Ratboys, Palehound & youbet Invade Warsaw

Ratboys, Palehound & youbet Live at Warsaw (2024-11-16)

Chicago’s Ratboys have been a busy band this year. They were out on tour most of the summer as support for The Decemberists (a tour which passed through Brooklyn over at the gorgeously renovated Brooklyn Paramount back in May. On Saturday night they finished up a mini co-headlining tour with Palehound which they commenced on a couple of weeks ago. All of which had been sandwiched between a whole bunch of solo headlining gigs which has brought them all over the country in support of last year’s stellar album release, The Window.

The evening at Warsaw in Greenpoint started with local three piece youbet and their brand of indie fuzz. Youbet, the name of which is a spin on lead singer/guitarist/songwriter, Nick Llobet’s name, put on an enjoyable and somewhat inspiring opening set which had the friends and faithful in the crowd singing right along to Nick’s lyrics which in a humorously playful way deal with dysfunctional relationships, regret, self-confidence or the lack thereof, queerness, and self-discovery.

Next up on Saturday was Ratboys. This being a hometown show for Palehound, they were the closing act which personally, I felt was a bit unfortunate from a flow and sequencing perspective but I certainly get it. Set opener, “Space Blows” off of 2021’s Happy Birthday, Ratboy with Sean Nuemann’s pounding bass and Julia Steiner’s high pitched vocals were quite the apt beginning to what would be an absolutely fantastic set. Next up was one of my favorite tunes from The Window, “No Way” which starts out with a slow Americana(ish) rhythm and then shortly thereafter morphs into a passionately pure indie lament with Steiner’s repeated chorus of “no way you’ll control me”.

It was at this point that Julia paused to say that upon completion of the band’s 2024 touring that they would be taking some time off from the road to record a new album to the delight of the crowd. I don’t know if this show was officially sold out but I can say that the room was absolutely packed. In any event with this little bit of great news divulged, the band then offered up one of the as yet unrecorded songs, a tune I believe to be aptly called “The World, So Madly”. We would be treated a little later on in the set with another new one called “Strange Love”. And again late in the set called “Penny In The Lake”. In any event, judging from the renditions of these three new ones live, the forthcoming album certainly shows tremendous promise of being an absolute banger.

Moving along the set would continue to go back and forth between new, sort of new and older material. This seems like as good a time as ever to mention one of the things which I most admire and appreciate about Ratboys’ music. As I mentioned earlier, they have a masterful knack of mixing Americana/alt-country (or whatever they’re calling it these days) with a more modern indie feel. At numerous points during the set at Warsaw the band would give off twinges of twang but never get too deep into it. A tease here and then a tease there and these little snippets were just perfect. And then all of a sudden you got the Dickie Betts-like guitar jam from Dave Sagan on closing tune “Black Earth, WI” which seemed to go on and on forever but never seemed too long or ever approached self indulgence. Instead, it was shear bliss and it was truly a treat to hear a modern day indie band stretch things out and move away from the common place 3 minute deadline which seems to be placed on so much new music these days. And just as “Black Earth” comes to an abrupt and sudden stop at its conclusion, so did Ratboys’ set. While I most certainly could have gone for more, I was completely satisfied and happy with the hour and small change of wondrous musicianship the band had offered up.

Closing the evening out was of course the hometown heroes of the evening, Palehound. While I had come to the show specifically to see Ratboys, it became apparent as soon as El Kempner and the band took the stage that I was clearly in the minority, as the crowd was held in rapt as El began to belt out her very personal and poignant lyrics to the bashing and crashing of the band behind the. They opened up their set with the two opening tracks from 2023’s Eye On The Bat before diving deeper into some older material from Black Friday, A Place I’ll Always Go, and Dry Food. I would be remiss If I didn’t mention that as heartfelt and emotional El’s words are, they can absolutely shred on the guitar. This had to be the surprise of the evening for myself. El’s mastery of the fretboard was an a treat to behold.

All in all, once again, Warsaw Concerts managed to present a great evening of music to what I have to believe was an absolute delight of everyone in attendance. While I personally thought the placement of Ratboys in the middle of the 3 bands wasn’t ideal, I can honestly say that it did work. While I hadn’t specifically come to see Palehound, I ended up leaving quite happy to have seen them and wholeheartedly enjoyed what was a wonderful set and an accomplished finish to a sweet evening of music.