Saturday night, the Ohio-based band Over the Rhine came to Charlotte‘s Visulite Theatre. It was their third performance in Charlotte and their first as headliners. The room was packed, and the moment that vocalist extraordinaire Karin Bergquist began singing, “I don‘t want to waste your time with music you don‘t need,” it was instantly apparent that the audience knew and loved OTR‘s 2007 tour-de-force, The Trumpet Child. The song is one of several from an album that marks just how far the band has come since its humble beginnings as a rock quartet in 1989.

After that opening number, the crowd was putty in OTR‘s collective hands. Along with almost every song from The Trumpet Child, the band skillfully delivered several older numbers and a few unfamiliar tunes, including an impressive instrumental (“Goodbye Charles”) from their just-released Christmas album, Snow Angels. Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Linford Detweiler led the band and played some dynamite piano, and Bergquist continued blowing away listeners with songs written by either or both of them. One particular standout was a song she penned called “I‘m on a Roll.” She really was on a roll, and you could feel it in her incredible voice.

At one point, Detweiler told a story of the time they landed in New Zealand and one of their songs was playing on the radio through the airport‘s sound system. Although OTR may be well known in other parts of the world, they have only a cult following in the U.S. The Trumpet Child could be the album that changes that, but only time will tell.

Two good reasons for Over the Rhine‘s recent artistic ascent are the newest members of the band, the amazing Mickey Grimm on drums and percussion and the very talented Brad Jones (who also produced and arranged both new albums, and has played with Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, and many others) on guitar and electric and upright bass. Both are consummate musicians and perfectly complement the talents of Bergquist and Detweiler. I certainly hope this band sticks together.

The show closed with a two-song encore. The first, “If a Song Could Be President,” is a country-tinged ode to present-day politics that was guaranteed to garner cheers from the crowd. The final song was “Don‘t Wait for Tom,” a surefire winner that takes advantage of Detweiler‘s unusual vocal stylings and shows off Grimm‘s percussive dexterity. All in all, the show was completely satisfying and not to be missed. If you do get a chance to see Over the Rhine, I urge you to take advantage of the opportunity.