American Aquarium Rocked White Water Tavern with Nostalgic Performance

by Julian Spivey

Julian Spivey Photo

​It was a night filled with nostalgia for American Aquarium frontman B.J. Barham on Monday, November 18, at the White Water Tavern on the corner of West 7th St. and Thayer.

Barham has told the story many times at White Water Tavern and other venues around Little Rock that the White Water Tavern took a chance on his band when they were just starting out nearly 20 years ago, and it’s become something of a home away from home for them.

This man absolutely loves the place. After all, he’s mentioned it or written about it in at least three songs I know of: “Katherine Belle,” “Bigger In Texas,” and “Rattlesnake,” all of which the band performed on Monday.

It didn’t take long for me to realize it would be a night filled with nostalgia for the band and its longtime fans, some of which Barham pointed out had been coming to the one-room bar venue to see them play for as long as they’d been coming. It was noticeable due to some of the deeper cuts the band hasn’t broken out as often in concert – one or two of which I don’t think I’d ever seen live before.

The band performed 24 songs in a fast-paced one-hour and 45-minute set, with half of the tracks from the 2009 album Dances for the Lonely and the 2012 album Burn. Flicker. Die. The more recent albums since Barham got sober and reformed the band with all new members for 2018’s Things Change only featured five songs during the evening, even surprisingly, the band’s latest release, The Fear of Standing Still, which saw “Crier” open the evening and “Head Down, Feet Moving” performed.

The White Water Tavern show wasn’t originally scheduled for this leg of the band’s tour but was a surprise addition that made it the group’s 18th show in consecutive days, with the tour beginning (at the Rev Room on Nov. 1) and ending in Little Rock. As someone who had attended the Rev Room show, I could tell by Barham’s voice on the first song that it was a bit worn from so many shows, but thankfully, he doesn’t have the kind of voice that is impacted much by such things. I swear A.A. is the hardest-working band in the world of independent music, and the intensity they give at every show is so high that I can’t believe they’re still standing after 18 straight dates. I figured the band would be done for 2024, but the day after the show, they posted 15 shows in 16 days, beginning November 30.

The show Monday night was a raucous, good time had by all, as you could tell from the sweat dripping down the backs of Barham and lead guitarist Rhett Huffman’s shirts and the intensity of the band feeding off the crowd and vice versa.

It was nice hearing some songs I haven’t heard often live from the band, like “PBR Promenade,” “Saturday Nights” and “Good Fight.”

And, as always, it was a ton of fun rocking out to the usual anthems the band performs nearly every night, like “Casualties,” “Cape Fear River,” “Losing Side of Twenty-Five” and “St. Mary’s.”

I think the band officially has one of my favorite one-two punches to end a show with the crowd-pleasing sing-along “I Hope He Breaks Your Heart” leading into “Burn.Flicker.Die,” which is probably my favorite pre-2018 A.A. song. It’s the perfect way to end a night of wonderful rock music in a small crowd full of people sharing a love for the power of song.
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