Here is the wrap-up for last month:
June 2015.
The month started off slow, but once it got going, it was unstoppable. This was our busiest month so far in 2015, covering over 36 shows (up from 32 shows
in May 2015).
Like 'Rocktober', June had multiple bands playing different venues on the same date. For one person, it's impossible to cover two or three bands the same date, so we had to regrettably choose one over the other (if we didn't have enough people to cover everything.)
The first date that we couldn't cover was for
Catfish and the Bottlemen or
Purity Ring on June 9th, but we were able to give coverage to
Imagine Dragons with
Metric and
Halsey at Xcel in St Paul, and
Embrace with
Starsailor at Mill City Nights in Minneapolis.
The double/triple night shows would continue: June 10th (
Shonen Knife and
CJ Ramone vs
Elle King), June 11th (
Tori Kelly vs
White Lung), June 12th (
Michael Franti and Spearhead against
Barenaked Ladies) and June 13th (
Kate Tempest vs
July Talk vs
Hayden).
Personally, the very big big highlight was seeing
Violent Femmes with Barenaked Ladies. Two key things: (1) my first show ever at Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Red Wing, Minnesota (about two hours drive) and (2) my first ever Violent Femmes show. This is important because the Femmes had stopped writing music and essentially broke up in 2007 over disputes of selling out "Blister in the Sun" to Wendy's. When you hear some of these songs like "Kiss Off" and "American Music", you just have to sing along. It's so good live... and I hope VF do a normal club tour. You know we will be first in line to see them when they return.
June also meant big weekends for music festivals: particularly with
Stone Arch Bridge Festival pitting against The Walker Art Center/The Current's two-day festival
Rock the Garden. We had such a blast at Rock the Garden; this was our biggest highlight for the month of June. Where else are you going to see
Belle & Sebastian playing with
Courtney Barnett and
Conor Oberst? For the second night, teaming up
Modest Mouse with
Babes in Toyland and Seun Kuti & Egypt 80? Each band had to top each other, and it's okay to love them all for their diversity.
The festivals continued into the last week of June with
Twin Cities Jazz Festival (25-27 June 2015) in St Paul, Minnesota, and
AthFest (26-28 June 2015) in Athens, Georgia.
With the double/triple dates show in the first half and music festivals in the second half of June ... this resulted in one of the busiest, biggest month we've had to endure in a long time.
Below are links (if available) to all 36 shows we covered in June 2015.
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