When Rivers Meet "Red Rum Duo" Tour - Live at Temperance
Review
This was my first live look at When Rivers Meet and boy was it worth the wait, and I am now completely sold on this band, tonight at Temperance was the last night of their "Red Rum Duo" Tour (it was originally scheduled to be the first date but had to be rearranged due to illness) featuring the husband and wife duo of Grace and Aaron (they also tour When Rivers Meet with larger line-ups up to a six piece)
Before the show I had a little chat with Grace and mentioning I was hoping to write a review jokingly asked if she could bribe me with a couple of beers, as I have been listening to their music for a couple of years I replied I really don't think you need to do that!
Very much a blues rock band they covered a lot of ground from that genre from the foot stomping riff laden rockers to the beautiful slower numbers and during these you could really feel the love between them with plenty of interplay, lingering looks, humorous banter along with drop dead gorgeous harmonies with their voices combining perfectly.
A vast array of instruments used during the set Aaron played several different guitars including his new baby Raven (what a beauty) made for him by the sound guy after he looked at Aaron's box guitar and thought he could do better, and he did that, also the kick drum beefed up the sound when it needed to go to 11!, he also has fine bluesy/soulful vocals.
Grace also pulled out all the stops instrument wise alongside her amazing vocal prowess she played wonderful guitar, mandolin, tambourine, violin and even her newly acquired harmonica skills at one point.
Standouts all over the shop ‘Battleground' heavy and pounding, ‘Free Man' with it's country rock touch and ZZ Top vibe, ‘Did I Break the Law' with its gritty riff and singalong chorus is a real rebel rouser, and loved the story about the police re: the shooting of the video of the latter, "the train track incident!"
Changes of pace included a sublime version of country standard ‘Ring of Fire' which included a chat by Grace about a dream she had that she was a cowgirl and then went in to the duo joking about chaps (then time for that impressive burst of harmonica) this segued into a clever reworking of Sony & Cher's ‘A Cowboy's Work is Never Done'.
The version of ‘Barton Hollow' by the The Civil Wars they played was amazing and they dealt with the vocals of this classic piece perfectly, while ‘Bury My Body' was sad yet so beautiful and the same can be said about the moving ‘Tomorrow' only the second song they wrote together.
They also talked about meeting some of their musical heroes Seasick Steve and Thunder with humorous results (now you know how we feel when we meet you guys!) and gave us a little of the history of the band, but the best story of the night was Grace mixing up the band Blue Oyster Cult with the Blue Oyster Bar that had me and many others in stitches those who remembered a certain movie that is!, not the last movie touch of the evening with it also being The "Red Rum" tour they had of course had a murder section of the set a clever certain famous horror movie reference!
Another knockout evening of live music at Temperance, loved every moment of this one and they were such a joy to meet and hope they will consider returning to the venue sometime.
Andrew Lock
