{"id":71344,"date":"2019-10-08T18:27:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T23:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=71344"},"modified":"2019-10-09T14:13:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T19:13:59","slug":"weyes-blood-the-bottleneck-concert-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2019\/10\/08\/weyes-blood-the-bottleneck-concert-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Weyes Blood @ the Bottleneck: Concert Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of Weyes Blood\u2019s final U.S. shows just so happened to be here in Lawrence. Natalie Mering\u2019s performance allowed fans to experience the songs comprising 2019\u2019s best album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Weyes Blood kicked off their set with the opener to Titanic Rising, <\/em>\u201cA Lot\u2019s Gonna Change,\u201d which sounded great despite not having a touring orchestra of violinists. What makes Weyes Blood\u2019s music astonishing isn\u2019t necessarily the instrumentals as much as it is Mering\u2019s clear, church-like, ethereal vocals that sound just as good live as they do on Titanic Rising. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vocals aren\u2019t the only strong suit of Natalie\u2019s musical talent, in between tracks she alternated between guitar and keys to accommodate her voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The crowd of about 150 people conformed to the stereotype that midwesterners are the nicest people<\/a> by roaring with applause after each song.  Which is important, considering this was Weyes Blood\u2019s second to last U.S. performance of her tour (not including Media performances) and her first time in LFK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cThis is my first show in Kansas\u2026 ever\u2026 and I\u2019m really stoked to be here… big fan of the myths of Kansas,\u201d said Natalie after the opening track. Following up by sharing her excitement of contributing the band\u2019s photo to the Bottleneck\u2019s wall of fame. Random talks between her and the audience were prevalent throughout the entire show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tMost of her set came from 2019\u2019s Titanic Rising <\/em>and a few tracks were from her previous album Front Row Seat to Earth. <\/em>After ending the set with \u201cMovies\u201d (what I consider to be her best track) the band stepped off for what felt like a minute before returning for an encore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

 I don\u2019t know if the band didn\u2019t want to give off the illusion that there wouldn\u2019t be an encore or if the crowd was just that active (probably the ladder), but the band returned ready to perform three final songs. Natalie noted the younger audience and the setlist had a cover of \u201cWhiter Shade of Pale,\u201d she courteously asked the Zoomers<\/a> in the crowd if they knew this song and if we didn\u2019t, she\u2019d pick another song we\u2019d all enjoy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the show, a small group of people stuck around hoping Natalie would come out and meet her fans, which she willingly did. To be honest, whatever journalistic integrity I had left was out the door at this point and I was in complete fan-boy mode. I asked for a picture, recorded a sound bite for my Weyes Blood episode of B-Sides (coming soon) said \u201cthank you\u201d a thousand times and left. She was incredibly nice and a lot shorter in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bottleneck might be my favorite venue in Lawrence for this reason. An accommodating space that really captures the \u201cat home\u201d feeling of the Midwest. Natalie\u2019s talks with the audience would often drift into actual conversations, plus her consideration for changing an encore song to better fit the younger audience made the night feel less like a show and more like a group of 150 people hanging out.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Weyes Blood\u2019s final U.S. shows just so happened to be here in Lawrence. Natalie Mering\u2019s performance allowed fans to experience the songs comprising 2019\u2019s best album.  Weyes Blood kicked off their set with the opener to Titanic Rising, \u201cA Lot\u2019s Gonna Change,\u201d which sounded great despite not having a touring orchestra of violinists. What makes Weyes Blood\u2019s music astonishing isn\u2019t necessarily the instrumentals as much as it is Mering\u2019s clear, church-like, ethereal vocals that sound just as good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":71345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3226,3225,15,3232,4,3268],"tags":[2086,8397,5996],"class_list":["post-71344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-culture-articles","category-culture-events","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-live-performances","category-music","category-music-articles","tag-concert-review","tag-titanic-rising","tag-weyes-blood"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_7325.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}