Review: Langhorne Slim @ Headliners

On Thursday 8/20 Langhorne slim played (on his 35th birthday) at Headliners with opening act Clear Plastic Masks from Nashville.
Clear Plastic Masks started at 8:20 with a blend of 60s psychedelic and 50s standard Rock. Lead man Andrew Katz rambled on between songs about his observations of Louisville, including not knowing how to pronounce the town name and how people here love horses, and at one point sneering at and harassing audience members for talking during the set. Multi-instrumentalist Matt Menold was the saving grace for this off-start by jumping seamlessly back and forth from keys to guitar and presenting the best performance of the band, aside from the talented drummer Charles Garmendia from the Dominican Republic.

Andrew Katz and Clear Plastic Masks

Langhorne Slim and The Law

Langhorne Slim and the Law took the stage at 9:30, thanking headliners for a birthday cake and gift of a personalized Louisville Slugger before breaking into title track from the new album The Spirit Moves, emulating the horn section from the recording by singing "bam bam bah bam!" to great applause. The second song of the night, Pull it Together, also from the new album, was in turn followed by favorites from his seven album catalog.
Langhorne Slim took command of the stage working the crowd into a frenzy as only a master performer can, and at times embodying the spirit of Marvin Gaye; howling and rolling about the stage before dropping into a very quiet and intimate rendition of Wolves, the last track from The Spirit Moves.
At one point the band went back stage as Slim serenaded the audience with just his guitar and several songs before the band returned for an explosive encore, beginning with the song The Way We Move; and ending the evening with the song Fire (from the album The Way We Move) while parading through the crowd in a masterful finale to a fine crafted performance.

Langhorne Slim singing FIRE from within the audience during the encore.