Aug 1

Aug 1 Review: Fruit Bats + TORRES at The Outpost

It was a missed opportunity — but only for those aware that there was an opportunity to be missed.

With TORRES & Fruit Bats’ collaborative EP A Decoration set for a Friday, Aug. 9, release and the artists sharing a bill July 26 at The Grey Eagle’s Outpost stage, the potential for at least one shared performance seemed highly probable and downright logical.

Alas, no such in-person dream pairing materialized on the banks of the French Broad River before an appreciative capacity crowd. But beyond that mild heartbreak, it was about as good of an outdoor rock show as one could ask for.

Fresh off playing Night Two of the Merge 35 label anniversary show the prior evening in Carrboro, TORRES kicked things off with a short but powerful set by frontwoman Mackenzie Scott & Co. (brevity that also suggested she might be saving some gas for a team-up with the headliners). Such energy is SOP for the vocalist/guitarist, who gave her all the last time she was in town — an Oct. 2021 headlining show at Isis Music Hall that was embarrassingly poorly attended and really should have been held at The Grey Eagle instead.

Thanking the robust audience for showing up early, Scott ripped through such bangers as “Don't Go Puttin Wishes in My Head,” “Sprinter” and the title track off her excellent 2024 release, What an Enormous Room, sharing her distinct blend of catchy melodies, highly personal lyrics, and synth/guitar interplay that works equally well in rock clubs and on the dance floor.

Then it was time for The Eric D. Johnson Show, which savvy concertgoers were treated to a mere six weeks earlier at The Orange Peel in the folk rock supergroup Bonny Light Horseman. That gig marked Johnson’s fourth Asheville performance alongside bandmates Anaïs Mitchell and Josh Kaufman since opening for Bon Iver at Rabbit Rabbit in June 2022, but the last time Fruit Bats played Asheville was Nov. 2019 at The Mothlight.

A few songs into his Outpost set, Johnson reflected on that improbably long-ago night in West Asheville, eulogizing the now-closed venue and remarked how, unlike the sea of people currently before him, hardly anyone was there. (I remember it being fairly packed — perhaps the stage lights blurred his vision?)

Rashomon memories aside, Johnson and his phenomenal five-piece band did right by the assembled many. Noting that their 40-minute Merge 35 slot prompted them to stick to “the hits,” the 21-song, near-two-hour showcase encouraged more career-spanning selections, but with nearly half of the tracks plucked from Absolute Loser (2016) and his best collection to date, Gold Past Life (2019).

A mere two songs from 2023’s A River Running to Your Heart made the cut — surprising considering their freshness, though that album’s slightly folkier sound may have been at odds with the ensemble’s occasional Grateful Dead-leaning tendencies. Like Scott, Johnson knows how to craft an earworm melody, and accompanied by up-tempo, psych-tinged instrumentation, his creations achieved an exciting new level of vibrancy.

Such musical thrills made it tough to complain for too long about Johnson not bringing Scott back out on stage during the encore. But considering how on-fire both acts were, one can’t help but wish it had happened.

(Photos by Jonny Leather)