If you’ve made it the past six years without hearing Tone & Niche count yourself a rare find—and dreadfully unlucky. They’re really good. Matching raucous violin with melodies last found in Rolling Thunder Revue-era material their chemistry has nursed three studio albums (a self titled disc, In the Streets Of, and Rust), a collection of singles—including a reworking EP of the “House of the Rising Sun”—and now a live double album. 
On record and on stage the true dynamic lies in the respective Tone & Niche. Tone, guitar and singing, and Niche with violin playing that could both quell or incite riot.
It’s nice and that’s the nice thing about this most recent record. The band (Nick White plays bass and Roger Dutcher plays drums) have been on a streak of impressive shows, with these discs comprising a ménage of shows: a healthy mix of band performances interspersed with tracks featuring just guitar and violin—Tone performing a majority of the singing.
The overall standout track (at least from disc 2) is “Medallion.” where the band really showcases how they syncopate different melodies and rhythms against Tone’s singing. Over the two discs the band mixes older works with those from their most recent album Rust. The version of “Broken Hearted Army” contained here breaks from the album in the sheer militant march that seems to arise. No surprise, we hear a seasoned group of musicians doing what they know.
Nick White, who is currently in Arizona, may still be the best bass player in Detroit and the main downside of this disc is that you can’t see him thrashing around on stage. You can see Tone & Niche—Patrick Gallagher is aptly filling in on bass—thrash around November 7 at the Berkley Front.
The new live album and others can be found at the band’s website.
Tracklisting:
Disc One:
01. Naw’s Jam
02. Epitaph
03. Freak
04. Spin Violins
05. An Original Thing (previously unreleased)
06. Fix My Head
07. Who’s Roger?
08. From Me To Her
09. Hold On
10. Listening (previously unreleased)
11. On The Streets Of
12. The Story
13. The Band Is…
14. Rust
Disc Two: (acoustic)
01. Brand New World
02. You Don’t Love me
03. Broken-Hearted Army
04. I’m Not Gone
05. Closing In
06. What To Do
07. Wait
08. Fix My Head
09. Conscious As I Am
10. Bye Marie (previously Unreleased)
11. What I Could Have Done For You
12. Tragedy
Tone and Niche: website | myspace
Written by Adam Leroy
