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State Radio and The Golden Dogs came by The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis to play an all-ages (note: early) show on March 31st.
Starting promptly at 7:30, Golden Dogs play for about forty minutes, before leaving the stage. Because curfew was noted at 10pm, they had to basically fly in and out quite quickly.
The interesting thing about their brief set was that keyboardist, Jessica Grassia, switched to drumming for two songs, starting with "As Long As You Like". During any time there were changing instruments, lead singer Dave Azzolini would play "switching" transitional songs. This is great, it's better than awkward silence.
Highlight of their show was "Saints At The Gates", which contains a borrowed line of "when the saints go marching in". The song is from their previous record, Big Eye Little Eye, but I'm pretty sure most of their song live, including "Weapon", were from Coat of Arms, which will be out on April 26th on Dine Alone Records. You can stream the entire album on their website.
So, I've never heard of State Radio before, but, wow, did they impress me. They're what we call a crusty band, you know, all about peace, love, earth, protest... and usually these type of bands are a gypsy type of music: blending folk with punk with reggae. You see that in State Radio, but what gets me is their lyrics can be extremely insightful (gobful of lyrics on "Knights of Bostonia" - which is a freedownload on bandcamp) and then becomes completely "aaeeoh aaye oooh" (like "whooo oooh oooh" from "Calling All Crows") nonsense. Although they seem all serious about policitcal and various moments, they're still down to earth... like when singer Chad Urmston slip in "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" cover.
The other thing you should know is that State Radio has a lot of fans. They seem like students, eagerly volunteering participation to songs, like hand clapping to singing toa few ALL of State Radio's songs. It's really good to see this kind of devoted fans. I certainly felt like an undercover Narc. I joke about these things, but this is one of the nice perks about checking out random shows.
As much as you'd like to believe they're born protesters, they followed the law and ended their set before ten, squeezing in two songs for the encore. Ended the whole show with "Let It Go".
Trivia: State Radio's tour guitarist is none other than Matt Embree from Rx Bandits. He is an amazing guitar player.
Starting promptly at 7:30, Golden Dogs play for about forty minutes, before leaving the stage. Because curfew was noted at 10pm, they had to basically fly in and out quite quickly.
The interesting thing about their brief set was that keyboardist, Jessica Grassia, switched to drumming for two songs, starting with "As Long As You Like". During any time there were changing instruments, lead singer Dave Azzolini would play "switching" transitional songs. This is great, it's better than awkward silence.
Highlight of their show was "Saints At The Gates", which contains a borrowed line of "when the saints go marching in". The song is from their previous record, Big Eye Little Eye, but I'm pretty sure most of their song live, including "Weapon", were from Coat of Arms, which will be out on April 26th on Dine Alone Records. You can stream the entire album on their website.
So, I've never heard of State Radio before, but, wow, did they impress me. They're what we call a crusty band, you know, all about peace, love, earth, protest... and usually these type of bands are a gypsy type of music: blending folk with punk with reggae. You see that in State Radio, but what gets me is their lyrics can be extremely insightful (gobful of lyrics on "Knights of Bostonia" - which is a freedownload on bandcamp) and then becomes completely "aaeeoh aaye oooh" (like "whooo oooh oooh" from "Calling All Crows") nonsense. Although they seem all serious about policitcal and various moments, they're still down to earth... like when singer Chad Urmston slip in "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" cover.
The other thing you should know is that State Radio has a lot of fans. They seem like students, eagerly volunteering participation to songs, like hand clapping to singing to
As much as you'd like to believe they're born protesters, they followed the law and ended their set before ten, squeezing in two songs for the encore. Ended the whole show with "Let It Go".
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GOLDEN DOGS |
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Trivia: State Radio's tour guitarist is none other than Matt Embree from Rx Bandits. He is an amazing guitar player.
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