Those who know me, know that it takes a great deal of from a live performance to capture my interest. There are times that even my favourite bands like Wilco, King Cobb Steelie, Yo La Tengo, Superchunk and others have at times bored me in concert. So liking a band is not always a sign that I will love a concert. A key ingredient to any show is the atmosphere and the audience. And the latter element in this is something of a non-factor because you have no control over an audience except to avoid perpetually bad ones (like fans of The Tragically Hip).

The Horseshoe on a Monday night is usually a quiet affair, but with Festus, MO's The Bottle Rockets in town (to help celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the legendary club), all of the 30-something music junkies were in abundance. Even with a new album out on the tiny independent label, Doolittle, the band were intent on pleasing the partisan crowd with material from all of their four albums. The quartet of rough looking fellers took the stage soon after 11 p.m. and treated the boisterous crowd to almost two-and-a-half hours of Bottle Rocket music from the self-titled debut through to the latest, Brand New Year in chronological order, as singer/guitarist Brian Henneman proclaimed mid-way through the show. Backed by long-time BT members, rhythm guitarist Tom Parr, drummer Mark Ortmann and new bassist/backing vocals, Robert Kearns, Henneman had a fun time pleasing the crowd with every note. It was one big dancin' drinkin' and hollarin' night that featured faves like "I'll Be Comin' Around," "Radar Gun," "24 Hours A Day" and "Indianapolis" as well as renditions of new tunes like "Nancy Sinatra," "Alone In Bad Company" and the title track "Brand New Day."

For the encore, the band (who had been inundated with shots of tequila that they would down between songs toasting the 'juiced' crowd) started to take requests, and after a whack of inaudible suggestions they launched into "Welfare Music" from the Rockets' best album to date, The Brooklyn Side. This was followed by a solid hour of more Bottle Rocket mayhem that kept me smiling (on request) into the wee hours, surrounded by all of my good friends. What a night!