It’s Ryan Bingham, right? He’s got that nice low raspy busted-down voice, he writes killer lyrics, and he regularly deploys a bottle slide. All of these things are keys to my heart. I don’t know much of his catalog, so when we showed up at the Ogden, we found a corner to stand in close to the front, and engaged in a little crowd-watching while Bingham and the Dead Horses did their thing.
The first two-thirds of that show was a group therapy session for victims of the recession. The songs are heavy on the following things: being poor, West Texas, enjoying marijuana, drinking whiskey, and coping with hard times. And the crowd was really into it. The PBR flowed. The people danced. The people also pulled out their lighters. The people had a good time.
Still, there were some weird things: Bingham’s up there singing about being poor and coping with hard times, and meanwhile the Ogden has a couple of sections reserved for VIP areas — prime seats in the balcony, mostly — that stayed pretty much empty during a sold-out show that they had already moved from a smaller venue several more blocks down East Colfax due to popular demand. More bizarre, though, was the event staff busting audience members for lighting up. I’ve never seen that happen at a show in Denver or Boulder, and neither had the friend I went with. Pot is just part of how shows go here, and event staff looks the other way. Except tonight — and Bingham’s guitar tech was helping bust the smokers. We could see him pointing out the offenders from the stage. There was such a blatant disconnect between the lyrical content and what was going on around us that it was next to impossible to get into things.
It didn’t help that Bingham produces weaker live work when he’s backed by the Dead Horses. His rasp works against him when he’s struggling to be heard over his plugged-in backup musicians. When that’s combined with the band’s lackluster output during instrumental breaks — nobody up there seemed to have the chops to bust out an impressive riff, or if they did, they elected not to show us — I leaned over and asked my friend why we came again.
We found out at the first encore, which Bingham did entirely by himself, acoustic. We could finally hear the quiet, honest brilliance that made me pause the KGSR compilation I first heard him on so I could start the song over again and pay real attention. It was an entirely different show once Bingham played by himself, and one I liked a lot better than the first part.
Some artists maybe you just shouldn’t hear live. Bingham seems to work better for me in the studio; your mileage may vary. Still, I’d love to see him at a smaller venue, or at least a less beer-soaked venue, playing solo. The show I saw was decent, but there’s a lot of room for improvement. He’s worth your time and money, but be prepared for the Dead Horses portion of the program.
I also want to thank the man who made room for the two women standing next to us so they could get away from the seven-foot-tall guy who rubbed his rear end on anything that held still for more than a second. Seven-foot-tall guy was pretty clearly impacting their enjoyment of the show (and mine, for that matter), and making room like that, and asking them if they wanted to move over and away, is the kind of behavior that keeps women like me going to shows. Well played, sir.
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I think you must have been standing to close to the speakers, I was standing in the middle in front of the sound board and I couldn’t disagree more about the over all sound and the tightness of the band. I have listened to these guys hundreds of times on my high-fi system spinning the best of vinyl and how they sounded like last night blew even that away. Coming in to the show I wasn’t sure how good these guys were going to be, I was worried about amateur hour, but to my mind blowing suprise these guys are truly rock stars who won’t get their due until they do about five more hollywood movies soundtracks. I can agree that people in the crowd were less than pleasant, where hole do these strange humans crawl out of?
The balance of the band was fine; rasp and roadhouse don’t mix very well, that’s all. Thanks for the comment! Glad you enjoyed the show!
In reference to your last paragraph, that was the exact scene that I was involved in (not sure if I am one of the two girls you are talking about). However, I would also like to say thanks to that man as well. My friend & I greatly appreciate his chivalry.
I really, really hope there weren’t two occurrences of that kind of behavior, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if there were. Thank you for chiming in, and I hope you were still able to enjoy the show!
I think you hit the nail on the head, the sentiments on my photo gallery are basically the same. It’s amazing, the audience is all that my girlfriend and I could talk about after the show (and all we’re still talking about). We were up front and had gotten there at open, yet we had people pushing and shoving their way forward numerous times late in the show, pushing us out of the way for their own personal purposes, starting fights, while simultaneously flashing peace signs. It was one of the most identity-confused, imaged-driven crowds I think I have ever encountered — listening to simple, peace-loving music, wearing long hair and western-fashion, while behaving aggressively, entitled, and without any concern for the experience of their fellow concert-goers.
The most hilarious part was the mass consumption of $6/can PBR’s by all these faux-hippies and inner-city cowboys. Anyone wealthy enough to drop $6 a pop on numerous PBR’s couldn’t have possibly connected to Ryan Bingham’s music. Maybe they were there for Silent Comedy?
Great writeup. I think you’d like my photo gallery of the show:
http://nativephotographic.smugmug.com/Events/Ryan-Bingham/15987994_i4X2q
Good to know I wasn’t the only one who noticed — my friend and I were pretty taken aback after the show. At least some of the Western wear was real, and not the CU or Capitol Hill kind, but I also didn’t see any of those folks starting anything, either.
Fantastic pictures! 🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed the show. The Dead Horses knocked it out with tight, well performed, well written songs. Ryan Bingham is the real deal. Crowds at these events are always something.
I still don’t understand why one would pay $20 and talk all the way through the show. Just go to a bar and BS if thats what you want to do. Or at least go stand in the lobby and let those of us who want to listen get to hear the music. I don’t want to hear about who is dating Heather and how awesome the snow is at Vail and other BS.
Overall, a great show, I will make a point of trying to see him again. Maybe I will get lucky and they will play at a venue where people want to listen.
For another venue within reasonable driving distance (though I don’t know about the price of lodging at this time of year) where people generally tend to behave themselves a lot better, I can’t say enough good things about Belly Up Aspen. Bingham played there last Saturday night, and if it wasn’t the middle of ski season, I’d have thought about making the drive. A few summers ago, Andrew Bird and Leo Kottke played there on back to back nights, so I went up and stayed at a campground five miles outside of town. Those are two of the best shows I’ve ever seen, both in quality of performance and in quality of audience behavior, and the staff was great. I also suspect Bingham’s sound might have gone over better at Belly Up — it’s a much, much smaller venue.
Glad you enjoyed the show! Thanks for the comment! 🙂
[…] I was reading Carmichael’s piece, I kept thinking about Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses at the Ogden in February. To be clear: the parallels I see there have nothing to do with Bingham’s songwriting or […]