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Bartees Strange brought ‘Horror’ to life at Bowery Ballroom (pics, review)
Bartees played all of his new multi-genre album ‘Horror’ (and more) in NYC, with support from Tré Burt.
Bartees Strange made his triumphant return to New York City last night at The Bowery Ballroom in support of his new record Horror. And fans of this newest album were treated to an utterly massive performance of the entire thing, with the only variation in the setlist coming from opening with the (arguably most straightforward indie rock) mid-album track, “Wants Needs,” and a break later on for singles from his first two records, “Mustang” and “Heavy Heart,” respectively.
The crowd predictably lit up for the pre-release singles, including the Jack Antonoff co-produced introspective jam “Sober” and the synthy pop ballad “Lie 95,” but if you ask me, it was the album’s deeper cuts where the band really shined. A personal favorite came early on in the set, when the driving funk/hip hop opening of “Hit It Quit It” transforms into a discordant and downright terrifying chorus, before effortlessly dipping right back into the groove. Or a little bit later on, when Bartees put down his guitar for the synthy, driving pop of “Lovers,” dancing across the stage before eventually sitting down on the edge of it, singing the contemplative jam directly to the audience who adored him.
What radiated off stage all night long, from the frontman, sure, but also the entire band was an enormous amount of gratitude. They mentioned how they’d taken a year off of performing in order to complete this album, and how much they missed playing gigs. And how, after spending so much time in the depths of creating this new record, they had no idea whether or not it was any good, showing an extremely humbling thanks for everyone who shouted out their love for his work. And in fact, before ripping into their first foray into an early-career banger, mentioned taking an unfortunate, if understandable, trip through the comments and reading folks mentioning that they should stick to rock and roll songs.
But, if you’ve somehow been following along with Bartees Strange from the very beginning and feel that he needs to “stick in his lane,” you’ve genuinely missed the entire point. Genre-agnosticism is built into the core of all three of the band’s records, which is what makes each one of their compositions such an exciting morsel to dip your toes in. Songs like “17” and “Loop Defenders” can switch gears from quiet and dreamy or funky and loose into the biggest, gnarliest breakdowns you’ve ever heard. And that’s the entire point.
Inevitably though, songs like “Heavy Heart” from the critically acclaimed Farm to Table garnered some of the biggest crowd reactions of the entire night. Though, if I were a betting man, I’d say that given time, Horror will stand on its own as another high point in what is sure to be an expansive and varied career. In fact, he even mentioned that many of the songs for both records were written concurrently, and he spoke about how they sort of naturally sorted themselves into big pretty songs and big ugly songs. Which makes a perfect sort of sense if you really think about it: each record acts as two sides of the same coin that is Bartees Strange.
And while Bartees himself may be an absolute virtuosic force of nature on the guitar, the glue that holds it all together are each of the players in his band. The rhythm section of John Daise and TK Johnson (who Strange mentioned meeting on Instagram and had somehow never been in a band before joining the group) are always in the pocket, creating impeccable groove after impeccable groove, while lead guitarist Daniel Kleederman and keyboardist/guitarist Graham Richman know when it’s time to rip a solo, and when it’s time to hang back and fill out the edges of the atmosphere.
Opening the night was Philadelphia-native singer/songwriter Tré Burt, who played the sort of catchy folky Americana tunes that had the entire room silent, wrapt in his troubadour’s hypnosis, as it filled out for the headlining act. I was thrilled to even see a few folks in the front row singing every word right along with him through his entire set, and am excited to dig deeper into his discography myself.
Pictures from the show by Emilio Herce continue below, along with Bartees’ full setlist…
Bartees Strange @ Bowery Ballroom – 2/19/25 Setlist
Wants Needs
Too Much
Hit It Quit It
Sober
Baltimore
Lie 95
Lovers
Doomsday Buttercup
Mustang
17
Heavy Heart
Loop Defenders
Norf Gun
Backseat Banton
ENCORE
Stone Meadows
Boomer
