W♥M

Harry & the Potters at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (03 July 2019)

Harry & the Potters at Cedar Harry & the Potters Setlist I Am a Wizard Wizard Chess The Economics of the Wizarding World Don’t Make Sense Hermoine Screws Up The Polyjuice Potion Save Ginny Weasley My Teacher Is a Werewolf S.P.E.W. You're Not the Wizard Phoenix Song Song For The Death Eaters On the Importance of Media Literacy Under Authoritarian Rule Touch the Brains Where's Ron? Gone Campin' Accio Fish No Pureblood Supremacy Get Stuck in Hagrid's Beard The Sword, the Cup, and the Dragon Phoenix Song (Reprise) Hermione's Cool Bag Save Ginny Weasley From Dean Thomas Phoenix Tears These Days Are Dark -- Encore -- Luna Lovegood based on The Kingsmen “Louie Louie” Read More Harry and the Potters We’ve been kind of fascinated with these guys, Harry and the Potters, ever since we wrote about them as the leading pioneer of “Wizard Rock” (yes, that is a thing) in 2007. The brothers (Paul and Joe DeGeorge) just released their new album Lumos …

Massachusetts’ Harry and the Potters headlined the Cedar Cultural Center, in Minneapolis, on July 3, 2019.

Opening up the show was local Larry Wish, a musician described as “bedroom pro music”. The set wasn’t a typical concert… instead it was more like a pantomime show.

Everything about Larry Wish, from his makeup, his costume, his graceful movements, his all-instrumental music, they were all part of a whole performance or dance movement.

The original Wizard Rockers, Harry and the Potters (brothers Joe and Paul DeGeorge) took the stage to adorning teenagers (ages anywhere from 6 to 19) and their parents. Right from the start, the group had the audience eating out of their hands. Even if you didn’t know their songs, the brothers made it easy (and fun) enough to get everyone involved with their show. For example, they often pass the mic around and have the fans in front say what they’re bringing in “Hermione's Cool Bag” or just saying spew in the song “S.P.E.W.” (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare).

The Potters were joined by drummer Jacob Nathan (named “Bill Weasley”) and soundboard/stage props Wizard. Together, they put on a really fun show for all ages.

For the encore, Harry and the Potters came back and created a Conga line, playing “Luna Lovegood” (sung to the tune of The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie”). It was surprisingly satisfying, watching the audience join in to create a long line.

Remaining tour dates:

07/5 - Steamboat Springs, CO - Strings Music Festival
07/6 - Boulder, CO - Band Shell in Central Park
07/7 - Denver, CO - Mercury Cafe
07/8 - Provo, UT - Provo Library at Academy Square
07/9 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
07/12 - Missoula, MT - Missoula Public Library
07/13 - Calgary, AB - The Rec Room
07/14 - Edmonton, AB - The Rec Room
07/16 - Vancouver, BC - Vancouver Public Library
07/17 - Anacortes, WA - Causland Park
07/18 - Olympia, WA - Olympia Timberland Library
07/19 - Seattle, WA - Seattle Public Library
07/20 - Portland, OR - St. Johns Library
07/20 - Portland, OR - Gresham Library
07/21 - Eugene, OR - Downtown Eugene Public Library
07/23 - Santa Clara, CA - Northside Branch Library
07/24 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
07/25 - Oakland, CA - Oakland Public Library Main Branch
07/26 - San Luis Obispo - San Luis Obispo Library
07/27 - Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Public Library
07/28 - La Jolla, CA - The Ché Café
07/29 - Bakersfield, CA - Beale Memorial Library
07/30 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
07/31 - Huntington Beach, CA - Huntington Beach Public Library
08/1 - Las Vegas, NV - Clark County Library
08/2 - Phoenix, AZ - Burton Barr Central Library
08/3 - Tucson, AZ - Flowing Wells Branch Library
08/4 - El Paso, TX - El Paso Public Library
08/5 - San Antonio, TX - The Magik Theater
08/6 - Houston, TX - Houston Public Library
08/7 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Public Library
08/8 - Ridgeland, MS - Ridgeland Public Library
08/9 - Dallas, TX - LeakyCon
08/12 - Austin, TX - Mohawk
08/14 - Shawnee, KS - Monticello Library
08/15 - Tulsa, OK - Tulsa City County Library
08/16 - Springfield, MO - The Library Center
08/17 - Nashville, TN - Basement East
08/18 - Greensboro, NC - Greensboro Public Library
08/19 - Raleigh, NC - Cameron Village Regional
08/20 - Washington, DC - Woodridge Library
08/21 - Lewes, DE - Lewes Public Library
08/22 - Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
08/23 - New Bedford, MA - Downtown
08/24 - Boston, MA - Boston Public Library

Larry Wish

Larry Wish

Larry Wish

Harry & the Potters

Harry & the Potters

Harry & the Potters

Harry & the Potters

Harry & the Potters

Harry & the Potters

Harry & the Potters at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (03 July 2019)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

San Cisco and Carla Geneve at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (14 June 2019)

San Cisco at Cedar Cultural Center San Cisco Setlist The Distance Beach SloMo About You Wash It All Away That Boy Magic Hey, Did I Do You Wrong? When I Dream Awkward Snow Skin (live debut) Did You Get What You Came For? Run Flaws (New song) Fred Astaire Too Much Time Together Carla Geneve Setlist 2001 New Song (Take Me Places) Things Change Yesterday's Clothes Greg's Discount Chemist Listening New Song (Woman in the Industry) New Song (Don’t Want To Be A Lover) New Song (Maybe I Dreamt About You) I Hate You (For Making Me Not Want To Leave The City) W♥ San Cisco Timeline 11 Apr 2011: Review of Golden Revolver (Australia Version) 04 Aug 2011: Review of Golden Revolver (US Version) 18 Feb 2012: San Cisco at Spectrum, Sydney 12 May 2012: San Cisco at Groovin' the Moo 09 Oct 2012: Awkward Single Review 17 Oct 2012: Interview with Jordi Davieson 21 Oct 2012: San Cisco at Turf Club 23 Oct 2012: San Cisco at The Echo 31 Jan 2013: San Cisco Album Review 09 Feb 2013: San Cisco at the Triple Rock 13 Feb 2013: San Cisco at Fillmore 30 Mar 2013: San Cisco at Triple Rock 31 Jul 2013: San Cisco at Triple Rock 06 Aug 2013: San Cisco at The Gothic Theatre 22 Jun 2015: San Cisco at Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis 19 Aug 2017: San Cisco cancels 7th Street Entry 14 Jun 2019: San Cisco at Cedar Cultural Center Tour Dates 06/16/2019 Mod Club Toronto, ON 06/18/2019 Black Cat Washington, DC 06/19/2019 Johnny Brenda's Philadelphia, PA 06/20/2019 Great Scott Allston, MA Read More San Cisco Our favorite modern Australian band San Cisco will be making their way back to Minneapolis' Triple Rock Social Club next Monday, June 22nd. The band is touring in support of their sophomore album Gracetown . … Carla Geneve Show up early to check out Western Australian artist Carla Geneve, touring in support of her debut self-titled EP that came out yesterday (June 7th) via Dot Dash / Remote Control Records. Geneve came on the music scene with her debut single …

Australian band San Cisco (Jordi Davieson, Scarlett Stevens, Josh Biondillo, and Jennifer Aslett), headlined the Cedar Cultural Center on Friday, June 14th.

Opening the show was Perth-based Carla Geneve, on her very first American tour (and obviously her first time in Minneapolis). I would describe her music as singer/songwriter, especially with just her solo on guitar and lyrical song. You can see a bit of Courtney Love (as referenced in one of her songs) and Courtney Barnett (for the thoughtful lyrics).

Geneve is still quite new to the music scene, her bio lists her debuting in the West Australian scene in 2017 (but it seems like she’s been playing local music since as early as 2010). Her debut single “Greg’s Discount Chemist”, got strong support from Australia national radio Triple J.

With new musicians, transcribing their setlist is next to impossible because they haven’t released too many songs. In fact, officially, Geneve’s only got one six-track self-titled EP that dropped on June 7th via Dot Dash / Remote Control Records. Most of the songs I’ve listed on her setlist don’t have official song titles, and 100% will be different song titles when she does release them in an album.

Still, you can tell that she’s got a lot of songs in her, and as one of “West Australian’s Six Brightest Young Stars of 2019”, you can bet we’ll be hearing more from her.

There were a couple of stand-out tracks from her set, first is her debut single, “Greg’s Discount Chemist”, which is a great descriptive song. Unfortunately, in America, no one calls it “the chemist” (it’s commonly known as Pharmacy or Drug Store), so it might not really take off in America.

The other song, is about women in the music industry. The song might actually be biographical, describing her road to creating a band and being the “only pair of tits” in an all-male music festival. I think that song might do really well with fans of strong women songs.

As you know, we’ve been following Fremantle’s San Cisco since the review of their debut single, “Golden Revolver” in April 2011 (the band’s average age was about 18 at the time). We’ve watched their rise with superstardom with “Awkward” (hitting #7 in Triple J's Hottest 100 Countdown) in Oct 2012. By this time, San Cisco toured the USA market for the first time, we got a chance to chat with Jordi Davieson at CMJ 2012.

Around this time, Minneapolis’ local radio, The Current randomly decided to test out and played “Awkward”, not thinking much of it. That one play generated so much interested from listeners that the Current was forced to play that song again (thanks to so many phone calls asking for them to play that song again). Thanks to the Current, there’s always been really, really strong support for the youth band since their debut in the Twin Cities at Turf Club, St Paul (21 Oct 2012).

Since then, we’ve never missed the band (having seen and review them a total of eight times). Unfortunately, the band had to cancel their 7th Street Entry in August 2017 and that meant that the last official time the band’s been in Minneapolis was in Jun 2015 at the now-defunct Triple Rock Social Club (they’ve played there three times!)

It’s been four long years, and by now, the band’s already well into The Water (released in 2017) and already have a forthcoming (yet to be titled) new 2019 album “in the can”. We are also presented with a new bassist called Jennifer Aslett, who replaced Nick Gardner since 2018.

Now that we’re all caught up with San Cisco, I have to say that it’s amazing that San Cisco’s audience seem to be YOUNGER than previously seen at their shows! This is partly thanks to The Cedar’s all-ages policy (one of the few local venues that is always all-ages), so the average age of the audience is under 20 years old. This is not a bad thing at all.

Although the band have released three albums, as you can see from the setlist, they mostly concentrated on the later two albums. Only two songs from their self-titled 2012 album were played: the mega-hit song “Awkward” and “Fred Astaire”. It would’ve been nice to hear “Golden Revolver”, but I’m sure the band is sick to death of playing their first single.

During “introducing the band” (before “Wash It All Away”), Jordi thanked The Current for supporting them in the early days of the band. He also reminisces about The Triple Rock Social Club, mentioning that it was the only venue that had feedback monitors directly faced toward his feet, so that his feet would feel every thunderous bass line. It’s like he missed the venue, but not its sound system.

There were a couple of new songs introduced, the first is the live debut of “Skin”. According to Jordi, the band’s never played it before and is going to be the lead single from their forthcoming 2019 album. The other song is called “Flaws” (I misheard Jordi saying “Floors” with his thick Australian accent), which was played solo as the first “encore” song.

Carla Geneve

Carla Geneve

Carla Geneve

San Cisco

San Cisco

San Cisco

San Cisco

San Cisco at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (14 June 2019)

P.S., Sorry about all this inside baseball notes, but the last time we covered a show at the Cedar Cultural Center was in 30 April 2018 (over one year). There are a few reasons. One, First Avenue, which books most of the shows we cover, purchased the Turf Club (in 2013), the Fine Line Music Café (in 2018), and added the Palace Theatre (in 2016). Between First Avenue’s six different venues (First Avenue, 7th Street Entry, The Record Room, Fine Line, Turf Club, and Palace Theatre) and Live Nation’s two venues (The Armory and Varsity Theater), there are very few songs left for the Cedar. To be fair, the Cedar does book their own shows, but their specialty is World Music, which we generally don’t cover. Hopefully, this is not our last Cedar coverage. We’d like to cover more Cedar shows, as we’ve mentioned many times before, this is a really good venue for listening to music.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Minneapolis: September 17 to September 19, 2018

Here are some shows taking place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area from September 17 to September 19, 2018.

Read more: Minneapolis Music Guide.

Johnny Marr 2018 Tour Read More Johnny Marr Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr (one of the subject in a recent W♥M Podcast) recently performed "Easy Money" from his latest Playland (Warner Music Group) on The Tonight Show Starring … Belle Game Tue 10/10/2017, 7pm, 18+, $14 Pickwick + The Elwins and Belle Game 7th Street Entry Seattle’s Pickwick have a new LP called LoveJoys out now via Small Press Records. …

JOHNNY MARR
+ Belle Game
Varsity Theater
Mon 09/17/2018 (7pm/$34)
varsitytheater.com

Godlike guitar genius Johnny Marr is headlining the Varsity Theater on Monday, September 17th, in support of his new album Call The Comet.

If you follow British music at all, you know that Marr is the guitarist from The Smiths. He co-wrote all their hits, and while Morrissey may take all the spotlight, you know he couldn’t have done it without the music of Marr.

The first time we saw Marr solo in May 2003, he didn’t want to play any Smiths songs. It was understandable, he felt he needed to stand on his own. The same can be said for Morrissey, who didn’t perform Smiths songs for a long time.

Since 2014, Marr started playing Smiths songs again on his set, so if you love The Smiths, you should be there for Johnny Marr on September 17th.

Belle Game to open. Their latest album Fear/Nothing is out now on Arts & Crafts. The band was last seen in town in October 2017.

Tour dates:

09/15 | Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom
09/16 | Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
09/17 | Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
09/20 | Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theater
09/21 | Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
09/22 | Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
09/24 | Santa Cruz, CA @The Catalyst
09/25 | Berkeley, CA @ UC Theater
09/26 | San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
09/28 | Sonoma, CA @ Old Redwood Barn
09/30 | Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee
10/2 | Mexico City, Mexico @ Plaza Condesa
10/4 | Los Angeles, CA @ The Theater
10/8 | San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
10/9 | Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
10/10 | Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
10/11 | Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
10/13 | Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
10/15 | New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
10/16 | Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
10/17 | Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
10/19 | Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix
10/20 | Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
10/21 | Boston, MA @ The Paradise
10/22 | Philadelphia, PA @ TLA

Global Roots Festival 2018 (09/17) Mattson 2/Astronauts, Etc. at Turf Club Clutch 2018 Tour Global Roots Festival 2018 (09/18) Japanese Breakfast 2018 Tour Maroon 5 2018 Tour Global Roots Festival 2018 (09/19) San Gabriel September Series Pallbearer ∕ Tribulation 2018 Tour Read More Clutch Maryland rock band Clutch just celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary over the summer and brought their Psychic Warfare Tour to a raucous First Avenue in Minneapolis. … Japanese Breakfast Opening will be singer Michelle Zauner, of Philadelphia indie punk band Little Big League, under the solo moniker of Japanese Breakfast. The music showcases Zauner's dark ...

Other shows in the area:

GLOBAL ROOTS FESTIVAL
feat. Sona Jobarteh, Aynur
Cedar Cultural Center
Mon 09/17/2018 (5pm/FREE)
thecedar.org

The special day-day Global Roots Festival at the Cedar Cultural Center starts on Monday, September 17, with Gambia’s Sona Jobarteh and Turkey’s Aynur.

The event is FREE and outdoor stage starts at 5pm and indoor shows starts at 7:30pm

THE MATTSON 2/ASTRONAUTS, ETC.
Turf Club
Mon 09/17/2018 (7pm/$13)
thecedar.org

Co-headlining San Diego’s The Mattson 2 and Oakland’s Astronauts, etc. (aka Anthony Ferraro) show is taking place on Monday, September 17th.

Tour dates:

9/13: Square Cat Vinyl - Indianapolis, IN
9/14: Ruby - Madison, WI
9/15: Door County Brewing Co. - Door County, WI
9/17: Turf Club - St Paul, MN
9/19: Lost Lake - Denver, CO
9/20: State Room - Salt Lake City, UT
9/21: Jack London - Portland, OR
9/23: Wise Hall - Vancouver, BC
9/25: Barboza - Seattle, WA

CLUTCH
Myth
Tue 09/18/2018 (6:30pm/$35)
mythlive.com

Maryland’s influential heavy rock band Clutch is headlining Myth, in support of their 12th album Book of Bad Decisions (Weathermaker Music).

Tour dates:

09/16 Chicago IL Riotfest
09/18 St Paul, MN Myth Live
09/19 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater
09/21 Houston TX House of Blues
09/22 San Antonio TX River City Rock Fest
09/23 Dallas, TX Gas Monkey Live
09/25 Orlando, FL House Of Blues
09/27 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
09/28 Raleigh, NC The Ritz
09/29 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade
09/30 Louisville, KY Louder Than Life
10/02 Denver, CO Ogden Theater
10/03 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
10/05 Boise, ID Knitting Factory
10/06 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory
10/07 Seattle, WA Showbox SODO
10/08 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
10/09 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
10/11 San Francisco, CA The Regency Ballroom
10/12 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theater
10/13 San Bernardino, CA Glen Helen Amphitheater
10/14 San Diego, CA North Park/Observatory
10/15 Tempe, AZ The Marquee
10/17 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom
10/18 Sauget, IL Pop’s Nightclub
10/19 Grand Rapids, MI 20 Monroe Live
10/20 Detroit, MI The Filmore Detroit
10/21 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
10/23 Toronto, ON Rebel
10/25 Worcester, MA The Palladium
10/26 New York, NY Irving Plaza
10/27 New York, NY Irving Plaza
10/28 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory

GLOBAL ROOTS FESTIVAL
feat. Zhou Family Band, Rio Mira
Cedar Cultural Center
Tue 09/18/2018 (5pm/FREE)
thecedar.org

Ecuador/Colombia’s Rio Mira brings together musicians like Esteban Copete (Colombia), Karla Kanora (Ecuador) and other local folk musicians that the river, Rio Mira, divides. China’s Zhou Family Band will co-headline.

If you like world music, come check out the group at the Cedar Cultural Center on Sep 18, as part of the venue’s 10th Annual Global Roots Festival.

The event is FREE and outdoor stage starts at 5pm and the all-ages show goes until 10:30pm.

Rio Mira’s tour dates:

09/15/2018 Chicago World Music Festival, Chicago , IL
09/16/2018 Chicago World Music Festival, Chicago, IL
09/18/2018 Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, MN
09/19/2018 Saint Mary's Uni, Winonna, MN
09/20/2018 Saint Mary's Uni, Winonna, MN
09/22/2018 Globalquerque Festival, Albuquerque
09/25/2018 Taos Mesa Brewing, Taos, NM
09/28/2018 Lotus Fest, Bloomington, IN
09/29/2018 Lotus Fest, Bloomington, IN

JAPANESE BREAKFAST
+ Ought
Fine Line Music Café
Tue 09/18/2018 (7:30pm/$15)
finelinemusic.com

Japanese Breakfast (Michelle Zauner) is returning to the Twin Cities, this time headlining the Fine Line Music Café. The venue was recently in the news, as First Avenue made the announcement that they have purchased the small venue. Of course, if you follow local music at all, you know that First Avenue was already booking and working various shows at the Fine Line (including this Japanese Breakfast show).

9/12 - Columbus, OH @ Skully's
9/13 - Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop
9/14 - DeKalb, IL @ The House Cafe
9/16 - Madison, WI @ Majestic Theater
9/17-22 - Lincoln, NE @ Lincoln Calling
9/18 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
9/19 - Iowa City, IA @ The Mill
9/23 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux
9/25 - Seattle, WA @ The Neptune Theatre
10/2 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
10/3 - Mesa, AZ @ The Nile
10/5-7 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/12-14 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits

MAROON 5
+ Julia Michaels
Xcel Energy Center
Tue 09/18/2018 (8pm/$7)
first-avenue.com

Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning multi-platinum band Maroon 5 is headlining the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

Tour dates:

09/14 Chicago, IL United Center
09/16 Milwaukee, WI Wisconsin Entertainment
09/18 St Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
09/20 Indianapolis, IN Bankers Life Fieldhouse
09/22 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
09/23 Nashville, NT Bridgestone Arena
09/25 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
09/27 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
09/29 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
09/30 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
10/02 Washington, DC Capital One Arena
10/04 Charlotte, NC Spectrum Center
10/06 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
10/07 Boston, MA TD Garden
10/10 Hartford, CT XL Center
10/12 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
10/14 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
10/15 New York, NY Madison Square Garden

GLOBAL ROOTS FESTIVAL
feat. Delgres, Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Cedar Cultural Center
Wed 09/19/2018 (5pm/FREE)
thecedar.org

Continuing the free Global Roots Festival, we have Guadeloupe’s Delgres and Balkan brass band Lemon Bucket Orkestra.

Outdoor Local Roots Stage Performances start at 5:00pm. Indoor show starts at 7:30pm.

Delgres’ tour dates:

09/18 - Whitewater, WI - Univ. of Wisconsin
09/19 - Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center
09/21 - Albuquerque, NM - ¡Globalquerque!
09/22 & 09/23 - Chicago, IL - Chicago World Festival
09/28 & 09/29 - Bloomington, IN - Lotus Festival
09/30 - Stanford, CA Stanford University
10/05 - Los Angeles, CA - Alliance Française
10/07 - Joshua Tree, CA - Joshua Tree Music Festival

SAN GABRIEL SEPTEMBER SERIES
Mortimer’s Bar and Restaurant
Wed 09/19/2018 (9pm/$5)
mortimersbar.com

Madison’s Seasaw will be playing at Mortimer's Bar and Restaurant as part of the San Gabriel September Series (every Wednesday at 9pm).

Also on the bill: Orca Colony and MT Foyer.

San Gabriel September Series on Wednesdays

9.19.18 Orca Colony / Seasaw / M. T. Foyer
9.26.18 Beringei

PALLBEARER ∕ TRIBULATION
Turf Club
Wed 09/19/2018 (7pm/$17)
turfclub.net

The co-headlining tour of Swedish rockers Tribulation and Arkansas’ Pallbearer will come to the Turf Club in St Paul on September 19th.

Tour dates:

09/15 - Toronto ON - Lee's Palace
09/16 - Detroit MI - Magic Stick
09/18 - Chicago IL - Bottom Lounge
09/19 - Minneapolis MN - Turf Club
09/21 - Denver CO - Bluebird
09/22 - Salt Lake City UT - Metro
09/24 - Calgary AB - Dickens
09/25 - Edmonton AB - Starlite
09/27 - Vancouver BC - Rickshaw
09/28 - Seattle WA - El Corazon
09/29 - Portland OR - Hawthorne
10/01 - San Francisco CA - Slim's
10/03 - Phoenix AZ - Rebel Lounge
10/05 - Austin TX - Barracuda
10/06 - Dallas TX - Trees
10/07 - Houston TX - White Oak

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Vinyl Vaudeville: The Floor Kids Edition, feat. Kid Koala, Adira Amram, and DJ Jester, at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (30 April 2018)

Kid Koala Vinyl Vaudeville at Cedar Poster Kid Koala Setlist Halo Skanky Panky Floor Kids Battle Tracks (medley) Drunk Trumpet Medley: Gun (Emiliana Torrini) / So What Cha Want (Beastie Boys) 4 Bit Blues Yo Gabba Gabba Metal Medley Was He Slow? (Baby Driver) 7 Bit Blues Laptop Laptop Laptop Conjoined Octopus DJs Rave Piano Moon River 8 Bit Blues Tour Dates 5/5: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios 5/7: San Francisco, CA @ The Independent 5/8: Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater 5/10: Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf 5/12: Austin, TX @ 3TEN ACL 5/13: Dallas, TX @ AT&T Performing Arts Center 5/15: Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall 5/16: Washington, DC @ Union Stage 5/17: Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's 5/18: Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Hall 5/19: Boston, MA @ The Sinclair About Floor Kids Floor Kids is a new breakdance battle game featuring unique freestyle gameplay, rhythm challenges, and multiplayer sessions. Discover stylized hand-drawn graphics by award-winning animator JonJon set to an original soundtrack by world-renowned scratch DJ/producer Kid Koala. Innovative controls allow you the freedom to play the way you like with a dynamic scoring system that rewards your moves based on musicality, originality, and style. Build up your crew of bboys and bgirls, unlocking new characters and locations as you cross the city, busting hundreds of different moves and countless combinations on your journey from the corner to the club. Bring Your Skills. Build Your Crew. Find Your Style. Read More Kid Koala This is a book, completely written and drawn (with accompanying soundtrack) by Kid Koala, called "Nufonia Must Fall". It's a love story between a lonely office girl and an out-of-work robot. …

The Kid Koala-curated “Vinyl Vaudeville Show” just occurred at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis last Monday, April 30th. This isn’t the typical rock concert, but rather a variety show, celebrating DJs, entertaining theatrical dancers, singers, and a bit of burlesque. It’s not as racy as that sound, but there are elements of it.

For this 2018 tour, Kid Koala dubbed these 18 shows as “The Floor Kids Edition”, as it is also in part a promotion for the breakdancing video game called Floor Kids (available for the Nintendo Switch and coming soon to Steam), which he provided the music soundtrack for the game. It’s quite an interesting cross-promotion, as you rarely see arcade video game machine available for fans to test out at the show. The three Floor Kids machines were constantly used before the show started, so it was a big hit.

The show was also billed as kids-friendly, so there were plenty of parents and their children at the show. Unfortunately, many of the parents and children left early. It’s understandable, as it’s a school night, after all.... but you can’t help but think that this kind of kids show would better be held in the day (and preferably on a weekend).

Warming up the show was DJ Jester the Filipino Fist (aka G. Michael Pendon), who played plenty of medley of the 80s and 90s pop hits. You can tell what era he grew up in, playing David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” to Vanity 6’s “Nasty Girl” to Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” to The Pointer Sisters’ “Automatic”, etc.

Although mostly pop/rock songs of yesteryears, there’s also plenty of odd wonders in there too, including King Missile’s “Detachable Penis”, Dead Milkmen’s “Right Wing Pigeons”, and DJ Jester’s theme song, Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time” (which we declared as a hit on our playlist in August 2009).

The other cool thing about DJ Jester is that all these songs were from vinyl records, played on two turn tables. It’s probably much easier and effortless to just bring a laptop and a harddrive, but where’s the fun in that? In the time Jester spent on stage, he must’ve gone through a crate of records (probably over a hundred 12” records).

Next on the “Vinyl Vaudeville” bill was Adira Amram & The Experience. Kid Koala “experienced” one of her shows in New York City and immediately fell in love with her act, which is part singing, dancing, and comedian. He begged her to be part of this show, and as a result, this was Amram’s first time in Minnesota. Thankfully, most of the snow have melted by this time.

Amram is joined by two dancers: Jessi “Jamz” Erian and Maresa “Body and Soul” D'Amore-Morrison. She loves her dancers so much, she actually wrote (and performed) a song for them (“Jessi and Maresa”, played after “Boom Boom”). Her set was rather short, but full of high energy dance routines. During the end of her set finale for “Pizza Party”, she body surfed to the DJ soundboard (where Kid Koala would sometime help out on his wireless sampler).

The Canadian turntable artist Kid Koala closed out the night. As previously mentioned, we’re actually big fans of his work since 2001’s Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Ninja Tunes). We love Deltron 3030 and amazed at his Nufonia Must Fall shows. Perhaps some of those, puppeteers from Nufonia joined Koala on this tour, but we can’t be sure.

Kid Koala’s “Vinyl Vaudeville” show was some of the most fun, most inventive show we’ve seen in a while. There’s just something really magical about watching puppeteers animate these homemade fabric puppets. There’s no computerize tricks, just old fashion hand manipulated puppets.

Koala’s set (please refer to setlist), used a lot of material from his 2012 album 12 Bit Blues... which is not his latest release. His current album Music to Draw To: Satellite was more of a collaborative album with Icelandic singer Emilíana Torrini... and probably would require live vocal singing from Torrini. Instead, he sample her song “Gun” with “So What Cha Want” by The Beastie Boys.

Koala explained the secret origin story of his (now) infamous Koala suit he wears at shows. He jumped at the chance to appear on the children show Yo Gabba Gabba to show off what a cool dad he was to his daughter. The night before he was to fly to the Yo Gabba Gabba set, his wife asked what he was wearing on the show. He quickly realized that everyone who appeared on the program wore crazy outfits and costumes. With her trusty sewing machine, she whipped out a Koala suit for Kid Koala to wear.

He wore the suit for a year, after he lost a bet with his record label Ninja Tune, and now, despite his protest, is synonymous with the outfit.

For his “Was He Slow?” song, Kid Koala told us that he almost appeared on Baby Driver as a hand model because Ansel Elgort was busy filming a stunt that day. Thankfully, Elgort (who is also a DJ), stepped in at the last minute and saved the day.

Late in his set, Kid Koala asked the audience for participation. They were developing and filming footage for their upcoming Conjoined Octopus DJs story. A story about conjoined Octopus DJ brothers. The two scenes they shot at our show was a rave scene and a sweeping, quiet piano scene.

Koala closed out the show with one of his famous mix for “Moon River” (dedicated to his mother and “all the women over 60”) and set finale “8 Bit Blues”. The latter song is about being on the road, traveling from “Chicago to LA to NY” and catchy chorus “312 to 213 to 312 to 213″ samples. The finale song was a lot of fun, as Adira Amram and the Experience, dressed in flight attendants, threw out a ton of paper airplanes.

If you’re looking for a fun, kids-friendly show, go to the Vinyl Vaudeville: Floor Kids Edition show. If you want to find out more about Floor Kids, head over to Engadget.com and read about it. If you want to help support the game, you can buy it or add it to “your wish list” on Steam and it will help boost the games’ ranking.

P.S., Sadly, when a fan requested “Tricks N Treats” (which sampled “It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” as Charles Schulz lived in St Paul), Koala had to politely apologized because he didn’t bring the record. Still, the Kid Koala’s “Vinyl Vaudeville” show was so much fun and entertaining, no one seemed disappointed when that song wasn’t played.

Adira Amram & The Experience

DJ Jester

Floor Kids Arcade Machines

Nufonia makes an appearance

Fan: King Mitch

312 to 213

Kid Koala at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (30 April 2018)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

John Maus at the Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (05 April 2018)

John Maus at Cedar Poster Tour Dates 04/15/2018 Coachella 04/22/2018 Coachella 05/04/2018 Red Bull Music Academy Festival Read More John Maus In his first show in seven years, John Maus will be headlining the Cedar Cultural Center on Thursday, April 5th. Maus is known for his emotional, passionate live ..… C. Kostra Devata Daun (aka Nikki Pfeifer) and C. Kostra (aka Ryan Olcott) to open. After this warm-up gig, he’ll be travelling to various music festivals from around the world … Devata Daun Two local bands were special guests at the show. Darkwave band Devata Daun (aka Nikki Pfeifer) was first, playing some tracks from her album Look (Pytch Records). …

It was a sold-out show for John Maus’ first show in Minneapolis in seven years, at the Cedar Cultural Center on Thursday night. Sadly, that also meant that there were a few fans without tickets, waiting outside in the cold asking for spare tickets.

Devata Daun (aka Nikki Pfeifer) and c.Kostra (aka Ryan Olcott) opened the show. The first 30 minutes featured Devata Daun’s sweet, atmospheric songs from her album Look (Pytch Records), then, midway, the two swap places as c.Kostra finished out the remaining 30 minutes with his new album now i feel it (Pytch Records). The seamless transition suggests that the two often work together… and it’s probably safe to say that if you see one of them at a show, the other is close behind.

Just to give you a little background, but John Maus is often associated with Ariel Pink, as the two were roomates/classmates at the California Institute of the Arts. Maus would end up as a member of the Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti stage band.

When Maus signed and released his debut record Songs (Upset the Rhythm) in 2006, he toured and built up a good reputation for his passionate performances. Then, in 2012, he just decided to take a four-year break from music. He spent that time finishing his dissertation, and gained a PhD in political science from the University of Hawaii.

Maus’ fourth album (and his latest) is called Screen Memories and came out last year. So, for the first time in four years, he went on tour to promote the record. While fans and critics were already accustomed to his solo one-man-karaoke shows, last year’s tour featured a full live band (featuring his brother Joe Maus on bass, Luke Darger on keyboards, and Jonathan Thompson on drums). After over a year of touring, the band was actually still very tight, which is important as they are set to play Coachella next week.

After a seven-year absent from Minneapolis, the show wasn’t just about Maus, it was also about his diehard fans. It wasn’t uncommon to see friends surprised and happy to see each other at the show. Or when a familiar song started to play, some people would just turn to each other and started hugging (especially hearing the opening chords to “Streetlight”). It’s heartwarming to see so many people happy to celebrate their mutual love for John Maus.

As you would expect, there was a lot of high-energy bopping up and down, fist punching the air, and plenty of sweating.

With an upcoming album Addendum (made of extra songs from Screen Memories), expect to see Maus more active in shows… and hopefully another Minneapolis date next year.

Devata Daun

c.Kostra

Devata Daun

Devata Daun (art by Vu)

John Maus

John Maus

John Maus

John Maus at the Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (05 April 2018)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Luna at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (01 November 2017)

Luna Setlist GTX3 California (All the Way) Fire in Cairo (The Cure cover) Sideshow by the Seashore Gin (Willie Loco Alexander cover) Malibu Love Nest Friends (Velvet Underground Cover) Bobby Peru Broken Chair Car Wash Hair (Mercury Rev cover) I Want Everything Lost in Space 23 Minutes in Brussels -- Encore 1 -- One Fine Summer Morning (Evie Sands cover) Friendly Advice -- Encore 2 -- Chinatown Everybody's Talkin' (Harry Nilsson cover) Soccer Mommy Setlist Try Henry Last Girl Benadryl Dreams Switzerland Out Worn New Song (Down by the Water) Cool Read More Luna As for Dean & Britta, they were both in Luna, but for this tour, they are playing pre-Luna Dean Wareham's band Galaxie 500. ...

90s dream pop band Luna headlined the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis on November 1st.

Nashville’s Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) opened up the show. She’s joined on stage by “a new band” with Nick Brown on drums, Gabe Wax on Bass, and Julian Powell on guitars. The touring band changes, so her band may change in the future.

Although Allison’s been making music since she was six years old, she didn’t start recording music as Soccer Mommy until 2015, with Songs For The Recently Sad. After signing with Fat Possum in 2017, she took her music career more seriously.

Starting with “Try”, the band played quiet folky songs from their various EPs (some were collected in Collections via Fat Possum Records). There was a new (pending title) song, which Allison said will be released on a forthcoming album. It was so new that the rest of the band took a break while Allison played solo (we’re assuming she was the only person who knew the chords).

As for Luna, it’s really now singer/guitarist Dean Wareham. He started the group after the breakup of Galaxie 500. Britta Phillips (of The Belltower) would join Luna in 1997 as bassist. We’ve previously noted that Phillips is the singing voice of Jem (the cartoon).

Luna broke up in 2005, but Wareham and Phillips (as Dean & Britta) continued their music together, eventually marrying in 2007.

Luna’s eventually reformed, at first for a one-off performance for Shine A Light Festival in Brooklyn in 2012, and then as a reunion tour in 2015. The same fans who saw their reunion tour last year, was at Wednesday’s crowded show (which is a good indication of Luna’s dedicated fanbase).

If you didn’t know, Luna’s known for their wonderful covers, and this show had plenty: The Cure’s “Fire in Cairo”, Willie Loco Alexander’s “Gin”, Velvet Underground’s “Friends”, Mercury Rev’s “Car Wash Hair”, all played within the first 40 minutes of their set.

I’ve criticized Luna before for never playing “Slash Your Tires”, which is, perhaps, their biggest hit single. Over time, I’ve come to just accept the fact that Wareham just doesn’t want to play it.

Remaining tour dates:

11/03 | Milwaukee, WI at Turner Hall Ballroom
11/04 | St. Louis, MO at Off Broadway
11/05 | Nashville, TN at Exit/In
11/07 | Detroit, MI at Magic Stick
11/08 | Toronto, ON at Great Hall
11/09 | Cleveland, OH at Grog Shop
11/10 | Louisville, KY at Headliners Music Hall
11/11 | Atlanta, GA at Terminal West
11/12 | Carrboro, NC at Cat's Cradle
11/14 | Washington, DC at DC Black Cat
11/15 | Pittsburgh, PA at the Warhol at Carnegie Lecture Hall
11/16 | Philadelphia, PA at Union Transfer
11/18 | New York City, NY at Brooklyn Steel

Soccer Mommy

Soccer Mommy

Luna Setlist

Luna

Luna

Luna

Luna at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (01 November 2017)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

The Church at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (08 Oct 2017)

The Church Setlist Aura Myrrh Toyhead Metropolis Another Century Delirious Fly North, South, East and West Day 5 Constant In Opal Undersea I Don't Know How I Don't Know Why Tantalized Under the Milky Way Reptile -- Encore -- Dark Waltz Block -- Encore 2 -- Deadman's Hand Miami Helio Sequence Setlist Red Shifting Can't Say No Stoic Resemblance October Downward Harmonica Song Back To This Sometime Lately Never Going Back We All Want (?) Read More The Church Australia’s The Church is back in the city. The last time we saw them at the Cedar in 2015 we noted, “The show was performed as one long set, versus the two separate sets done …

Sydney’s The Church were back in town at the Cedar Cultural Center on Sunday, October 8th, to promote their latest record, Man Woman Life Death Infinity. The record, at least according to singer Steve Kilbey, is “the best album I’ve ever written.”

DJ Jake Rudh (from Transmission) played music videos as soon as doors opened at the Cedar. Music included all your favorite alternative hits from XTC to the Sundays to, of course, David Bowie. Normally Rudh would also DJ after the opening band, leading up to the headliner, but for this event, the Church said they would provide their own music.

Opening the show was Oregon’s The Helio Sequence. The duo, guitarist / singer Brandon Summers and drummer Benjamin Weikel, said that they’ve played all over the world, toured for many years, but this was the first time that they’ve ever, ever played “a cultural club” before. They weren’t used to the community-run, nonprofit center and actually insisted on using all their equipment (including amps and the drummer’s rug!) and running the whole thing by themselves.

You can tell they’ve been on the road for quite a while and just used to using their own gears. This also meant that they had probably more control and knew how far to stretch their equipment.

As you can see from their setlist (according to my notes), there were a few songs from their new self-titled album (‘Red Shifting’ and ‘Never Going Back’), but they mostly concentrated on earlier songs.

Drummer Benjamin Weikel was a joy to watch. He would often mouth the notes as the banged on the drums. Summers looked incredibly serious the whole time, playing in near darkness. The only time he spoke was to remark that he’s never been to the Cedar Cultural Center before.

As we previously mentioned, The Helio Sequence contributed a track to the compilation Transference. The record comes out December 1st on Marmoset Records.

Longtime favorite band The Church returned to the Cedar Cultural Center as part of their Man Woman Life Death Infinity U.S. tour. Currently the band has two founding members, singer/guitarist Steve Kilbey, and guitarist Peter Koppes. Making up the rest of the band is drummer Tim Powles (who joined the Church in 1994), guitarist Ian Haug, keys Jeffrey Cain (formerly of Remy Zero), and bassist Wilson McLeod (Wilson’s last name could have been misheard).

The Church had their own sound staff and guitar tech on hand, so there were no awkward “tuning stories” to be heard.

As you can see from the photo of the setlist, they played a lot of songs from Man Woman Life Death Infinity. They were really proud of the new songs. Of course, everybody’s favorite song ‘Under the Milky Way’ was saved until nearly the last song on their set.

They stuck to the set, up until the encore, which they switched some songs around - like ‘Dark Waltz’ was played first and the very last song was ‘Miami’.

Steve Kilbey was actually a lot more talkative on this tour, cluing us in to some titles of songs, like “I’m feeling delirous!” right before ‘Delirious’ and “I think I’m moving back to Miami,” before ‘Miami’.

The Helio Sequence and the Church continues their tour:

10/11/2017 Gothic Theatre Englewood, CO
10/12/2017 The State Room Salt Lake City, UT
10/13/2017 Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV
10/14/2017 Pressroom Phoenix, AZ

The Helio Sequence

Setlist

The Church: Tim Powles and Steve Kilbey

The Church: Peter Koppes

The Church: Steve Kilbey

The Church

The Church at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (08 October 2017)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

H.U.B. at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (06 July 2017)

H.U.B. Setlist Girl Gang Oh My God (Hwang Tae Ji cover) I'm In Love With a Monster (Fifth Harmony cover) Ponytail K-Pop Medley Ooh Ooh Yesterday (블락비 / Block B cover) Just The Two Of Us (Bill Withers cover) Shape of You (Ed Sheeran cover) Gracie original solo song B-Day (Ikon cover) Crush Waterfall K-Pop cover Our Time Together Read More H.U.B. If you want to see an upcoming K-Pop show, there is a brand new band called H.U.B. (“Hope U Bounce”), who is making a stop at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis tomorrow. …

South Korea’s H.U.B. (“Hope U Bounce”) is currently on their very first American promotional tour, stopping by the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis on Thursday night.

The show started with a local DJ (show poster lists FZ Flexzone) playing various K-Pop songs to a group of highly energetic young music fans. They all formed a circle around one or two dancers, who were eager to strut their stuff. The crowd was a young diverse group, everyone from Asian boys & girls to Asian-Indians with headscarf to American fans. Of course, they were all filming everything on their cellphone, and they loved every bit of it. This tells me the K-Pop community in Minneapolis is strong... especially after the show at the “Meet & Greet”, where nearly 90% of everyone at the show had upgraded V.I.P. passes.

JRE & Kenny (aka KeNNyBoy) were the master of ceremonies and announcers. They also served as a sort of hypemen, and sometime would help vamp up time while the girls are backstage busy with costume changes. JRE & Kenny said that Minneapolis was the best show they’ve been to so far (“Miami and Atlanta’s got nothing on Minneapolis!”)

MKDC (“Minnesota Kpop Dance Crew”) started the actual show. This was the girl dance team, they’ve been dancing together for about four years, and many of them are U of M students. They only prepared dance routines for two songs, the first was to Salt ‘N Pepa’ ‘Whatta Man’ and the second was to pop song I didn’t recognize. It was very brief (about 10 mins), but really a nice, but unexpected, way of starting the show.

Korean-American hip-hop duo JC Park & Salv was the main opener, with a 40-min set. JC Park & Salv mentioned that they’re from Minneapolis.

They started with songs like ‘Ah Yeah’ (“I’m on fire, baby”) for two or three songs before being joined on stage by rapper Dio C. After some intense dancing, both Dio C and JC took off their shirts. Salv, unwilling to join in on the topless show, joked, “I’m not gonna take off my shirt, y’all. I don’t look like that!”

By the time JRE and Kenny joined on stage to help sing a song, everybody was going wild, spraying bottled water and just really enjoying themselves.

They ended their set with ‘U Mad Boo’, with production beats by menohbeats.

H.U.B. is a brand new K-Pop idol group. Originally with only four members in 2016 (Gracie, Rui, Yuem, and Keina), they recently added Hyosun to the group. It should be noted that all the band members have side solo projects, especially band leader Gracie (who sang an original solo song on their set) and Japanese singer Rui, formerly of N-Bulance.

Since the band is brand new, with only three singles released, the band filled up their set with mostly cover songs. The two leads, Gracie and Yuem, both had their solo moments, but they mostly are seen on stage together with choreographed dance routines.

The main problem with these type of shows is that they require costume changes. We’ve seen Madonna, Lily Allen, and Selena Gomez, and how they handle costumes is that they have 5-min intermissions. For example, Allen had dancers and DJs while she’s backstage changing. Madonna and Selena had music videos (custom-made for the show). H.U.B. didn’t have these things - they had JRE & Kenny - but they sometime weren’t waiting in the wing! So that sometime left Gracie on stage alone, trying to keep us entertained. At least we found out that she lived in Chicago for six years before moving back to South Korea.

The coolest thing I’ve seen is that H.U.B. would take a fan’s phone and take selfies for Instagram ... it wasn’t just one person, it was for all the fans trying to give them their phone. I’ve never seen anything quite like that.

NOTE: Setlist may be incorrect, they are based on my notes and not off an official setlist.

H.U.B. at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (06 July 2017)

MKDC

MKDC

JC Park & Salv (with Dio C, JRE, and Kenny)

Gracie Solo

H.U.B.

H.U.B. at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (06 July 2017)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Perfume Genius at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (24 May 2017)

Setlist Otherside Longpig Fool Just Like Love Go Ahead Valley Normal Song Dark Parts Wreath All Waters Body's in Trouble (Mary Margaret O'Hara cover) My Body Grid Run Me Through Die 4 You Slip Away -- Encore -- Alan Mr. Peterson Kangaroo (This Mortal Coil cover) Learning Hood Queen Read More Perfume Genius Perfume Genius (aka Mike Hadreas) is stopping by the Cedar Cultural Center in support of his fourth record No Shape (Matador Records). The album was recorded in Los Angeles …

Seattle’s Perfume Genius stopped by the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis last week, May 24th, touring in support of his new record No Shape (Matador Records).

Unfortunately, due to problems at the door, we were prevented from seeing serpentwithfeet, who is touring with Perfume Genius on this 2017 tour. Apparently, local Har Mar Superstar was a fan, as he was spotted early in for the show.

Perfume Genius came on stage right on time at 8:30pm, singing and dancing in a very lowly lit room, wearing some sort of old fashion corset. The declaration backdrop was dressed in theme of his No Shape cover artwork: a tropical painting with ferns and greenery. It would seem that a lot of thought went into creating the atmosphere, especially with the lighting.

Perfume Genius is basically the stage name solo artist Mike Hadreas, began recording music under the moniker in 2008 when he moved back to Seattle. His songs often reflect his experience of being an openly gay man in a society that doesn’t always embrace what they don’t understand.

His breakout record, Too Bright, came out in 2014, and received critical acclaim - partly thanks to the vision by co-producer Adrian Utley of Portishead. At the height of Hadreas’ rise to fame, he appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to perform ‘Queen’, undoubtedly his signature song by now. The song and record even came to our attention when he went on tour in 2014.

Seeing as how The Guardian commented that the new album No Shape “sounds like a unique talent coming into full bloom,” perhaps it will even top Too Bright.

As you can see from the setlist, it opens and closes heavily with songs from No Shape, with the middle sprinkled with ‘My Body’ and ‘Grid’ from Too Bright and a cover of Mary Margaret O’Hara’s ‘Body’s in Trouble’.

For the encore, as expected, Perfume Genius saved their song ‘Queen’ for the last song... a gift for the dedicated fans who waited.

Remaining tour dates:

06/08 Heaven London
06/09 AB Club Brussels
06/11 We Love Green Festival Paris, France
06/13 Paradiso Noord Amsterdam
06/14 Kantine Am Berghain Berlin, Germany
06/16 Eaux Claires Festival - Eau Claire, WI
06/17 Eaux Claires Festival - Eau Claire, WI
07/15 Imperial - Vancouver, BC
07/16 Revolution Hall - Portland, OR
07/18 The Independent - San Francisco, CA
07/19 The Independent - San Francisco, CA
07/20 El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, CA
07/22 FYF Festival Los Angeles, CA
07/23 - Capitol Hill Block Party - Seattle, WA
08/12 Haven Festival Copenhagen
08/14 Niebo Warsaw, Poland
08/15 MeetFactory Prague
08/16 Manufaktur Schorndorf, Ger
08/18 Pukkelpop Festival Hasselt, Belgium
08/19 C/O Pop Festival Cologne, Germany
08/23 Zurich Open Air Switzerland
08/26 Todays Torino, Italy
08/29 Galvanizers Yard Glasgow, UK
08/30 Galvanizers Yard Glasgow, UK

Perfume Genius at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (24 May 2017)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

San Fermin with Low Roar at the Cedar, Minneapolis (14 April 2017)

Low Roar Setlist Nobody Else Give Me An Answer St. Eriksplan Bones I'll Keep Coming Don't Be So Serious Breathe In Tonight, Tonight, Tonight Tour Dates 4/20 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret 4/21 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile 4/22 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge 4/24 - San Francisco, CA - Independent 4/ 25 - San Francisco, CA - Independent 4/26 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy 4/27 - San Deigo, CA - The Casbah 4/28 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar 4/29 - El Paso. TX - Lowbrau Place 5/1 - Dallas, TX - Sons of Herman Hall 5/2 - Austin, TX - Antone's 5/3 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall 5/7 - Atlanta, GA - Park Tavern 5/9 - Charlotte, NC - Visulite Theater 5/10 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club 5/11 - Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum 5/12 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live 5/13 - New York, NY - Brooklyn Steel 5/15 - Boston, MA 0 Brighton Music Hall 5/16 - Boston, MA 0 Brighton Music Hall Read More San Fermin Brooklyn’s San Fermin is back in town... I believe their latest album is called San Fermin, which came out last year on Downtown Records. ... Low Roar Once in a Long, Long While... Low Roar April 14, 2017 Label: NoPaper Records Copyright: 2017 NoPaper Records Total Length: 49:23 Genres: Alternative Rock ...

Brooklyn-based San Fermin stopped by the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis on Friday as part of their promotional tour for their third record Belong.

Starting the show, slightly later than advertised was Icelandic band Low Roar. The band is normally four people with Andrew Scheps on production, but for this U.S. tour, they’re a trio with Ryan, Logi, and Leifur.

Audrye Sessions at 80/35 Music Festival, Des Moines (04 July 2009)

Just to give a little background on Low Roar, the band is fronted by singer/songwriter Ryan Karazija, who was previously in a band called Audrye Sessions with Alicia Marie Campbell. We saw Audrye Sessions (along with 30 other bands in the same day) and described them as “really intense.” We also wrote about them in 2008, commenting on their cover of Elliott Smith’s ‘Waltz #2’: “Their version is pretty similar, I especially like singer Ryan Karazija vocals on this one.”

Anyway, when Karazija moved to Iceland and formed Low Roar, it would seem that his new band is a bit more atmospheric, often sounding like Grandaddy or latter-day Radiohead.

With three albums under their belt, Low Roar’s set concentrated on his new record Once in a Long, Long While (Nevado Music). Since the band chose to play in near darkness (with their laptop was covered in black tape to cover any light), it wasn’t a whole lot of fun to watch the band perform... but one can argue that without the visuals, the audience had to listen to the music without distractions. As a result, especially with the Cedar Cultural Center’s clientele, the 30-minute was basically a great listening party.

In stark contrast, San Fermin’s performance was bright and full of brilliant colors. They have stepped up their game, especially since we saw them in 2014 and 2016 and very little effort was put in stage production. With the Belong tour, San Fermin had custom background and custom color-changing lights... making their show, at least visually, very appealing.

Like San Fermin’s previous records, the majority of the band’s music comes from the mastermind of Ellis Ludwig-Leone (on keys), who compose some of the grandest pop music today. Vocally, the band still teeter back and forth between deep vocal styles of Allen Tate and pop/rock vocals of Charlene Kaye.

The remainder of the band (violinist Rebekah Durham, trumpeter John Brandon, saxophonist Stephen Chen, guitarist Tyler McDiarmid, and drummer Michael Hanf) all seem to be having lots of fun performing on stage.

The majority of San Fermin’s set is taken from Belong (‘Bride’, ‘Better Company’), with some exceptions like ‘Emily’ and ‘Methuselah’.

San Fermin’s latest Belong is out now on Downtown Records. Low Roar’s Once in a Long, Long While just came out on Nevado Music (14 April 2017).

Low Roar

Low Roar

San Fermin

San Fermin

San Fermin

San Fermin at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (14 April 2017)

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic