Murder By Death with American Aquarium
Headliners Music Hall
Louisville, KY
September 1st, 2023
Beloved Louisville band Murder By Death performed at Headliners Music Hall on September 1st to a packed house! With this run of shows being their last of the year, their fans turned out this evening to catch one of the remaining 2023 shows. If it wasn’t sold out, it was very close to it! With a blend of rock, folk, and gothic country sounds, the band has been performing for 20+ years and have grown a loyal and passionate fan base, in Louisville and around the world. Opening the show this evening was North Carolina alt-country band American Aquarium, who had the crowd singing in no time. Having been performing for close to 20 years, these guys had a warm energy engaging with each other and with the crowd, genuinely happy to be performing for everyone this evening. There were many fans in the crowd who were passionately singing along with the band. Starting out their set with ‘Casualties”, they performed an 11-song set list that included “The Long Haul”, “Six Years Come September”, “Losing Side of Twenty-Five”, and “Lonely Ain’t Easy”. Singer BJ Barham thanked the crowd for coming out this evening and for supporting live and independent music. Ending their set with “Burn.Flicker.Die”, they were the perfect start to the evening!
Closing out the evening was Murder By Death. Comprised of Adam Turla (vocals/guitars/keys), Sarah Baillet (cello/keys), Dagan Thogerson (drums/percussion), David Fountain (multi-instrumentalist/backing vocals), Tyler Morse (bass/backing vocals), and Emma Tiemann (violin), they had the whole crowd singing along from the first note! There’s something special about hearing an entire venue full of fans singing their hearts out at full volume, with this band holding a special place in all of their hearts. Starting out the set with “Riders” from their latest album Spell/Bound, they performed a 20-song set list that included several songs from their 2nd album, 2003’s Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?, of which this tour is a celebration. For three of their dates, they perfomred the album in it’s entirety, and for Louisville, they performed about half of it. Turla spoke a bit with the crowd between songs, saying how he had been coming to shows at Headliners since 1997 and thanked them for always being so welcoming, as well as a funny story about an encounter with a stranger while home in Louisville and out walking his dog. The mood this evening was light and fun, with some humor mixed in. Towards the end of the set, the band did an incredible cover of “Highwayman” by The Highwaymen, that would have made the country super group proud, with Turla, Fountain, and Morse taking turns singing the verses. “Ending” their set with “Alas”, they briefly left the stage, only to quickly come back out for a two-song encore. The band ended the evening with “No Oath, No Spell” and “The Desert Is on Fire”. It was a truly magical evening.
American Aquarium
Murder By Death
