Photos: Baroness proved worth braving Final Four crowd madness to attend

Baroness.// Photo by Nick Spacek

Baroness
The Bottleneck
Saturday, April 2

In order to get to a show, would you park 11 blocks away and walk through tens of thousands of drunk and rowdy college basketball fans, 10 minutes before the end of a Final Four game against the team to which they’d lost their last time trying for the big dance?

Because, honestly, it’s a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

However, when a band like Baroness–usually known for playing venues twice the size of the Bottleneck, and who had twice previously postponed their tour due to COVID–performs a set devoted to audience-chosen songs and band favorites… You make the effort. You lace up your boots, grab a tallboy, and brave the throng. Once more into the breach.

The Bottleneck might not have been fully packed for the show, but the crowd of folks who made it to see Baroness were as devoted a group of fans as we’ve ever seen. When a band starts out with the triple-threat of “Ogeechee Hymnal,” “Take My Bones Away,” and “Isak,” and there are still nearly 20 songs to go after that, you know that this is going to be a metal show worth remembering.

The show’s concept was pretty brilliant: fans who purchased tickets were able to vote for their 10 favorite songs from a list of 80, and then the top 10 most-voted-for songs included in that night’s set list.

Throw in a two-song acoustic set from frontman John Baizley and guitarist Gina Gleason dead-smack in the middle, and no openers? You’ve got a show for the die-hards.

All photos by Nick Spacek

Baroness setlist
Ogeechee Hymnal
Take My Bones Away
Isak
Morningstar
March to the Sea
Green Theme
Chlorine & Wine
If I Have to Wake Up (Would You Stop the Rain?) / Fugue
Shock Me
Eula
Cold-Blooded Angels (acoustic)
I’d Do Anything (acoustic)
Can Oscura
Borderlines
Little Things
Desperation Burns
Tourniquet
The Sweetest Curse
The Birthing
Swollen and Halo
Seasons
—
Wanderlust