While touring their new album, Caves, Grammy-nominated artist NEEDTOBREATHE made a pit stop at Austin’s Moody Amphitheater to put on an amazing performance.
Southern rock band, NEEDTOBREATHE has been making music since the early 2000s. Since their start, they have released ten studio albums. They have seen great success with their Christian themes, but have also successfully crossed over into the rock genre. Their latest album, Caves, was released in September of 2023. Then later in December, they released a non-album single, “I Don’t Wanna Worry.” The band is made up of members Bear Rinehart (lead vocals/guitar), Seth Bolt (bass), Josh Lovelace (keys), Randall Harris (drums), and Tyler Burkum (guitar). Currently touring with the crew are musician Brandon Walters (guitar) and vocalists Will Merrell and Sarina-Joi Crowe. Their tour continues throughout May as they take on the Midwest and other more eastern states.
Touring with NEEDTOBREATHE on this spring leg of the tour is the American folk band Judah & the Lion. The current members of the band are Judah Akers (lead vocals/guitar) and Brian Macdonald (mandolin/banjo/guitar). While it was still daylight, the band began their set. They opened with “Long Dark Night,” a new song from their unreleased album, Process. During their set, Akers told fans the album would be coming out May 10th. He also told fans if they sold more than 185 copies of the unreleased album, then they would hold a show at a smaller venue in Austin. They played other originals such as “Spirit” and “Suit and Jacket.”
Toward the end of the set, they performed a cover of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.” For the second verse, they invited a fan onto the stage to perform with them. Anyone in the audience would argue that the fan was born to be on a stage. Akers and the guy had the entire crowd in the palm of their hands. After the fan went back to his spot at the barricade, Judah & the Lion took a quick rest from playing music to perform their choreographed dance break. As their set came to an end, they performed their viral hit “Take It All Back” and reprised “Long Dark Night” to close.
At 8:10 PM, right at dusk, NEEDTOBREATHE started their set. They opened their set with “The Cave” from Caves. Early on, before they even got to their second song, they showed off their insane musical ability. They took turns shredding solos and taking turns on the catwalk. From the start, you could tell this would be a mesmerizing show for any music lover. Bear brought tears to the audience’s eyes regularly throughout the show. Before singing “Banks” from their album Out of Body, he explained that he had written the beautiful song for his wife who happened to be there that night. Then again before singing “Who Am I,” also from Out of Body, he told a quick narrative of a young fan they met at a meet and greet who was struggling with personal issues. Bear explained that he understood how the little boy felt and that “Who Am I” was written from that exact struggle.They took a few minutes to perform a few acoustic songs such as “Washed By The Water” and “West Texas Wind.” A couple of songs later they performed a mash-up cover of a few different songs. The songs included “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes, “What I Like About You” by The Romantics, and “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin. At one point, Bear came down into the audience and sang as he walked down the aisles. For encore, they were joined by Judah & the Lion to perform “Dreams” from their Caves album.
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