Photos and review by: Jason Robey
CHARLOTTE, NC — The spirit of good time rock n roll was alive and well in Charlotte Friday night as The Record Company brought their Roll With It tour to a stop at Visulite Theatre. The room began filling up well before show time, with an excited crowd anxiously awaiting show time. The group has been steadily picking up a dedicated fan base over the past few years, and this will be their first appearance in Charlotte since the release of their new LP, The 4th Album.
Trapper Schoepp opened the show with a half hour set of upbeat blues/folk tunes that made the perfect warm up for the evening. Schoepp, who sang and played guitar with only an upright bassist as accompaniment, told vivid stories with his songs, including originals like “Devil’s Kettle” and “Ballad of Olof Johnson.” Before “Queen of the Mist,” he told the tale of Annie Edson Taylor, the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, which served as the basis for the song. As his set progressed, so did the energy both onstage and in the house, before concluding with a rousing cover of Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway.”
The Record Company hit the ground running with the high-energy drum beat of “Feels So Good,” kicking off more than an hour and a half of gritty and raw blues-based rock n’ roll. The group kept the raucous vibe going as they tore through “Dance on Monday” from the new album followed by an early fan-favorite “Rita Mae Young.”
The band’s intensity never waned, through the danceable “On the Move,” the bluesy “I Found Heaven (In My Darkest Days),” and the foot-stomping “Baby I’m Broken.” Catchy sing-alongs were aplenty throughout the night, with the scorching “Life to Fix” and set-closing “Off the Ground.” The group’s encore began with a surprise cover of the Kinks’ “All Day and All of the Night,” which they’ve played a handful of times, but have yet to record. The one-two punch encore ended like a storm with “I’m Getting Better (and I’m Feeling It Right Now), leaving the audience screaming and sweaty from the unforgettable show they just witnessed.
Check the Record Company’s social media channels for upcoming tour dates, and be sure to catch this band on stage.