass, the mid-tempo groove, and I liked Erika Wennerstrom’s vocals better live, covered up a bit by the instruments. On their records they are a little to front and center for my taste because I think her voice is a little odd. I can’t take a lot of it. Highlights of the set were Done Got Old, Brazen, and All This Time. I didn’t make it until the bitter end of the set. It has been a super long week. As I was leaving the club, I looked over at the merch guy and I wish I could have taken his picture without him knowing it. He was sitting under what looked like a spotlight of his own, with his dark, wavy, boho hair hanging in one eye, reclined in his seat and looking like he was way over it. It just struck me as very funny because the light over his head made him look like he was on display and the look on his face made it look like being in a spotlight was the last thing he would want to do.
About the venue, it was a great, intimate setting. And it really is all about ducks from the framed duck comic books, shelves full of duck statues, and this entry way lined with pics of ducks. I'll give it an unexpected. --J
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