Above: Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats perform at a special holiday show at Denver's Mission Ballroom on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
Denver's own Nathaniel Rateliff joined up with his group the Night Sweats, along with Mavis Staples and a few other special friends for a 3 hour plus show for night one of their 2025 holiday event at Mission Ballroom. Both nights sold out, and it was an incredible experience for all those joined the festivities.
"This is our first time doing this, so please bear with us," Nathaniel commented several times throughout the evening. Indeed, the concept of a holiday show isn't common, but was uncommon for the group to perform their debut album in it's entirety and have multiple guest performances throughout their show. The band started around 830 and didn't end until 1130. Instead of having opening acts, they had multiple friends join them throughout the evening like Mavis Staples.
It turned out to be one of the best concerts of 2025. While there were three very short set breaks, Nathaniel and the Night Sweats jammed relentless for a solid show for over three hours. "Pace yourselves, because four hours later we'll still be here," Nathaniel joked during the beginning of his set.
"We just got done for six hour rehearsals for several weeks straight," he explained. However, the rehearsals paid off because Nathaniel never sounded better. His voice was just one of the highlights of the night and was near perfection, hitting all his high and low notes. Near the end though, it was obvious he was trying his best with the assistance of a nice cup of tea.
Another highlight of the evening was the horn section of the group, who jammed perfectly and were the best musically. Nathaniel is also a great guitarist, and flooded the Mission Ballroom with several great guitar solos.
The group didn't even begin to play their debut album until halfway through the set, after all the guest musicians joined and they played a number of their other hits and holiday tunes. The highlight of this part was when Mavis Staples joined them for over 30 minutes, who also performed some of her own songs with the band.
One of the best moments of the night was when all special guests joined the Night Sweats for a special version of The Band's 'The Weight'.
Another great thing about this concert was the group were playing mostly old songs they haven't played in a long time before, which was a delight to see live.
There was a surprisingly good number of older folks attending the sold out crowd at the Mission Ballroom, and everyone was dancing throughout the night. The sound and acoustics sounded incredible, and it was fairly loud. It was an extremely fun concert, and Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats are a group not to be missed.
A+
Setlist night one, December 10, 2025 at Mission Ballroom:
Set 1:
1) Shoe Boot
2) You Worry Me
3) Be There
4) Parlor
5) Still Out There Running
6) Cars in the desert
7) A Little Honey
8) Love me till I'm Gone
9) Hey Mama
10) I have been to the Mountain (with Kevin Morby)
11) Love Don't
Set 2:
12) And It's Still Alright (with David Rawlings/Acoustic)
13) What we had (With david Rawlings/Acoustic)
14) Skating
15) Baby It's Cold Outside (With Julie Davis)
16) Early Spring Till
17) Babe I know
18) Friendship (With Mavis Staples)
19) Beautiful Strangers
20) The Weight (Band cover) (With Mavis Staples and all friends)
21) I'll take you there (with Mavis Staples)
Set 3:
Debut album in it's entirety:
22) Never get old
23) Mellow Out
24) Howling at Nothing
25) Trying so Hard Not to Know
26) I've been failing
27) S.O.B. (Son of a bitch)
28) Wasting Time
29) Thank you
30) Look it here
31) Shake
32) I'd be Waiting
33) Mellow Out
34) What I need
(All photos by Jessica Lewis)
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