Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners performed to a sold-out crowd at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club on Oct. 27 as part of their October Moon tour. RMCM and their opening band, Atta Boy, had the flannel-clad sea of rock hipsters in the palm of their hand.
The headliners, based in Bozeman, Mont., are a charming trio: lead singer Mitch Cutts, guitarist Nic Haughn and drummer Jakob Ervin. The band had an obvious onstage chemistry, stemming from their long relationship beginning in their high school days when the group first formed, and kept up an impressive energy throughout the nearly 2-hour concert.
It would be remiss of me to not shout out the opening act, Atta Boy. The band shared a similarly familial chemistry and “childhood best friends” backstory, and had great stage presence that set the tone well for the headliners. The set overall shaped a very cozy, folksy atmosphere, and featured personal favorites like “Corpus” and “Walden Pond” that had the whole crowd swaying along.
As RMCM began, I anticipated them to follow a similar chill, indie folk vibe, based on the energy of their recorded discography. But right from the start with their opening song, “WET SOCKS,” it was clear that the band’s live performance would bring out more of the rock elements of their music that are not as prevalent in their recordings. What was admittedly expected to be a down-to-earth, folksy set turned out to be much head-bangier than anticipated.
But there were no complaints here. The live performance was a dynamic enhancement that added a new dynamic weight to an arguably modest discography. But they found a good balance between their classic sound and this electric rendition by following a similar pattern for most songs in the set: starting with the familiar feel of grounded chords and floaty vocals, then eventually breaking into crashing drums and killer guitar riffs to finish strong.
There were certainly moments in which the band stayed thoroughly true to their recorded sound. For instance, “Evergreen,” a sub-90-second 2017 record known for its recent TikTok popularity, was an absolute crowd favorite. If the 790 million Spotify streams weren’t proof enough, the entire audience singing along was a true testament to the song’s popularity — a main reason for the band’s recent rise in acclaim. And although the band changed essentially nothing from the record to their live rendition, something about hearing it live simultaneously sent chills down my spine and felt like a big, warm hug.
Toward the middle of the set, leading man Mitch Cutts was left alone onstage for a short solo session. He played only two songs — “St. Paul” on the piano and “Laramee” on the guitar — but these stripped-down solo renditions stood out as crowd favorites and major highlights of the show. The latter song — which Cutts said is one of his own favorites he’s ever written — was especially well-received, with beautifully personal lyrics and a great showcase of Cutts’ voice that really struck an emotional chord with the crowd.
Overall, the band’s stage presence and performance were exceptional. However, they did unfortunately start their set on a bit of a rocky note. They seemed somewhat disorganized in the beginning of the show, taking substantial time between each song to retune and readjust. This set an awkward pace for the outset of the show and created an unignorable lull amongst the crowd. But after the first handful of songs, the band definitely got into a more consistent rhythm, and the rest of the set went significantly more smoothly.
This is admittedly my only real criticism of the show, but please take even this with a grain of salt. Though the trio has been playing together since 2017, RMCM has really seemed to only skyrocket within the past year, and Cutts said during the show that Paradise Rock Club was the largest venue the band had played to date. With that, I think a small trip-up and a few technical difficulties can certainly be excused.
All in all, the concert was a thoroughly enjoyable experience all around. Featuring a great set of RMCM originals, as well as two contrasting covers — “Old Friends” by Pinegrove and “Elephant” by Tame Impala — the concert was a perfect showcase of the band’s impressive musical skills and stage presence, and truly a corduroy-donning folk rocker’s indie nirvana.
