American Aquarium Bring Intense Live Show to White Water Tavern

Julian Spivey Photo

by Julian Spivey
American Aquarium, one of the best live bands you’re ever going to see … period!, made their way back to Little Rock’s White Water Tavern on Sunday, March 20 for night one of a two-night stand at the venue, which has played a large role in the band’s success, but they hadn’t performed at since 2015.
​
The place holds a special place in American Aquarium’s frontman B.J. Barham’s heart as he mentioned in a previous show, I attended at The Revolution Room in Little Rock that the White Water Tavern was really the first venue outside of the band’s home state of North Carolina to make the band feel at home.

American Aquarium’s audience has continued to grow over the years, and I think it’s sort of outgrown the White Water Tavern size-wise (it’s a small venue, but it truly is a magical place to see a live show, as Barham said on Sunday night), which is probably why it’s been so long since the band has performed at the venue. The previous two times I’ve seen them were at the Rev Room.

Barham has proven himself to be one of today’s best songwriters with lyrics full of hard truths and crushing realities and the bands songs are terrific on record – if they weren’t nobody would want to see them live anyway – but his intensity as a performer just adds a whole other life to the songs when you see the band perform live. The only artist I’ve ever seen give as much on stage is Bruce Springsteen and Springsteen simply ain’t human.

American Aquarium kicked the show off on Sunday night with “Casualties,” from their 2012 album Burn.Flicker.Die, and there’s not much of a better way for a traveling rock band to open up a night of fantastic music than with a song about being a casualty of rock & roll.

The band went through many of their fan-favorites on Sunday night spanning the entirety of their discography, which goes back to 2006. Among the biggest receptions from the audience of loyal A.A. fanatics were “Cape Fear River,” “Nothing to Lose,” “The Long Haul,” “The Luckier You Get” and “Wichita Falls.”

My personal favorite A.A. song is “The World Is on Fire,” from the band’s excellent 2018 album Things Change, which is when I truly became a fan of the band after only hearing a couple of their songs previously. “The World Is on Fire” really hit upon some things that the country was going through around the changing of the White House from the Obama administration to the Trump administration and it’s always a huge moment for me when performed.

The one-two punch of “Losing Side of Twenty Five” and “Wolves,” off the group’s 2015 album Wolves really fired the crowd up, though I can honestly say there wasn’t a moment from start-to-finish when the crowd didn’t seem completely into what was happening on the tiny stage.

Barham did an excellent job at throwing in some slower tunes midst the barrage of absolute rock & roll chaos like “The Day I Learned to Lie to You” and “Man I’m Supposed to Be,” which were really touching.

One of the highlights of the night was a story Barham told the crowd of how when the band first started out, they had to play a lot of weddings to make money and how they weren’t a great wedding band because they don’t have many love songs and just aren’t the “wedding” vibe. So, they got successful enough to where they could charge a “fuck you” amount of money to perform, so hopefully they’d never have to again – but lo and behold came a rich man from Indianapolis who wanted his son’s favorite band to perform at his wedding and they relented for the “fuck you” price. Barham told of playing “’Til the Final Curtain Falls” as the first dance song and when the bride realized what the band was and how she wasn’t going to get her first dance to Tyler Childers’ “Lady May” she threw a huge fit right then and there in front of everyone. Barham told the audience one thing they needed to know about him is he’s a very petty man and so the next song he played at that wedding was “Lonely Ain’t Easy,” with opening lyrics: “The only thing certain is we end up alone/to pick up the pieces of our once happy home.” The band then performed the song live for the White Water crowd. The only thing that would’ve been better is if he’d played the bride “I Hope He Breaks Your Heart” right then.

Hearing the band’s “Ain’t Going to the Bar Tonight,” off the 2009 album Dances For The Lonely, in a small bar setting was quite the live concert moment. It was also special hearing “Rattlesnake,” with its reference to the White Water Tavern in the lyrics.

The band finished off their epic set with fan-favorites “I Hope He Breaks Your Heart,” one of the truly great “fuck you breakup songs,” and “Burn.Flicker.Die,” which is an absolutely killer way to end a set.

Despite the fact that “Burn.Flicker.Die” would’ve made the perfect concert ender, Barham came back out on stage joined by organist/pianist Rhett Huffman for a touching performance of “One Day At A Time,” about Barham’s sobriety that’s now eight years strong and how he’s thrilled to hear his sobriety has helped some of his fans find their own.

The excellent band with Shane Boeker on lead guitar, Neil Jones on pedal steel guitar, Alden Hedges on bass and Ryan Van Fleet on drums returned to the stage for a performance of the riotous “Katherine Belle” to end the show.

One of the great things I’ve found about American Aquarium is they always bring killer opening acts on the road with them. When I first saw them at The Rev Room in 2018, they had Cory Branan, one of my favorite singer-songwriters opening for them. Last year at The Rev Room they brought along Gabe Lee, who put on a helluva performance. Last night at the White Water Margo Cilker, who’s going to be someone you’re going to want to pay attention to if you haven’t checked out her debut album Pohorylle already, opened. Cilker is a much talented singer-songwriter who’s already dropping jaws with tracks like “That River,” “Flood Plain” and “Barbed Wire (Belly Crawl)” off her debut. Her final performance of her set on Sunday night was “Tehachapi,” which is my favorite track off her album,” which she was joined by the American Aquarium boys on, and it absolutely killed. Cilker also performed some stuff that isn’t on her debut album that all sounded great and hopefully will be on an upcoming release. If you haven’t given her a listen yet, please do. 

---