Sirius Satellite Radio hooked me up with tickets for Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats st the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem last night. I walked past the tourists taking selfies in front of the iconic Apollo frontage and entered to collect my complimentary Sirius Satellite Radio tickets. The Apollo Theater seemed narrow and the hallway leading up to the second level wa lined with framed pictures of performers who had played the venue in the past (no, I did not see any photos of Metallica but it does not mean that it could not have been there somewhere). The theater smelled a little like a short stay motel adding to a throwback ambience from a bygone era.  The theater was clean, the restrooms were immaculate and the comfortable red seats were in fine shape. The venue itself seemed much smaller and more intimate then I had imagined with the upper balcony way up in true nosebleed land. My seat in the second level were four rows back dead center-a perfect vantage point for what was to come.

The opening act was very good but the singer said their name so fast no one around me heard what it was. Banjo, bass, guitar and some mostly high energy tunes was a nice table setter for the evening.

I had seen Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats last year opening for Chris Stapleton at Jones Beach and the small crowd in the pit got a taste of a band on the rise. This year Nathaniel and The Night Sweats are headlining at Forest Hills Stadium soon in support of a just released new album so a “big” show was snticipated.

If Van Morrison and Levon Helm had a baby boy they would name him Nate. The man is a rock and soul powerhouse. This is not a museum piece on the road like some of the veteran road warriors filling arenas these days. This is a band kicking ass, raising roofs and causing people to shimmy in the aisles. The sky is the limit for Rateliff and The Night Sweats as they travel the world in a soulful quest to save the music industry from greatest hits summer tours.

Tearing at the Seams

Rock on!

GQ