Review: Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats offer powerful set in Calgary that was both explosive, intimateon March 14, 2025 at 11:59 am

While he never mentioned him by name, it wasn’t the first time the Denver-based singer-songwriter made reference to the man currently running his country and causing an unprecedented rift with its closest ally. Read More

Nathaniel Rateliff’s ultimate message to Calgary at the Saddledome Thursday night was fairly blunt. It wasn’t angry, just direct. It was delivered with a well-earned weariness after he ended his concert with a sweaty run through the Motown-on-steroids gem Love Don’t. “Don’t let the mother******s divide us,” he said as a final farewell. While he

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Nathaniel Rateliff’s ultimate message to Calgary at the Saddledome Thursday night was fairly blunt.
It wasn’t angry, just direct. It was delivered with a well-earned weariness after he ended his concert with a sweaty run through the Motown-on-steroids gem Love Don’t. “Don’t let the mother******s divide us,” he said as a final farewell.

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It was not an evening filled with political rants, but Rateliff made his position clear early on. “We’re with you,” he said. “We’re on your side. Elbows up. I want to be on the right side of history and right now the United States is not.”

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As eloquent as the message was, it was made all the more powerful by the dedication Rateliff and his nimble, seven-piece backup band the Night Sweats showcased Thursday night during a well-paced, expertly executed revue of R&B, soul, rock ‘n’ roll and American roots music. It is far too reductive to label Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats a retro act. His songs are too fresh and original for that. But the band’s command of lean Stax/Volt strains, Motown drama and gospel punch help make these numbers sound like instantly familiar classics even on first listen.

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Ringing in at 90 minutes, the concert wasn’t exactly a marathon. But it’s incredible that an act so closely associated with one song — the explosive 2015 gospel-soul banger S.O.B. — has so many good ones in its arsenal to choose from.

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Rateliff opened the night on piano, leading the band through a charging take on the Randy Newman-esque David & Goliath. By song No. 2 — the appropriately titled I’m On Your Side — Rateliff was hopping across the stage clutching his mic stand like a young Van Morrison.

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The crowd was fully on its feet by the time he hit the horn-sweetened soul-pop barnburner I Need Never Get Old and it was followed by the equally soaring heartland rock of Time Makes Fools Of Us All and swaggering You Worry Me. Even when the band did slow things down — on the drawling, stripped-down acoustic-guitar-and-horn blues number Slow Pace of Time and the loping Remember I Was A Dancer — they performed with an endearing sense of urgency. The set crescendoed with Hey Mama, a southern-rocker that ends with gospel flourishes, and a dynamic, driving take on Bruce Springsteen’s pop anthem Dancing in the Dark. The band did eventually blast through S.O.B., of course, but waited for the encores. It was launched with a lengthy and teasing organ intro that led to a suitably raucous climax with Rateliff turning it into a call-and-response shout-a-long with the audience.