Review – Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats triumphantly battled sound issues in a thrilling MTelus show

Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats
MTelus
May 19, 2018
Photos: Victor Ahn-Royer

This wasn’t how Nathaniel Rateliff hoped the night would go.

Taking the stage at a sold-out MTelus for the final night of their North American tour, Rateliff and his 7-piece Night Sweats band kicked into “Shoe Boot,” the soulful opening track of their sophomore album, Tearing at the Seams. But as Rateliff shimmied up to center stage to take the mic, it quickly became clear that none of his vocals were reaching the crowd. The backing vocal mics for the band were also off, resulting in a strange disconnect as the band continued through the song at full tilt, not realizing that the crowd was in effect only getting an instrumental version of the track.

After a quick exit from the stage while some likely very stressed-out techs worked out the sound issues, the band returned and once again kicked off the same number, with the crowd roaring in appreciation once the vocals kicked in. Unfortunately, sound issues crept back in a few more times during the set, with Rateliff repeatedly apologizing for their sound board “shitting the bed.” Nevertheless, the band was dedicated to making the best of a frustrating situation — when the sound issues resurfaced during the down tempo “Wasting Time,” Rateliff simply sat on the edge of the stage with an unplugged acoustic guitar and kept performing the song, which was still audible in the very back of the cavernous venue.

At times the sound issues almost took on a comical game of cat and mouse — at one point a tech crept behind Rateliff to replace a mic, and when Rateliff reached back for what he thought was the working mic, the crowd frantically gestured that they had been switched behind his back.

The sound issues must have been grating for the band on the final night of their tour, but it did make for an unpredictable and exciting show. With a set list heavy on the new album, the band put on a true rock n’ roll soul revue, complete with a cracking 3-piece brass section and an exuberant keyboardist, who also doubled up as a hype-man throughout the set.

While the audience was extremely vocal all night, the energy in the room lifted up a notch for the hit single “I Need Never Get Old,” off the band’s debut LP, and nearly shook the building to its foundations during the rousing “S.O.B.” (so much so that the audience continued the song’s “Whoa Oh” chant throughout the entire intermission break).

The night may not have panned out exactly how the band had hoped it would, but it left the band and over 2,000 fans all in the same boat, with everyone making a pact to plow through the show no matter how many curveballs were thrown in the way. It solidified the bond between the band and their rabid fans, and was definitely a night neither side is likely to forget anytime soon.