Ohio Native Erika Wennerstrom of the Heartless Bastards Returns Home to Perform at the Woodward Theater

This story is featured in CityBeat's Nov. 29 print edition.

One of the city’s best exports is coming back for a homecoming visit at the Woodward Theater on Dec. 9. 

Heartless Bastards, originally from Cincinnati before a move to Austin, Texas, in 2007, have put out a string of critically-praised records, gone on to play many music festivals and toured the world sharing stages with acts like The Black Keys, Bob Seger and Jason Isbell. 

Media attention has earned them appearances on two episodes of the revered music TV show Austin City Limits, as well as multiple performances on late night talk shows like The Late Show with David Letterman. 

Their back-to-basics and dynamic, driving power, rich lyrics, soulful vocal delivery and musical style touching on a tapestry of the history of rock and roll has earned and sustained their place among the most sought after groups of their time.

The band formed in Cincinnati when songwriter, guitarist and singer Erika Wennerstrom moved to town over 20 years ago from north Dayton and worked as a bartender at Northside Tavern and Clifton bar Arlin’s. The band performed at both places in the early days of their career. 

“I always loved playing both of the bars I worked,” Wennerstrom told CityBeat of the time. “I just felt like I had a real nice relationship with the customers that came in there and a lot of people were so supportive of the band.”

The Heartless Bastards’ early demos were recorded at former Cincinnati studio Ultrasuede, where Wennerstrom pieced together musicians to back her on recordings before forming a core band. “I always liked the idea of a band but I do kind of assemble the songs myself before I have musicians on it,” Wennerstrom said. “But I also feel, even as a solo artist, when you have great musicians on something, you’re usually not writing every single aspect of it, so you don’t really do it alone.”

One of those musicians was Wennnerstom’s longtime former partner and bassist for the band’s first few years, Mike Lamping. Lamping was a staple of the Cincinnati music community over the years before his untimely passing in October of 2021 at the age of 46. 

“Mike was a big part of the beginning of this group and somebody that I cared a lot about and this group and I wouldn’t be where I am today and we wouldn’t be having this show at the Woodward if it weren’t for a lot of the work that we did years ago that Mike was a part of. So, I feel like I owe so much of that… and just, I’m really sad that he’s not in this world. He was a really good human being,” Wennerstrom said.

The band was signed to Fat Possum Records in 2004 after The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney gave the label the band’s demo. Their debut album, Stairs and Elevators, was released in 2005 followed by All This Time in 2006. Wennerstrom and a changing crew over the years followed with a handful of well received releases met with growing acclaim. 

The first charting record, The Mountain (2009) brought Wennerstrom and the band to another level only to be followed by the even more successful Arrow in 2012 and more career defining festival dates, high profile tours, TV appearances and the release of Restless Ones in 2015.

Wennerstrom put out Sweet Unknown, a proper solo record, in 2018 that features an all-star cast, including members of My Morning Jacket and Okkervil River, followed by an accompanying tour opening for alt-country legend Lucinda Williams. 

She excitedly recalls a serendipitous connection to early Cincinnati beginnings while recording the album.

“There was a tape machine at Ultrasuede that I recorded my first demo on and when I was recording my solo album in Lockhart, Texas, in 2017, I don’t know how it came up, but maybe I mentioned Ultrasuede Studios or I saw something that said it on the tape machine and it turned out that Danny Reisch, that recorded my solo album, bought the same tape machine from Ultrasuede and I happened to record my solo album on the exact same tape machine that I did my demos… What are the odds, right, that I would end up randomly in a studio in Texas and have the exact same tape machine? It’s such a weird coincidence.” 

Heartless Bastards’ latest release, 2021’s A Beautiful Life presents a continuation of the dynamic sound of their previous work with even more elaborate production and expansive influences. Wennerstrom explains “influences on it are all over the place,” from space rock to French pop to Brazilian music. 

Opening track “Revolution” features Wennerstrom summing up the absurdities of modern life and delivering lines like a modern day version of Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”:“Constantly being advertised, a life commercialized and disguised/As happiness in pills and potions, fancy threads and cars in motion/Hypnotized by gilded lies to line the pockets of so few/While hungry politicians feed bullshit to the masses/To ensure their statuses and further divide the classes.” The title track is a gliding, ethereal meditation on defiant positivity that evokes the image of the album’s cover of flowing waves of color. 

She’s been gone for some time, but Cincinnati still holds meaning for Wennerstrom. “It's a big part of my life. I lived in Cincinnati for 10 years, I started the band there. I’ve been in Austin for 16 years now. That was just a big part of my life. It was the first 10 years of my adulthood and my life shaping and forming. It has a really big piece of my life and my heart. I have a lot of great friends there.”

Wennerstrom adds that the band still maintains Cincinnati musical connections. “Currently in the band, Beth Harris has been singing with me for years from (local bands) The Hiders and The Perfect Children. Doug McDiarmid, he’s been in Why? for years and some other projects.” 

For her plans outside of performing while visiting Cincinnati, Wennerstom tells CityBeat, “I love that Bridges place (Bridges Nepali Cuisine) in Northside. It wasn’t there when I lived there but once I tried it… I just love it. Camp Washington Chili is my favorite Cincinnati chili.” She also mentions Lemon Grass, her “favorite Thai place in town” and for record shopping, “I love going to Shake It.”

The band appeared at one of the Guided By Voices 40th anniversary celebration shows in Dayton alongside Built To Spill and Guided By Voices themselves, an early influence on Wennerstrom, back in September, but this will be their first performance in the city since a tour stop in spring of 2022 with the Flaming Lips. 

“I think we’re really set, really tight now,” she says. “We’re just really fired up, so I think that we’ll put on a great show.”

Heartless Bastards perform at Woodward Theater on Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. Info: woodwardtheater.com.