There are just things that go well together. My television would say the most likely pairing would be chocolate and peanut butter, but I’d go so far as to say Friday night’s pairing of Band of Horses and City and Colour, the stage name of Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green, would put Reese’s to shame. 

The co-headlining tour kicked off in Atlanta in August, both bands made stops along the East Coast, including one at Wolf Trap last week, and arrived at The Lyric in Baltimore just in time for a week of perfect late Summer weather. 

Band of Horses has been touring their most recent album, 2022’s Things Are Great while City and Colour’s most recent, 2023’s The Love Still Held Me Near, has earned rave reviews.

After a brilliant, impassioned, short set by Nolan Taylor City and Colour took the stage at The Lyric Baltimore on Sept. 6. For years I had been trying to catch City and Colour. Dallas Green’s voice is the draw, but those songs of faith, love, and loss keep you listening. I’ve been lost in albums like Bring Me Your Love at times and have forgotten what I was doing before the needle hit wax. 

City and Colour’s set at The Lyric was no less compelling as the band, kicking off their set with “Weightless” from 2011’s Little Hell. A song that starts off with the heartbreaking lines, “What if I can’t be all that you need me to be?” 

But it wasn’t all dark, some of the most grooving songs were kept for the end of the outstanding set. The bluesy “Lover Come Back” was followed by one of the best versions of one of my favorite songs “Sleeping Sickness” from Bring Me Your Love. But Green and company kept one of their older songs, “Sometimes (I Wish)” for the capper, as the song included a good measure of Sade’s “No Ordinary Love.” 

Watch the official music video for “Meant To Be” by City and Colour on YouTube:

Band of Horses, for me at least, is one of those bands you feel you’ve known forever. Even if you can’t remember a song off the top of your head, once you hear singer Ben Bridwell’s voice you know. I remember hearing Band of Horses on Jonesy’s Jukebox, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) radio show, and being blown away. 

Several years later, Ben Bridwell (vocals), Ryan Monroe (guitar/keys), Creighton Barrett (drums), Matt Gentling (bass), and Brett Nash (guitar) continue to rock as evidenced in the critically acclaimed Things Are Great – a return to straight ahead pop rock of their earliest releases. But the set at the Lyric Friday night took as much from those earlier works as Things Are Great.

Kicking things off with “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands” from the band’s sophomore release, Cease to Begin, Bridwell and company hit their stride early and never looked back.

With a Southern charm that was utterly disarming, Ben Bridwell, told the crowd, “We’ve got some more oldies but okay-ies comin’ your way.” But the evening that followed was anything but just “okay.” In fact, a fair number of fans soon eschewed the theater seats to stand, cheer, and dance in the aisles.

A couple of the members of Band of Horses play in other bands, but, as Bridwell joked, Brett Nash puts others to shame. “In South Carolina where we live, Brett is in every band,” Bridwell started. “He’s in so many bands that last night here in Baltimore a band was playing that Brett is in sometimes.” To which Gentling added, “You know the old saying, ‘It’s Five O’Clock somewhere,’ well one of Brett’s bands is playing somewhere.”  

Watch the official music video for “Warning Sign” by Band of Horses on YouTube:

You got the feeling this was a band that was there to have fun, and that energy really showed. The set wrapped up with one of their best, “The Funeral,” capping off an amazing night. To see any of these artists on separate nights would be well worth the trip, but having them there in one place is something not to miss as Band of Horses continue their tour with City and Colour through September.

Band of Horses’ setlist included:

Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
Wicked Gil
Ode to LRC
Detlef Schrempf
The Great Salt Lake
Is There a Ghost
Lights
Crutch
Laredo
Our Swords
The General Specific
No One’s Gonna Love You
The Funeral

City and Colour’s setlist included:

Weightless
The Love Still Held Me Near
Harder Than Stone
Meant to Be
Living in Lightning
Silver and Gold
Hard, Hard Time
Underground
Fragile Bird
Lover Come Back
Sleeping Sickness
Sometimes (I Wish) / No Ordinary Love

Here are more photos of Band of Horses performing at The Lyric on Sept. 6, 2024. All photos copyright and courtesy of David LaMason.

And here are more photos of City and Colour performing at The Lyric on Sept. 6, 2024.

And here is Nolan Taylor opening the evening at The Lyric on Sept. 6.