Band of Horses
Live at the Capitol Theatre
4/16/26 Port Chester, NY
On a hot, summer-like April night, the indie rock outfit Band of Horses pulled into the gorgeous Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY for a show billed as An Evening With Band of Horses: Celebrating 20 years of Everything All The Time.
The band, Ben Bridwell – lead vocals, guitar, pedal steel, keyboards, Creighton Barrett – drums, percussion, Matt Gentling – bass, backing vocals, Brett Nash – guitar, backing vocals, Joel Graves – keyboards, guitar, are in a celebratory mood this tour. With no opener, the show consisted of them playing their debut album in its entirety, taking a short break, then playing a collection of past gems, and even a brand new tune, during a second set.
Bridwell, the only consistent member of the band since the beginning, still sounds glorious vocally as he thanked the crowd, strummed his pedal steel and delivered "First Song" as if it was still 2006. He switched to bass, giving "Wicked Gil" extra low end while "Our Swords" had a harder slamming edge to it thanks to Barrett's heavy drumming.
Two of the band's biggest and best songs got huge cheers from the audience as "The Funeral" and "The Great Salt Lake" both rang out with authority while "Weed Party" luxuriated in a shaking groove. The revisiting of the album ended with the more delicate notes of "Monsters" and "St. Augustine" as the players and fans seemed happy to relive one of the groups best musical eras, their debut record.
After a quick break Band of Horses returned with the chugging "Is There a Ghost?" as the swirling lights colored the stage. "NW Apartment" contained a slight punkish vibe while "Casual Party" had static backing visuals to accompany the light rocking. One of the musical highlights of the night was the stop/start grooving of "Islands on the Coast" as the band bounced around joyously.
Band of Horses don't feature extended solos, or deviate greatly from album versions of songs, instead they rely on Bridwell's enchanting vocals to carry things through. That gorgeous singing soared to the highest notes for the sweet "Infinite Arms" and colored the cascading gem "No One's Gonna Love You" in touching fashion.
The slow grooving, shimmering Americana of "Lardeo" was well done before the band debuted a brand new song (which Bridwell mentioned would be released next year) that had a new wave vibe, it was certainly different than the old hits.
The band wrapped up the show (no encore) with a singalong of "The General Specific" as a sweaty Bridwell banged a tambourine, and stomped the stage, ending the night on a high note before a very satisfied crowd.
____Support the artists, and peep some video below (from two nights prior in Philly):
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