Billed as Nancy Wilson of Heart, her band Roadcase Royale started this leg of their tour off with sold out show at the Del Lago Casino in Waterloo, NY this past Saturday night. The place is called The Vine and it’s a 2,200 seat intimate venue. A beautiful spot for Wilson and her band to debut their band in the central NY area. Roadcase Royale consists of Wilson on rhythm guitar and vocals, Liv Warfield on lead vocals, Dan Rothchild on bass, vocals and keyboards, Chris Joyner on keyboards, Ryan Waters on lead guitars and Ben Smith on drums. Smith, Rothchild and Joyner are all holdovers from the Heart days.
This is the first time I got to see this outfit and was excited to see what they would bring to a live setting. The band took the stage at around 8pm and dived into the Heart classic “Even It Up.” With a studio album called “First Things First” that was released in September 2017 under their belts, the band wanted to expose their new music to the primarily Heart dominated crowd. The band interpolated 5 tracks into their set in between Heart songs and various selected cover songs. Warfield made her presence known right away on “Hold Onto my Hand” as she showed her dynamic range which made the crowd take notice. The crowd gave her a standing ovation at the end of the song and she earned their respect right then and there. Wilson introduced the former Heart number 1 song “These Dreams” as the Roadacse Royale version and not the supermarket or gas station version (which drew laughs from the crowd). Keeping the mood light, Wilson sang a few lines to the ABBA song “Waterloo” before the band went into “Insaniac.”
Rothchild, who has been Heart bassist for the last few years, took lead vocals on the Foo Fighters song “No Way Back.” He has a softer Dave Grohl like voice that really suited the song well. Warfield led the crowd participation on the end of the song “Mind Your Business.” She had them sing “Mind Your P’s and Q’s” a few times while the song ended and really gave the audience a more sense of purpose when the band played a Roadcase Royale tune.
When the band played Heart’s “Straight on You,” they changed a few parts like the intro and to the solo which gave the song a more edgier feel. I personally didn’t care for it but the crowd loved it and it went over like gangbusters for them. One of the bands highlights was their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” Both Rothchid and Warren shared co-lead vocal duties and Waters (who shined all night) just nailed the guitar parts giving this classic the justice it so well deserves.
This show brought more than I expected. The band was very tight and the fluidity of the setlist between the songs flowed seamlessly. Wilson remarked how there is nothing like loyalty after seeing lots of the same faces that she has been getting accustomed to seeing over the years at various Heart shows. She put together a hell of an outfit and I personally am looking forward to seeing another show from them. Hopefully its sooner than later!
Setlist:
Even It Up (Heart song)
Get Loud
Kick it Out (Heart song)
Not Giving Up
Hold Onto my Hand (Coilin Hay cover)
These Dreams (Heart song)
What About Love (Heart song)
You Wreck Me (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers cover)
Waterloo (ABBA cover – snippet)/ Insaniac
No Way back (Foo Fighters cover)
Mind Your Business
Straight On (Heart song)
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd cover)
Cover Each Other
Barracuda (Heart song)
Crazy on You (Heart song)
Encore:
Black Dog (Led Zeppelin cover)
We would like to thank Chip Schutzman from Miles High Productions for the credentials to review the show.
