There’s always that one band. The one you can go back and listen to no matter how long it’s been or how much your musical tastes change. The one that’s always in your artillery when someone fires the “What kind of music do you like?” question at you. The one that sticks with you through the best — and worst — times.
For me, that one band is City and Colour. With his soothing soprano voice, Folk acoustic sound and meaningful, somber lyrics, Dallas Green (who created City and Colour as an outlet for his solo material in 2005) has been my personal fallback artist since 2011. Last week, I saw him live for the first time when he stopped by Bogart’s.
Going into it, I had romanticized visions of what the concert would be — Green singing his heart out to a room full of dedicated fans, and an overall ethereal experience that would stick with me for a lifetime. Although his performance was everything that I hoped and dreamed for, the crowd was less than desirable.
Noah Gunderson, a solo acoustic artist, opened the show, but I could barely give an accurate description of his live performance because the crowd at Bogart’s was so disrespectful and loud. Literally shouting over Gunderson’s soft, romantic acoustic set, the audience was embarrassing. At one point, a fight almost broke out, and Gunderson had to stop in the middle of a song to calm things down.
Luckily, once Dallas Green and his band of trusted musicians took the stage, things started to fall into place. City and Colour’s latest album, If I Should Go Before You, had a lot of influence on the set, although Green didn’t stick to it completely. Throwbacks like “Body In A Box, Sleeping Sickness” and “Bring Me Your Love” from the 2008 album Bring Me Your Love were mixed in with more recent songs, like “Woman” and “Friends.” As a six-year fan of City and Colour, I was relieved Green went back to his roots and played some of the fan favorites from the golden age of Emo Rock and sad-boy acoustic songs.
The entire performance was incredible — from the music to the lighting to the obvious rapport the band members had on stage. The guy in front of me warned that this concert would “change my life,” and he was right. But it didn’t settle in until Dallas Green was left on stage alone, with a single spotlight and his trusted acoustic in hand.
“This song is about being kind to each other, which seems to be a little bit more difficult nowadays,” Green said softly into the microphone during his encore as he introduced “We Found Each Other In The Dark,” the opener from his 2011 album Little Hell. After “Comin’ Home,” a song from his 2005 solo debut, Green went directly into “This Could Be Anywhere In The World,” the most popular song by Alexisonfire, the Post Hardcore band Green initially found success with.
During a duet with keyboardist Matt Kelly, Green set down his guitar and sang his heart out on “Sensible Heart,” a song from Bring Me Your Love, my favorite City and Colour album. But even during Green’s powerful presentation of such poignant, personal lyrics, many in the crowd still had no qualms about continuing their loud conversations.
Walking in the concert, I could tell the audience was a mixed bag. From hipsters to hillbillies of all ages, at first it seemed like the diverse crowd was a testament to how City and Colour’s music crosses any number of social boundaries in a beautiful way. Then I heard the guy next to me tell his girlfriend that she should be happy that he escorted her to a concert that he really didn’t want to be at anyway. While half of Bogart’s seemed thrilled to be there, joyfully singing along to Green’s songs, the other half shouted above the music whenever they had the chance. As a die-hard fan, this was truly upsetting.
City and Colour’s music means something to me. “Body In a Box” was the first song I listened to when I heard my friend Collin took his own life last year. Bring Me Your Love is my go-to album when I want to fall asleep during a long bus ride. And “The Girl” is the perfect feel-good romantic song to sing along to with the windows down, cruising around with your significant other.
Had City and Colour played to a Bogart’s full of fans that had some sort of connection to the music (or, at the very least, respect for the performers and other audience members), it would’ve been a completely different atmosphere. Though the crowd was subpar, City and Colour’s performance was spectacular. Hopefully the musicians weren’t too offended to return to Cincinnati in the future.
This article appears in Jun 7-14, 2017.