When I saw the four guys from Vintage Trouble bound onstage almost two years ago while waiting for The Who to play “Quadrophenia” at the cavernous Verizon Center in DC, I thought to myself, “Wha-WHAT? A warm up band for The Who? These guys better be REALLY good to crack this crowd at this place.” People around me nodded in agreement.  

Then, Vintage Trouble began to play. Not only did most of the arena crowd listen, but they danced and shimmied and wildly cheered every song in Vintage Trouble’s short warmup set. Triumphant is an understatement as it was one of the best warm up performances…no, one of the best performances period, of any band I had ever seen. Many in attendance that night, including me, instantly became “Troublemakers,” the name given to loyal fans of this mesmerizing, raucous, fantastic band of nattily dressed soul hellions who made the absolute most of this huge opportunity.

In the two years since that night, L.A.-born Vintage Trouble has rocked and souled all over the globe, tirelessly touring as both opener and headliner, including playing in front of 100,000 people at Hyde Park in London this summer warming up The Stones. They have consistently been wowing crowds with their wholly unique yet still familiar brand of soul-cum-rock-cum-firebreathing boogie woogie music and passionate performances. In essence, long tours and great music have helped the band cement themselves as one of the world’s most dynamic, exciting and memorable live acts in rock and roll today, all after releasing only one album, “The Bomb Shelter Sessions“ in 2011 and a just-dropped EP “The Swing House Acoustic Sessions.” 

And last Thursday night in a triumphant return to the Hamilton in Washington, it was another bigtime POW WOW of a show, as Vintage Trouble put on one of their typically dynamic, exciting, well-played, sweat soaked performances in front of three or four hundred deliriously happy Troublemakers. It truly seemed everyone there knew the band’s repertoire by heart, and basked in VT’s white hot glow from start to finish. 

It’s not lost on this sensational quartet – lead singer Ty Taylor, guitarist Nalle Colt, bassist Rick Barrio Dill and drummer Richard Danielson – how stunning an experience it is to play both near and far away lands and get the amazing response they’ve gotten in their short four years in existence, despite only having one and a half albums released. And amazing response they did get on this night, with a standing room only crowd shaking their groove things non-stop almost on top of the band on stage. 

As far as lead man Taylor’s extraordinary stage persona — a whirling dervish soul king mix of Al Green, James Brown, Joe Cocker and, well, himself — it was hard to keep your eyes off him during the show, as he went from smooth soul crooner to manic soul shaker at a moment’s notice. Seeing Taylor spinning and undulating during the faster tunes and caressing the mike and the audience during the slower ones, you couldn’t help conjuring up some of those soul Gods. So where does this unforgettable “character” come from? 

“What I do right now I’ve never done before,” Taylor told me before the show. “So I feel like the persona first comes from the connection that all of us [in the band] have. On top of that, any class that comes into my performance comes from my Mom, and anything that’s a little dirtier, and a little more potty-mouthed comes from my Dad. Some of that persona that comes across like a preacher, a cocky kind of activist of some kind, it comes from a need or a desire to have all of us in the band amplify what’s inside of us.”

The show was chock full of tunes from their two releases, as well as a couple gems new to even the die hards. But what separates Vintage Trouble from some of the other raucous soul rock bands is that they let the sweat dripping music lay low for a little while mid-set, and assumed chairs in a line on the stage to present a stirring acoustic set that included moving soul soaked odes of love, loss and redemption. Taylor may blow your mind during the faster stuff, but he is equally as powerful when singing slower, emotional tunes as well. 

Like many other successful bands, the guys in Vintage Trouble knew right away after they got together in 2010 that they’d found it; that special something that defines longevity and camraderie, which are not automatic commodities in a rock and roll band.

“You’ve been in bands your whole life, and then you meet a buncha guys and you suddenly connect and that makes it work,” said band co-founder Colt. “Vintage Trouble is such an amazing journey. We’re so grateful for being part of this, how it happens, you just never know.”

Onstage that connection is in the air, you can feel it, as these four brothers-in-soul glanced each other’s way often, frequently smilng and nodding in approval for jobs well done. From Vintage Trouble classics like “Nancy Lee” and “Lo and Behold” to “Nobody Told Me”, a stunningly poignant song about conquering bullying, the quartet were in sync and on fire with stellar musicianship across the board, from Colt’s finesse filled guitar work, to Dill and Danielson’s rock solid yet sometimes daringly raw rhythm section. 

And as for the Troublemakers? I talked to one woman in line replete with a Troublemaker-labeled t-shirt who had just gotten achilles tendon surgery but wasn’t going to miss this, and miss it she didn’t, dancing wildly as we both backslapped a sweaty Taylor when he raced from the stage across the venue and up into our upper bar area to sing to us and the masses below. People know and love this band voraciously only after a short time out there, which is a testament to the band’s heavy fan contact and personal touch. 

“The ‘Troublemakers’ kinda found themselves,” said Colt, “and it’s so cool to see how it’s been growing to a worldwide kinda thing. We got a lot of help in the beginning [from the online community] and it just works. And now, we have a personal relationship with people all around the world, and there’s something really joyous about it. Like you say, the grass roots kinda thing, it’s something that we all appreciate and we’re super excited that it happened this way. It’s hard to explain, it’s just there.  And we really try to nurse it ‘cuz it’s important to us and it’s personal to us. We got a chance to play music every day, and that means so much, that the ‘Troublemakers’ are supportive.”

For Vintage Trouble, it’s all about the music. They play wherever they can in any arena, stadium or club in order to embrace this incredible journey, all the while feeding off gleeful and appreciative audiences and their surroundings. And with this superb performance in DC last week, the sky is the limit, as this supernova band laid claim to being one of the best live acts out there right now. 

Go ahead, get into some Trouble the next time these guys come around. I dare ya.Â