Wild Adriatic’s new album Big Suspicious was released on Saturday, January 18th in Albany and to celebrate, the band played an all-out rock and roll show to a sold out crowd at The Hollow Bar + Kitchen. The band was feeding off of the energy of the crowd for their hour and a half long set; bringing everything they had in their musical bag of tricks and more to the frenzied audience.
The evening started with The Black Fox River Project and their country-flavored rock tunes filling the venue with slide guitars and harmonies. Their music is better meant for summer time instead of the bitter cold winter that was taking place outside, but it made everyone inside the venue feel that much closer to the warmer weather to come. Their set ended with a great up-tempo rock number that had the crowd dancing for the first time of the evening, in what would become the norm for the remainder of the night.
Buffalo natives Aqueous were up next and came out of the gates swinging with funky laced rock that kept the crowd going for almost an hour straight. Dave Loss switched from his guitar to his keyboard throughout the entire set, showing great skills on both instruments, while Mike Gantzer ripped solos on his guitar continuously bringing many cheers from the crowd. Evan McPhaden and Nick Sonricker, on bass and drums respectively, held down the grooves for the other two to work over. Aqueous showed the crowd during their set why they are on the rise and ready for a huge year.
The jam-packed crowd seemed to get even thicker by the time Wild Adriatic took the stage. Travis Gray’s distinctly soaring vocals were perfect during the entire set, as was Rich Derbyshire’s superb bass playing, and Mateo Vosganian’s drum kit rattled all evening as he pounded endlessly. The band was joined by Pat Daley on keys during the set to celebrate his inclusion on the album. On a couple of songs the band was also joined by a three part horn section that added an extra element to the already amazing music being played.
Covering almost their entire album, as well as a cover of the classic “Shout”, Wild Adriatic played a show to remember to start off a year that will see them go all over the country and play South by Southwest. Their brand of rock and roll reverberates to the 70s bluesy garage era of music that comes out and takes your breath away from all the dancing that goes on. Ending on a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” many members of the audience climbed onto the stage to dance with the band as they tore through the number. The show was being filmed by the band and hopefully we will all get to relive the show again soon.
Setlist: Your Man, Mess Around, The Fool, Holding You, Trouble, Cooperstown, Tight Grip, Lose My Mind, Because of Me, Shout, 40 Days, Heavy Soul, Letter, Lonely, Woe, The Spark, Immigrant Song
