The annual
Basilica Block Party to benefit the restoration of the Basilica of Saint Mary, kicked off its first night on Friday, July 10th.
It was a perfect day for an outdoor summer festival that just right before the entrance was opened at 5pm, the organizers announced that they officially sold out all 15,000 tickets for Friday's show.
If you're not familiar with how the Basilica Block Party is organized, it is like the three bears approach: The main stage for the big headliners, the medium-sized stage mid-sized headliners, and the small stage for local bands. The schedule is done in a way that they would play against each other, so it's actually impossible for you to enjoy a full set of every band.
Star Tribune Stage
Tyte Jeff's setlist
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The first of the local bands on the
Star Tribune Stage was
Tyte Jeff (featuring singer/guitarist Jeff Allen, drummer Matt Johnson, guitarist Jeff Marcovis, and bassist Aaron Ripplinger). The band played a few tracks from their self-titled 2014 EP, including intro song ‘Exurb Kids Don't Know What They Don't Know’ and ‘Imagine This Before Irony’ on their 45-min set.
Rupert Angeleyes
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Next up was
Rupert Angeleyes, in green hair and shorts. Like their previously live appearance
at Record Store Day 2015, the garagey/60s surf band played tracks from their latest album
Young Sunset, including some sensitive songs like ‘Delicate Guy’ and ‘When I Fell in Love’.
Zoo Animal
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Headliner for the
Star Tribune Stage was
Zoo Animal who had a full hour to play. The band lead by Holly Hansen (who previously was billed under Holly Newsom), and she was
muy emocionada to preview some brand new songs.
Zoo Animal is headlining the Cedar Cultural Center this July 31st, with
Har-di-Har and
Circadia. The show will also feature an art installation by Rachel Andrzejewskiat.
PreferredOne Stage
Matthew Sweet (with Gary Louris)
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Over at the
PreferredOne Stage was
Matthew Sweet with a full band: Paul Chastain on bass, Dennis Taylor on lead guitars, and Ric Menck on drums.
The Sweet set was a real treat, with about half his set taken from his breakout 1991
Girlfriend album, including the title track, ‘Evangeline’, and ‘I've Been Waiting’.
The real highlight on his hour long set was when Sweet invited
The Jayhawks’
Gary Louris on stage to help jam out and provided backing vocals to the last four songs: ‘Divine Intervention’, "I've Been Waiting’, ‘Girlfriend’, and ‘Sick Of Myself’.
Matthew Sweet is currently on a Midwest Summer 2015 tour with California's
Orange Peels.
Mat Kearney
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Oregon’s Nashville transplant
Mat Kearney has always been a local favorite, playing almost every venue in town, though his last Basilica appearance in 2012, was cut short and forced to be acoustic, due to storms, so his hour-long set was “redemption”, in his words.
Kearney also brought along
Leagues (and ex-
Audio Adrenaline) guitarist and New Brighton resident, Tyler Burkham and noted sponsoring station Cities 97 was one of the first to play his breakout single, ‘Nothing Left to Lose’.
During ‘Undeniable’ Kearney scat sang a list of all the local venues he’s played previously, and worked in a verse of a
U2 cover, during his own song, ‘Runaway’, with his bulk of his set from new album,
Just Kids (Republic Records).
O.A.R.
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Rockville, MD quartet
O.A.R. is very familiar with the Basilica stage and has also done several promotional appearances for Cities 97, so their inclusion to headline the Preferred One stage on Day One, seemed a natural fit. Singer Marc Roberge and band were so “in the zone” playing that they didn’t break until after the sixth song, with Roberge remarking “I always forget to say 'Hi 'because we love playing so much”.
‘About an Hour Ago’ was described as the first song they ever wrote together, and the band, known for its spontaneous changes, veered from its own setlist in favor of more hits, including first single, ‘Hey Girl’.
Their somewhat abbreviated 90 min. set still allowed for three songs from their newest, last year’s
The Rockville LP (Vanguard Records), with strongest crowd responses saved for hit ‘Shattered (Turn the Car Around), namesake song ‘That Was a Crazy Game of Poker’, and closing Bob Marley cover, ‘Stir It Up’.
Sun Country Airlines Stage
Motion City Soundtrack
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Motion City Soundtrack can still qualify as a local band, despite their nationwide popularity and proof that they still connect in Minneapolis, was seen at a crowded main stage for their late afternoon set.
Lead singer Justin Pierre seemed genuinely excited to be play the event for the first time and the band played many of their favorites and a good chunk from album,
Commit This to Memory, which is celebrating its 10
th anniversary with its single, ‘Everything is Alright’.
They also debut some new songs, including ‘TKO’, the lead single from its upcoming album
L.G. Fuad (Let's Get F***ed Up And Die), due in September back on
Epitaph Records, their original label. Even their street team was on high alert, papering the outhouses with posters of the album’s impending release.
DJ Windsor spun some music during the 30-min setup on the main stage. You can see him on the right side of the stage, where
Cities 97 DJs Brian Oake and Keri Noble would also come on to introduce the bands.
Nate Ruess
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Former
The Format and
fun. singer
Nate Ruess did a great job pumping up the audience for headliner Weezer. He
stormed the stage with his large six-piece band to play ‘Great Big Storm’.
Since the band is relatively new (the Basilica Block Party was only the third US date on their tour), having only formed since fun.'s hiatus in February 2015, they only have a debut album
Grand Romantic (which was released last month on June 15th). They were smart enough to not play all new songs, instead trickling them in between fan-favorite fun. hit songs like ‘We Are Young’ and set closer ‘Some Nights’.
He also threw in two other covers,
P!nk's ‘Just Give Me a Reason’ and
Prince's ‘Let's Go Crazy’. Ruess' story about the latter cover is that they would cover that song in Sweden, and
no one knew the song. Of course, it's a different story in Minneapolis, Prince's hometown, as everyone in the audience was singing back, "
Oh, no let's go! Let's go crazy!"
Sure, the band is still young, but they knew exactly what they were doing. Ruess had great vocals and his high energy was impossible to ignore. Keep an eye on them.
The first time I saw
Weezer, they opened up for
Lush at
Fillmore, San Francisco in 1994. I saw them again in 2000 and 2005 at
First Avenue, both sold out, of course. I believe that was the last club-sized show, in 2005, because currently, the group only book at stadium-sized venues, like Xcel Energy Center, Minnesota State Fair, Basilica Block Party, and the recent
Burgerama Music Festival in Santa Ana.
Rivers Cuomo
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Only a couple of songs from their latest
Everything Will Be Alright In The End album were played, including ‘Back To The Shack’, ‘Eulogy For A Rock Band’, and ‘Go Away’. The latter was actually written and performed as a duet, as singer/guitarist Rivers Cuomo pointed out... so guitarist Brian Bell took over the second lead vocals. Bell also handled vocals for "Keep Fishin'", and Scott Shriner took over on ‘Dope Nose’.
As soon as the first few chords of ‘Hash Pipe’ were played, the audience immediately recognized it and started screaming and singing. Other big hits blocks included ‘Surf Wax America’, followed by ‘Island in the Sun’ with personalized "Minneapolis" lyrics, and ‘Beverly Hills’ (which did gangbuster in California, but surprisingly did really well in Minnesota as well).
They have been traditionally ending all their sets with their first single, ‘Undone - The Sweater Song’. That song is always tricky to play live because there is speaking background audio recording that doesn't always translate well in live performances. It's not one of my favorite live songs, but I can understand why the band chose that song to end their show.
Despite a late start, Weezer left enough time for a two-song encore, coming back on for ‘Memories’ and big crowd pleaser ‘Buddy Holly’. Instead of just walking off stage at the end of ‘Buddy Holly’, everyone in the band took drum sticks and started pounding on the Tom-Toms with drummer Patrick Wilson.
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