Dandy Warhols at First Ave
Dandy Warhols Setlist
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A quarter-century of pure Dandy-ness –
The Dandy Warhols returned to the Mainroom at First Avenue in Minneapolis to celebrate their new record and Twenty-Fifth Anniversary as a band.
The festivities began with a crunchy forty-minute set by Cosmonauts, not from Russia but an Orange County, CA garage/psych rock four-piece playing self-described “drug punk”, who we caught way back in 2013 in Austin, TX at a Burger Records gathering.
The group, led by guitarists Alex Ahmadi and Derek Cowart are out in support of fifth full-length, Star 69 (on Burger Records, so yes, it’s also available on cassette) released just last month, and proved to be a no-frills, musically harmonious pairing with the headliner- full of reverb, distortion, and trippy sounds often turned up to eleven, and ending solidly with the new album’s opener, ‘Crystal’.
With a stage adorned on each corner and in back with large shiny mylar “2” and “5” balloons, The Dandy Warhols took to the stage to begin their hundred-minute set with ‘Forever’ from brand new tenth studio album, the cheekily titled Why You So Crazy (on Dine Alone Records), a song also perfectly placed into a fight scene of a recent episode of the SyFy series ‘Happy’.
Frontman/guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor mostly stayed in place throughout, slightly back and off center sometimes under minimal lighting, turning around towards his amps and speaker stacks several times, to get the kinds of effects the songs required.
The Portland foursome (Taylor-Taylor alongside Peter Holmström – guitar/keys, bass;
Zia McCabe – keyboard bass, keys, bass, percussion; and Brent DeBoer – drums) sprinkled in four new cuts among a quarter-century of other alternative radio hits and album songs from several different styles in their career, for a set that was comfortably stretched out to show their musical range and vast catalog to draw from.
“Yes, Dandys Rule OK!” Taylor-Taylor said, responding to crowd shouts of such and explaining there’s no room for punctuation in rock and roll, referencing the phrase as the title of their first album, before leading into the mid-tempo of 2016’s ‘STYGGO’.
Heads bobbed as 2003’s ‘We Used to Be Friends’ fired up, though not charting in the U.S., people recognized it from its licensing and being the theme to ‘Veronica Mars’, and longtime local fans appreciated the nod to our area in 1997’s ‘Minnesoter’.
“Minneapolis was a big place in our lives”, Taylor-Taylor reminisced briefly following, before resuming with the rumbling jangle of 2000’s ‘Get Off’, with McCabe then taking the lead for the twangy countrified ‘Highlife’.
Things slowed momentarily for 2012’s ‘Well They're Gone’ with its lonely harmonica drone and syrup slow verses, but built back up gradually with the repetition credo of 1997’s ‘I Love You’, and then just got plain frantic with single from the new record, ‘Be Alright’.
A trio of tracks from third record Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia would close the main set, from the dreamy and wandering ‘Mohammed’ to the swirling, free spirt-ness of ‘Godless’, to ending things with their most recognized song to date, ‘Bohemian Like You’.
Not wanting to waste time by leaving/returning, the encore began immediately with the middle eastern-tinged 1997’s ‘Every Day Should be a Holiday’ and a giant balloon drop with white balloons floating everywhere- one of which that we saw in reviewing our photos after the fact, that actually doubled as a hand-written backstage pass, for whatever lucky crowd member managed to keep their hands on that special one.
Guitarist Holmström was naturally featured on his namesake and psych-friendly song, ‘Pete International Airport’ as balloons continued to pop in the background, and the Dandys stayed in 1997 to close out the show with the power-pop of ‘Boys Better’, with the band leaving to cheers as Taylor-Taylor once again commented on the huge impact the city has had on their musical lives.
It may make some people feel old to realize that The Dandy Warhols have been around for twenty-five years, but the fact that they are still around at all, successfully slightly morphing their sound to both change with the times, and still grow as musicians putting out viable new work, is a complete positive and big accomplishment of their own staying power.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
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Dandy Warhols at First Avenue, MInneapolis (12 May 2019) |
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