Four-hundred-something miles from the Las Vegas Strip, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats brought the showmanship, style, and vintage soul to Reno, NV that would’ve been just as comfortable a half-century ago in the glamorous theaters of Sin City. Tuesday’s concert at the Grand Sierra Resort Theatre marked a comparative underplay for Rateliff and his backing band as they travel the country on their first-ever arena tour.
Before Rateliff and The Night Sweats came swaggering onstage, Iron & Wine welcomed the crowd into the theater that was—as the name suggests—grand. The artist born Samuel Ervin Beam had a far more inviting presence than his Karl Marx-style beard may suggest and within minutes his Nick Drake-esque brand of haunting folk was melting hearts among the incoming crowd. He made me cry in the first song, if that tells you anything.
When the lights came down for the main event, The Night Sweats’ already pulsating bass was further emphasized compared to Iron & Wine’s acoustic opening set. From the start of the show, Rateliff was the literal center of attention as he was flanked on his left and right by his seven-piece backing band. Behind a piano, Rateliff kicked off the show with “David & Goliath”, the first of four songs from the band’s latest album South of Here to appear in the 20-song setlist.
As Rateliff stepped down the stage’s illuminated stairs, it felt like watching an old episode of the T.A.M.I. Show restored in color. The suits, the pageantry, and the presentation all melded into a wonderfully nostalgic anachronism for the bygone days of classic R&B music. Dressed in a smart rust-colored suit and white polka-dot dress shirt with the collar open just the right amount to accentuate his soulful aesthetic, Rateliff controlled the band and the crowd all night with the snap of his fingers, shake of a tambourine, and of course, his full-throated hollering.
The Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats variety hour-and-a-half presented the multi-faceted sides of a cosmopolitan artist. While those only familiar with the hit “S.O.B.” could write them off as just another 2010s stomp-clap band, in concert the group showed it had much more to offer beyond the obligatory chart-topping encore. The razor-sharp rebuke “Survivor” showed the band’s edge, the feverish “I Need Never Get Old” displayed the group’s reverence for classic R&B, and the driving E Street Band-style “Time Makes A Fool Of Us All” came full circle when they closed the set with a spot-on cover of “Dancing in the Dark”. Though Rateliff is of course the star of the show, his two-man saxophone team of Jeff Dazey and Andy Wild were never far behind in the limelight.
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After a frenzied opening to the show as the band chugged through songs, the back half of the evening showed its softer side. The penitent “Face Down in the Moment” offered a time for reflection, ultimately steamrolled into a gospel proclamation (“All your life you’ve been face down, now it’s time for you to see!”). Shedding his backing band aside from the horn section, Rateliff grabbed a resonator guitar for some Mississippi Delta-inspired blues on The Future B-side “Slow Pace of Time”. The frontman even took an (all too brief) dip into his folk side with the title track from his 2020 solo album And It’s Still Alright, and some Laurel Canyon inspiration came out with “Wasting Time”.
In the end, it all came back to the firey singing and stage presence that brought Rateliff & The Night Sweats to prominence a decade ago. Though not everyone’s favorite part, revival-style Rateliff is a necessary part of his artistic makeup, and—judging by the crowd participation—lots of folks were excited to hear the group’s hit song. Sure, it’d be easy to judge the band based on its biggest song (like I did when I last saw them in 2016), but Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats prove in concert that there’s so much more to them. Beyond neo-soul aesthetics, folk forays, blues interludes, and flashy suits, there’s a complicated band that continues to evolve, creating music shaped by tradition while simultaneously forging into the future. They just don’t make bands like this anymore.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats will continue their tour with shows at L.A.’s Kia Forum on Friday and Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Saturday before hitting Canada, the Midwest, and the Northeast in March. This summer they’ll appear at Willie Nelson‘s traveling Outlaw Music Festival and Bourbon & Beyond. Find tickets and tour dates on Ticketmaster.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats — “S.O.B.” — 2/18/25
[Video: Josh F]
Setlist: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats | Grand Sierra Resort Theatre | Reno, NV | 2/18/25
Set: David & Goliath, I’m On Your Side, Survivor, Look It Here, I Need Never Get Old, Time Makes A Fool Of Us All, A Little Honey, You Worry Me, Wasting Time, Heartless, Face Down in the Moment, Get Used to the Night, Slow Pace of Time [1], And It’s Still Alright [2], Remember I Was A Dancer, Hey Mama, I’ll Be Damned, Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen)
Encore: S.O.B., Love Don’t
[1] Nathaniel with the horn section only
[2] Nathaniel with guitarist and bassist only