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Varsity Theater Poster
Kodaline Setlist
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Irish rockers Kodaline has sold out every appearance in the Twin Cities, with no exception on their fourth visit at the Varsity Theater on May 16th.
I was already pretty excited to check out rising Dublin musician Gavin James, thanks to the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt talking about the singer at his live appearance the previous night. Merritt was referring to his song "The Book of Love", which James covered, as hitting #1 in Ireland and Top 10 in Holland.
For those who showed up early to see James, they were in for a treat. You can tell James had a natural stage presence, manipulating the crowd to cheer for him and help him sing along to his song "Coming Home".
He showcased a brand new song, which didn't have a title yet. To further manipulate the audience to his side, he said he might call it "Minneapolis"... which I really doubt the song will ultimately be called that. Still, it got big cheers when James added in the words "Minneapolis" near the end of the song.
Obviously he played the #1 hit cover "The Book of Love", followed by a Louis Armstrong cover "What a Wonderful World", complete in Armstrong-esque vocal styling.
He ended his set with "Say Hello", the title track from his first debut #1 EP from 2012. James' latest EP For You came out this week, May 18th.
With an upbeat intro song, Kodaline kicked off their set with "Ready", taken from their latest album Coming Up for Air (RCA Records Label).
Their hour long set had a good mix of their two albums, with every few songs from In A Perfect World getting something new from Coming Up for Air.
Having covered the band on their three previous Minnesota appearances, I can tell you that new to this tour were their custom light set up. The lights were not made obvious until "Unclear" which you suddenly see bright green moving lights... making the show looking something from The Matrix. The lights would then glow different colors throughout the rest of the set.
During "The One", singer/keys Steve Garrigan asked fans to hold up their camera phone lights, which they were more than happy to obliged, as you can see from the photograph. The song's origin was that it was a wedding gift for their sound engineer Cameron Young, because they had forgotten to get them a gift. At the encore, Garrigan would once again mention their sound engineer, exposing that it was also his birthday... so he had the entire audience sing "Happy Birthday To You". Clearly the band has a very close personal friendship with Young.
The very last song on their encore, "All I Want" got the biggest cheers and claps. This is one of their earliest hit, having appeared in Grey's Anatomy and Google's "Year in Review" for 2012.
Kodaline's Coming Up for Air is out now on RCA Records, their last remaining 2015 US date will be at Newport in Columbus, Ohio, tonight.
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Gavin James
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For those who showed up early to see James, they were in for a treat. You can tell James had a natural stage presence, manipulating the crowd to cheer for him and help him sing along to his song "Coming Home".
He showcased a brand new song, which didn't have a title yet. To further manipulate the audience to his side, he said he might call it "Minneapolis"... which I really doubt the song will ultimately be called that. Still, it got big cheers when James added in the words "Minneapolis" near the end of the song.
Obviously he played the #1 hit cover "The Book of Love", followed by a Louis Armstrong cover "What a Wonderful World", complete in Armstrong-esque vocal styling.
He ended his set with "Say Hello", the title track from his first debut #1 EP from 2012. James' latest EP For You came out this week, May 18th.
With an upbeat intro song, Kodaline kicked off their set with "Ready", taken from their latest album Coming Up for Air (RCA Records Label).
Their hour long set had a good mix of their two albums, with every few songs from In A Perfect World getting something new from Coming Up for Air.
Having covered the band on their three previous Minnesota appearances, I can tell you that new to this tour were their custom light set up. The lights were not made obvious until "Unclear" which you suddenly see bright green moving lights... making the show looking something from The Matrix. The lights would then glow different colors throughout the rest of the set.
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Light 'em up
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The very last song on their encore, "All I Want" got the biggest cheers and claps. This is one of their earliest hit, having appeared in Grey's Anatomy and Google's "Year in Review" for 2012.
Kodaline's Coming Up for Air is out now on RCA Records, their last remaining 2015 US date will be at Newport in Columbus, Ohio, tonight.
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Kodaline at the Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (16 May 2015) |
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