SIS At The Club: The Rosebuds

It was the coldest it had been in quite some time in the Boston area this past weekend, but nothing would keep me from seeing The Rosebuds for the seventh time. There could be a blizzard, and so long as Kelly and Ivan Rosebud, along with whoever filled in behind the kit and bass that night would be in a room in my locale, I would be there, too. They are the band you take all of their songs to heart - they are life changers. They are the band you can apply to that old saying about breaking out of jail to see them.

They stepped out on stage past 11:30, minutes later than they were due to. As "Hello Darlin'," the whistling-dixie instrumental from Life Like played over the PA of the Middle East, Ivan took stage first. Kelly would eventually walk out in such a striking number of white dress and was it - leg warmers or just really high white socks - waving to us all like the beauty pageant winner she is. She gave some of us, myself included, a welcoming high five. The only other thing she could have done was blow the crowd kisses.

And where she didn't blow said smooches, the band did with their songs. While "Blue Bird" calmly opened the night, they would eventually launch into the 1-2 punch of "Life Like" and "Cape Fear". Midway through was the sing-along portion of the evening; anyone who has seen the Rosebuds before knows the band utilizes their encore to have a makeshift campfire sing-along. They usually hop off stage, bring their acoustics, and together we sing songs like "Shake Our Tree" and "Nice Fox" together, using our collective voices as one. This night, they just stayed on stage - let's just chalk it up to the Christmas lights strung all around. As people from openers The Love Language were welcomed onstage with a pack of girls from the audience to dance the "Bow To The Middle", Kelly would make up the sans-campfire moment by dancing with us down in front during "Get Up Get Out".

The encore was when they finally dug back, back to 2004, to a time when I first met a young Kelly and Ivan had a dive place blocks from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. "Back To Boston" was obviously welcomed with many a cheer, while Kelly got seductive next to Ivan for "I'd Better Run". They tore up a racous version of Make Out classic "Drunkards Worst Nightmare" before ending the night the same way it started - with another calm number from Birds Make Good Neighbors. After the hyper activity of "Drunkards", it was rather appropriate to segue in to the sedate "Wild Cat" to end the evening.

Kelly was eventually by the merch table. "Oh, you bought one of those!" pointing to my hand where Fun Book #2, their ridiculous Tour EP, was grasped. "I think you're really going to like it." She introduced herself to a friend of mine, and we were quickly cut off by another fan. And that was fine - I've had better nights with the 'Buds anyway, outside of being up front singing along every last syllable of every last song played.


Set List:
Blue Bird / Life Like / Cape Fear / Cemetery Lawn / Hold Hands And Fight / Leaves Do Fall / Shake Our Tree / Nice Fox / Border Guards / In The Backyard / Bow To The Middle / Get Up Get Out / Boxcar // Back To Boston / I'd Better Run / Drunkards Worst Nightmare / Wildcat

Download: "In The Backyard (J YU Remix)" [mp3]