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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at Fine Line, Minneapolis (12 Mar 2024)

03/12 Sleepytime Gorilla Museum with Dead Rider and The Kind City at Fine Line Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Setlist The Companions Phthisis Burn Into Light Ambugaton Powerless Hush, Hush Salamander in Two Worlds Old Grey Heron A Hymn to the Morning Star The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the Discussion -- Encore -- Sleep Is Wrong Tour Dates 03/13 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall 03/14 - Indianapolis, IN - Irving Theater 03/15 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom 03/16 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts 03/17 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair 03/18 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere 03/19 - Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar 03/20 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle 03/21-24 - Knoxville, TN - BIG EARS FESTIVAL 03/25 - Atlanta, GA - Terminal West 03/26 - Winter Park, FL - Conduit 03/27 - Tampa, FL - Orpheum 03/28 - New Orleans, LA - Howlin’ Wolf 03/29 - Houston, TX - Secret Group 03/30 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk 03-31 - Dallas, TX - Trees 04/02 - Albuquerque, NM - Sister Bar 04/03 - Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom 04/04 - Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole 04/05 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre 04/06 - Berkeley, CA - The UC Theatre Read More Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (SGM) reunited after 13 years to complete their fourth studio album titled Sleepytime Gorilla Museum of the Last Human Being (available February 23, 2024)…

Experimental rock band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (SGM) headlined the Fine Line, in Minneapolis, on March 12th. This is the band’s first live show in Minneapolis since 2010.

As you can see from the photos, they look like a nightmare Hare Krishna gang, and their live performance is unlike anything you’ve seen at a typical rock concert. They’re also quite funny, although they play it straight and serious.

SGM rose from the ashes of Idiot Flesh, where Nils Frykdahl and Dan Rathbun, with Carla Kihlstedt, Moe! Staiano and David Shamrock, went on to form the first Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

The band went into hiatus in 2016, after announcing a re-issue of the band’s catalogue on vinyl.

Last year, the band launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to record Of the Last Human Being album, accompanied by a short film and a brief live tour (if they hit the $100k mark). As history would have it, they met their goal after two days of launching the campaign.

Everyone who showed up at the Fine Line wanted to be there, especially since the help funded the Kickstarter and have been waiting a year to finally see the band re-united and finally hearing new songs (their previous album was 17 years ago!)

Chicago’s Dead Rider was one of the supports for this show (they also open for SGM in their hometown). These guys have a math rock, kind of experimental sound. They played some tracks from their Crew Licks album, and had the audience dancing and head-bopping.

Dead Rider (03 Oct 2015)

We actually seen Dead Rider before, in October 2015, and had high praises: “This band is pretty weird, but probably shouldn't surprise anyone who was a fan of the Rittmann's previous experimental/noise band called U.S. Maple. Rittmann's lyrics are surreal. Here are some sample lyrics I heard: "I went to the lake and got into the water.", "If you could kill with a thought", "The house you came up burned down." These seemingly flowing thoughts are sung over funky, metal, free jazz music and beats.” The next time you see Dead Rider, tell them you saw them in a dream, in a car, and that you put your hands on the glass. Rittmann would immediately respond by saying, "I am coming to you now."”

Dead Rider’s latest single is called “The War In My Head,” which you can get from Drag City.

Local Minneapolis The Kind City started the show. They came on stage waving to the crowd, and throughout their set, the audience waving back to the band.

The 5-piece art-rock band (Marshall Bolin, Andy Schuster, Liz McAllister, Blake Albinson, Edward Folly) was excited to open, and played music from their recently released debut album (released a few days ago).

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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at Fine Line, Minneapolis (12 Mar 2024)

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Battles, w/ Dead Rider at First Avenue, Minneapolis (03 Oct 2015)

poster Battles Setlist Dot Com Ice Cream FF Bada Futura Summer Simmer Tyne Wear Atlas -- Encore -- The Yabba Tour Dates 10/06 - Imperial, Vancouver, BC, CA 10/07 - Neptune, Seattle, WA, US 10/08 – Hawthorne, Portland, WA, US 10/09 - Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, US 10/11 - Crescent, Phoenix, AZ, US 10/13 - Trees, Dallas, TX, US 10/14 - Mohawk, Austin, TX, US 10/15 - Republic, New Orleans, US 10/16 - Masquerade, Atlanta, US 10/17 - Exit In, Nashville, US 10/18 - Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, US 10/19 - 9:30 Club, Washington, DC, US 10/20 - Webster Hall, New York, NY, US Read More Battles Experimental rock group Battles will be at First Avenue this October 3rd. The current lineup feature guitarist/ keyboardist Ian Williams, guitarist/ bassist Dave Konopka …

Experimental/instrumental rock band Battles recently played First Avenue on Saturday, October 3rd.

Dead Rider

Opening up the show was Chicago's Dead Rider, featuring singer/guitarist Todd Rittmann, drummer Matt Espy, keys White Christmas, and a fog machine.

This band is pretty weird, but probably shouldn't surprise anyone who was a fan of the Rittmann's previous experimental/noise band called U.S. Maple.

Rittmann's lyrics are surreal. Here are some sample lyrics I heard: "I went to the lake and got into the water.", "If you could kill with a thought", "The house you came up burned down."

These seemingly flowing thoughts are sung over funky, metal, free jazz music and beats.

The next time you see Dead Rider, tell them you saw them in a dream, in a car, and that you put your hands on the glass. Rittmann would immediately respond by saying, "I am coming to you now."

John Stanier

After Dead Rider left the stage, the roadies came on stage to put together Battles' instruments and setups. When they were setting up John Stanier's drum kit, the audience requested he put the hi-hat as high as possible. It was meant as a joke... but when Stanier came out on stage, he had this "What the f***?" look on his face! Absolutely hilarious.

However, instead of adjusting it, like any normal person, Stanier just kept it the same height and played their entire set like that.

That is the other thing about the instrumental trio, they just deal with it. Another example, their monitors didn't work, they casually mentioned it. Instead of waiting for the sound engineer to fix it, they just soldiered on without a break. Later on, bassist Dave Konopka joked that they should start a Kickstarter campaign to buy new monitors.

Although their set seemed short, each song runs on average about 10 minutes, about three times longer than a typical pop song. It's not surprising to see just six or seven songs written on their setlist.

Most of the song, at least on this tour, is taken from their latest La Di Da Di, including "Dot Com", "FF Bada", and encore song "The Yabba".

Also, I'm not sure if this was a joke or not, but guitarist Ian Williams told us that the very first time they played in Minneapolis (possibly opening up for The Icarus Line at First Avenue in 12 July 2004) that there were only five people in the audience. They were back stage and contemplating on actually playing that night. He didn't finish the story, because someone in the front said he told the story before. I had imagined that he meant to say they were mistaken, that there were really 500 people in the audience that night.... still regardless if there were five people that night, their recent headlining show indicate that those days are long behind them - that they can pull in a good crowd. The fans knew the material well (even for newer songs) and would often jump up and down in unison, losing themselves to the music.

Battles' La Di Da Di album is out now on Warp Records.

Battles at First Avenue, Minneapolis (03 October 2015)

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ itunes.apple.com