by Matt Kelchner

With a new album released just days before their show at Boot and Saddle, the Rosebuds came in like the veteran band they are. Sand+Silence is their latest in a long discography. The Raleigh, North Carolina duo of Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp took the the stage to unleash an impressive night filled with many of the standout hits from their new album, as well as a number older fan favorites as well.

Opening the show for them was folk singer Jesse Marchant. Coming in halfway through one of his songs early in his performance one thing immediately stuck out to me, Jesse Marchant has one hell of a voice. There was a subtle smoothness to it that amplified the heartfelt lyrics Marchant sang. From song to song he switched between acoustic and electric, gracefully strumming and fingerpicking as he went along. On songs like “Swallowing Daggers”, the sincerity alone in Marchant’s delivery made the entire crowd silent as their complete attention was set on him. In between playings songs from his previous albums, Marchant treated the crowd to a few new songs from his upcoming self-titled release. As Marchant finished the room began to swell with fans eagerly awaiting the Rosebuds to take the stage.

On record the Rosebuds are just Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp. In concert their group expands to five, a group that looked a bit packed on the small stage at Boot and Saddle. Having been around since 2001, the Rosebuds have managed to amass a rather large collection of albums. Thursday night they reached deep into that collection. Throughout the night they played fan favorites such as “The Beat Goes On” and “Boxcar”. They even reached as far back as the first song they released as a band, “Back to Boston”.

The first song played from their new album, Sand+Silence, was it’s title track. From then on, the Rosebuds intertwined songs new and old. Every song played from the new release was just as well received as the older, more well known songs with the fans. The band took the energy coming off all of the dancing and singing from the crowd and gave it right back to them. The Rosebuds played Thursday night as if they were at Union Transfer, not Boot and Saddle (not to knock Boot and Saddle or anything). Their experience of over ten years of being together really shined through and resonated with the fans.

As the night came to a close, a careful eye was kept on the 11 o’clock curfew time as the Rosebuds tried to cram in as many songs as they could. No encore or lengthy ramblings, the tunes just kept coming one after another. After pouring their love out to the crowd and inviting them all up to their next show in New York, The Rosebuds went into their closing song “Nice Fox”. Another crowd favorite and classic Rosebuds song, it was extended as Crisp left her keyboard to hop into the crowd and singalong with them. At the same time, Howard put down his guitar to free himself up to direct the crowd as they sang along, hitting and matching every vocal harmony in the song. It was a proper ending to the night and one that left both the Rosebuds and their fans walking away smiling from ear to ear.