Nashville-based southern alternative rock group The Weeks delivered a riveting 45-minute set at The Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday afternoon.
The soulful southern rockers opened their riverfront set on The Boom Stage with “Brother In The Night,” a track off their latest album Dear Bo Jackson. Bassist Damien Bone is a centerpiece of the song, providing a catchy, soulful bass riff clearly intended to warm the audience up for the high-energy set to come.
“I can see all of your faces,” said frontman Cayne Barnes to a crowd of relaxed festival attendees. “Dance with the person next to you. I promise they’re fun.”
The band transitioned into “The House We Grew Up In,” the lead track off their 2012 studio album Gutter Gaunt Gangster, which heavily demonstrates the group’s Mississippi roots in the music and lyrics alike.
After playing a handful of songs off their first two studio albums, the group dove into a few tracks off their upcoming EP release. It wasn’t long before the audience began to catch up with the band’s energy, especially during “Mercury,” a track that clearly received the audience’s approval.
The Buttons EP, which will be released on August 5, features a couple of new songs, as well as a handful of re-recorded tunes from the band’s earlier days of Comeback Cadillac.
“We’re really kind of excited to see how people react to the re-recordings of the old songs and having to compare them to brand new songs,” Boone said.
The group, who has opened for world-renowned rock band Kings of Leon, has traded both smaller and stadium sized venues for a summer of festival dates, some of which included stops at Wakarusa Music Festival and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival last month.
“We really try to treat it exactly the same, and we always want to be in a 100-cap room right in front of the people,” guitarist Sam Williams said after the show. “I guess some bands probably want these giant stages and 10 thousand people, but it’s hard to connect with that 10 thousandth person.”
The set came to a close with the band’s latest single, “Buttons,” an older track that has been revamped with a higher tempo intended for dancing, which is exactly how the audience responded.
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