Nathaniel Rateliff might not get it, but New York gets the Wheel after Friday night’s CMJ set. Photos by John Hendrickson.
Friday’s audience in the Bowery Ballroom was hushed, attentive and generally swooning over a Denver folk band that “nobody” had heard of two days prior.
Friday night is when the big dogs come out at CMJ. My night began at Crash Mansion with a mega-decibel set of “garage disco” from . The Seattle trio rocked the Bowery’s cleanest venue (bathroom attendant and all) before some out of place, repetitive indie-pop/punk by Brooklyn’s . Then it was out and around the rainy corner for the High Road Touring showcase at the Bowery Ballroom. , all velvety and psychedelic (and Alaskan) was the marquee name on the bill, but was the talk of the night.
CMJ tastemaker waved his magic wand upon the Wheel after . Aside from the greater issue of one blogger’s palpable influence on a festival of 120,000 badge holders, Friday’s audience in the Ballroom was hushed, attentive and generally swooning over this Denver folk band that “nobody” had heard of two days prior (read the comments from the link above for proof).
Sitting crouched on the creaky stairwell backstage, Nathaniel Rateliff didn’t get it.
“I’m a little too old for that stuff,” Rateliff said. He laughed. “I don’t read blogs or tweet; I don’t even like getting text messages on my phone. But yeah, sites like that I guess are a vital resource for fans and bands like us.”
The Wheel’s CMJ shows — which wrapped up today with, you guessed it, a Brooklyn Vegan day party in Pianos’ second floor loft — are in stark contrast to the band’s fall tour opening for .
“I feel lucky and honored to have gone out with (the Fray),” Rateliff said. “Those guys are some of my best friends and it was great experience for us. But yeah, it’s quite a different audience than something like this. We got heckled in Morgantown, W.V.”
Rateliff stressed that neither the venue nor city truly matter and that any audience can dictate a show.
“People have been responding the same way here that they might back at the Hi-Dive. Granted, at those shows, I probably know a large portion of the audience. But they’re grateful to hear us play and we’re grateful for them to listen.”
Even with this new-found Big Apple popularity, Rateliff says the band has no intentions of leaving Denver. Of the countless artists he’s seen at festivals like CMJ or SXSW, Rateliff still thinks the best music he’s hearing is coming from his home city.
“I don’t think Denver will blow up like Seattle or Portland,” Rateliff said. “There’s no hipster uniform, no one particular feel. That’s what separates it. Denver is still hiding in the closet enough for its artists to do what they want or need to do.”
Stay tuned for more of John Hendrickson’s updates from CMJ ’09.
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John Hendrickson is a former Features and Entertainment intern at The Denver Post, an editor and featured writer at and a regular contributor to . In 2009 he was named one of the by .
