Fast cars, electric guitars, and all night bars. These are the phrases that came to mind when listening to SoCal’s Robert Jon & The Wreck this past Saturday at the iconic Exit/In in Nashville.
As part of AMERICANAFEST this past week, the blues rock n’ rollers put on an electrifying, face-melting performance that rumbled throughout the venue, leaving listeners delighted in their wake of sonic destruction.
Blistering riff after riff, Robert Jon & The Wreck mirrored heavy hitters like The Black Crowes or The Allman Brothers, eliciting a soul-quaking show that did the Exit/In ghosts of performances past proud. It was the band’s first time playing the venue, and their first AMERICANAFEST. The band kicked things off with “Pain No More,” the opening track off of their 2023 album, Ride Into The Light.
After rifling through several roaring numbers chock full of ample slide guitar, they played their most widely streamed track, “Oh Miss Carolina,” from their 2020 record, Last Light on the Highway. It’s indeed a banger and a helluva sing-along song. They would wrap up the 45-minute set with “Cold Night,” an early number from their 2015 debut album, Glory Bound.
The disciples of blues rock have been hitting the ground running this year both in pumping out new music and taking their show on the road. On June 28th, the band put out their whopping ninth studio album, Red Moon Rising, via Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records. That’s nine studio albums with two live albums all since 2015, according to Spotify. If you’re doing the math at home that’s… a lot. And without missing a beat, the band has already released two singles since — “Rager” and “Hate To See You Go” — with their next single due out this week, and yes, another album set for release likely early 2025.
And it’s not just pumping out new music month after month.
The band is no stranger to the road and sharing their raucous sound with the masses. This year they’ve been on and are currently on a worldwide tour, racking up swaths of dates from early February to early December, spanning from Phoenix, Arizona to Nottingham, England (and a hundred places in between).
Talking to the band backstage in the green room after, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Robert Jon Burrison — drowned in sweat and in need of a cold beer or six — told me he felt “really good” after their performance, and lead guitarist Henry James Schneekluth added, “I might have to get an AC30 now because that felt awesome,” triggering a chuckle from the others.
In discussing any special pre-show rituals before a show like this, the guys very quickly said in unison, “hands in.” Burrison went on to say, “Someone says a little speech, hopefully that makes everyone pumped up, and we have a stupendous rallying cry or some catch phrase we use.” And when asked what that hands-in stupendous rallying cry was on this night, naturally it was “AMERICANAFEST!” Nothing earth-shattering, but it was what preceded the heavy rock that soon followed.
The band also expressed the importance of what makes a “perfect” show to them, and that was the energy and reception of the audience, which they felt that night. “It doesn’t matter how big the show is, but if they’re giving us that same energy, that’s what makes it perfect.”
When asked about any tour or show horror stories, Schneekluth chimed in with something truly horrific. “One time Robert broke a string,” he started before Burrison quipped “One time?!” drawing a hearty laugh from the bunch. “No no, I didn’t finish the scenario!” He continued: “One time Robert broke a string, I broke a string, AND one of my guitars wasn’t working and the input jack was broken. We had a 40-minute set opening for Blackberry Smoke last year, and two songs in we had to figure out how are we going to get through the rest of the set with three out of five guitars down, and we just barely scraped by.” The gang had trouble remembering what venue this was at, but nonetheless this event lives rent free in Schneekluth’s head. The point they all made though was that technical difficulties are the biggest boogeyman, and understandably so.
There were no technical snafus on this Saturday night however, as the band seamlessly traversed through their epic blues-fueled setlist.
Robert Jon & The Wreck are gearing up to throw down at the Mempho Music Festival on October 4th in Memphis before a relatively quiet month sets in, and then it’s off to Europe to share their American made music.
