Heartless Bastards frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom celebrated the 10th anniversary of the band’s beloved fourth studio album, Arrow, last year with a special edition of the album.
Now, Heartless Bastards perform at Union Stage on Tuesday, May 9.
Brimming with confidence and creativity, Arrow saw Heartless Bastards pushing their distinctive sound forward with their most eclectic, energetic collection to date. The album, which was the Austin, Texas-based band’s first release with Partisan Records, is marked as ever by singer/guitarist/songwriter Erika Wennerstrom’s remarkable voice, at turns primal and pleading, heartfelt and heroic.
Songs like “Parted Ways” and the searing “Low Low Low” expertly capture the Bastards’ multi-dimensional rock in all its strength and spirit. Arrow marked a powerhouse new beginning for the Heartless Bastards.
Stream the 10th anniversary deluxe edition of Arrow by Heartless Bastards on Spotify:
At Union Stage, you’re sure to hear some new music as well! In 2021, Heartless Bastards released A Beautiful Life, the band’s sixth studio album. On A Beautiful Life, Heartless Bastards share a wide-eyed and radiant vision for harmonizing a broken world. The band’s first new music since 2015’s Restless Ones, A Beautiful Life affirms Erika Wennerstrom as a songwriter with the power to profoundly influence our state of mind, often by alchemizing her idealism into viscerally potent rock-and-roll songs. With its delicate coalescence of so many eclectic touchstones—French pop and Celtic folk, space rock and symphonic pop, Disney scores, and post-punk — the result is an album that immediately lures the listener into a more receptive mindset, one that leads to deeper generosity, greater compassion, and a restored sense of possibility.
In the making of Heartless Bastards’ most elaborately realized body of work to date, Wennerstrom immersed herself in a highly experimental process that sometimes involved breathing new life into song fragments she’d first created decades ago.
“There are little pieces of songs that I’ve had in my head for 20 years, and that finally found their place on this album,” Erika said. As she dreamed up A Beautiful Life’s finely detailed yet free-flowing sound, Wennerstrom repeatedly wandered down what she lovingly refers to as rabbit tunnels.
“I call them tunnels instead of rabbit holes, because they take me somewhere instead of leaving me stuck,” she said. “I allowed myself to really feel my way through things, trusting that I was going to get to where we needed to go. I never abandoned my vision, and because of that the album became everything I hoped it would be and then some.”
Heartless Bastards
W/ The Watson Twins
Union Stage
Tuesday, May 9
Doors @ 7pm
$35
All ages