Ryan Bingham – April 2nd – Ogden Theatre

On Tuesday night Ryan Bingham brought his Country flavored Rock-n-Roll show to a sold-out Ogden Theatre and boy did he delight the crowd that snapped up tickets almost as soon as they went on-sale. The room was packed with everyone from long haired hippies, to hipsters, to cowboy hat and boot wearing ranch hands who made the haul into Denver for a night on the town with one of their favorite songwriters.

After a set from The American’s, a Pop tinged Country Rock outfit from Los Angeles, Bingham and his band took the stage to a deafening roar and kicked things off with “Nothin’ Holds Me Down,” the first of nine songs featured on his great new record American Love Song. He then launched into the album’s incredibly infectious lead track “Jingle and Go” and it was immediately apparent that most of the crowd had been studying hard for this one as they knew every word.

Bingham then dove back in time to Fear and Saturday Night with “Top Shelf Drug” before delivering another pair of great new tunes in “Beautiful and Kind” and the politically charged “Got Damn Blues” that set the stage nicely for a stripped down three song set that featured a minimal drum kit. The band slipped into a slow, but building, take on Bingham’s classic “Southside of Heaven” that lead into recent single “Wolves” and finally a version of “Bread and Water” that allowed the fiddle to shine in the spotlight before the band returned to their places and welcomed the background singers who had been so brilliant earlier in the night.

A little later in the set, as Bingham delivered a powerful “Hallelujah” he took a moment to reference a series of gun shots that rang out across the street just as the band was getting off their bus. While many in the crowd had been inside when the violence erupted, a quick glance at the internet on Wednesday morning revealed that a person had been killed in a shooting on the 1400 block of Ogden street about 8:30 PM Tuesday night. While it was a sobering moment, Bingham pulled the crowd back into “Hallelujah” and then closed the set with a three song run from “What Would I’ve Become” to “Sunrise” and finally into the “rowdy love song about blowing up cars” that he wrote for his wife, “Lover Girl,” to close out the main set.

After a quick break, the band returned with the powerful pairing of “Nobody Knows My Trouble” and a “Bluebird” that took us all deep into a
bluesy psychedelic place that was the perfect way to wrap up a fantastic evening of music. Ryan Bingham is a treasure of American music, and it was a treat to have him back in the intimate confines of The Ogden.