Review: The Sven Curth (huge) Trio get busy grooving with ‘Live at your local Waterhole’ album
The band shimmies and shakes with their new live album.
A warmth radiates from The Sven Curth (Huge) Trio‘s work. In a live setting, they’re damn electrifying. With their new live set, Live at your local Waterhole, they rip through nine plucky country-rock songs with the roar of a lion. The audience hangs onto their every word—the band’s energy transmitting like electric shocks into the eardrums. Sven Curth, a self-imposed “character,” leads the charge with a gruff vocal that serves as the group’s propulsive heartbeat. The others—Kyle Murray (drums), Colin Dehond (bass), and special guest Chris Carballeira (keyboard)—dance in rays of sunshine, with considerable groove.
“Home Come?” gets the party started with a shimmy and a shake, perfectly setting the stage like a good romp. And that’s just the beginning. “Rain” trickles down, whereas “Worse Before Better” gallops ahead with horse-like muscle. “Everybody thinks the next guy’s got it better than they do,” Curth spits. The truth is, the grass isn’t always greener. In fact, we might be galavanting in a sea of green and don’t even know it. That’s life for you. The band busts through the roof with songs like “My Baby Hates Me When She’s Drinking,” a song with classic appeal and frenetic fuel. One moment, they’re pouring gasoline over their blazing musical fire, and the next, they’re pulling it back for a soulful smolder (“Jesus Loves Tractors,” “Wonder What”).
The Sven Curth (Huge) Trio makes a point to let the crowd know they’re the biggest band ever. They’re being facetious, of course, but their music goes big, bold, and swings for the fences. “Let There Be Light” finds them calling out modern Christianity. “I think that man created god,” sings Curth. Later, he adds, “I find hypocrisy and fraud.” That particular lyric speaks to the growing belief that Christian Nationalism is a scourge on the earth, especially in the United States. But he also still loves his mother, despite it all, and believes it’s okay if she somehow finds comfort in the Bible and today’s interpretation.
That’s the nature of the live record. Their work goes hard to confront the problems of the world, often through humor, and does so with great lyrical precision. Live at your local Waterhole could take place anywhere in middle America, allowing the listener to find a way to worm into the stories. And more than anything, it’ll make you rush out to one of the band’s shows.
Live at your local Waterhole is out now.
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