This story is featured in CityBeat’s July 26 print edition.
Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell has the type of voice that echoes on and on and on, the perfect complement to the reverberating guitars he loves so much. He sounds like he means it, a bearded sad bastard who’s delivered a handful of the most durable rock tunes of the last two decades. Bridwell is the only guy left from the band’s original lineup, which formed in Seattle in 2004. Curiously, the Horses’ most recent album, 2022’s Things Are Great, is a return to the grittier grandeur of their early records following a run of glossier efforts. Bridwell seemingly admits to a change of approach on the album’s first single, “Crutch”: “Not, not a long time ago when I knew all the answers/I couldn’t pace myself or raise my standards/But one can hope, you need to know.” Elsewhere, belying the album’s title, “In Need of Repair” is a melancholic rumination about how “shit’s crazy” and that “every single day I hide from hurt” as an acoustic guitar intertwines with the chiming electric variety that has long carried the Horses’ tuneful drone.
Bridwell is surprised he’s still kicking, still writing songs and playing them for people far and wide.
“It seems so strange that I would’ve fallen into this thing, whatever it is,” Bridwell told Uproxx when Things Are Great dropped in March 2022. “It’s not a job, but there’s a lot of work to do. I’m still as wide-eyed and surprised as ever. To go through the catalog, I’m like, ‘Shit.’ It is like a personal timeline, especially thinking about all the stuff that was going on and what informed the records.”
If the Horses’ extensive 2022 tour is any indication, expect a healthy dose of Things Are Great material punctuated by longtime staples like “The Great Salt Lake,” “The Funeral,” “No One’s Gonna Love You” and “Is There a Ghost.” The most interesting trend last time out was the inclusion of a cover tune or two each night like INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart,” The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and, most curiously, Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon.”
Band of Horses play Bogart’s at 8 p.m. Aug. 5. Info: concerts.livenation.com.
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This article appears in Jul 12-25, 2023.