It was a night where
new faces could be seen on stage and
new music filled the air everywhere downtown—
In addition to the monthly
Communion Records showcase happening just down the block, the Skyway Theatre in Minneapolis hosted a
New Music Showcase, sponsored by local alternative station,
Go 96.3FM featuring
Family of the Year, and up-and-coming acts
NeW bEAt FUNd,
Mainland, and
Ben Hazlewood.
The fledgling station is just over a year old, and is under the same ownership umbrella as baseball’s
Minnesota Twins and its newer sister station, the hip-hop-centric
Go 95.3FM, but has made the most active live music attempts in this market to bring new sounds to the area, with its series of
Go Shows,
Go Garage in-studio performances, and the summer
Go Fest held at Target Field. The
New Music Showcase is another feather in that same cap.
Ben Hazlewood
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Most Wanted of the evening went to newcomer
Ben Hazlewood who opened the bill with a short crooning set of originals that had many of the girls in the crowd swooning along. The singer-songwriter was on the first season of
The Voice Australia and followed that up with his 2013 self-released EP,
Loveless.
Hazlewood’s ear-pleasing pop songs sound in the same musical wheelhouse as
Sam Smith and
The Script and the affable Aussie (who also does fashion work) charmed on new single, ‘Wanted’ and closing song, ‘Noises’.
Mainland
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Most Proto-Punk / Garage of the evening went to New York City foursome,
Mainland, who kindly filled in at somewhat the last minute for the originally-scheduled
Transviolet, who decided that opening for
AWOLNATION in Leeds, UK, was a better offer for them (though they did profusely apologize).
The group, in Minneapolis for the first time, released their debut
Nights and Weekends back in 2013 and a new EP,
Outcast (on 300 Entertainment) late last year, and plays a quick-paced, hooky hybrid of punk, garage, new wave, and high-energy alternative.
The crowd appreciated the adrenalin-boosted tempo change and clapped along with the chorus of ‘Not as Cool as Me’ in appreciation. “Honored to be a part of this and all the amazing bands playing tonight” remarked singer/guitarist Jordan Topf before ‘A Bit Out of Time’, a personal song about losing someone.
Topf made his way down to play in the middle of the crowd halfway through their thirty-minute set and the band ended with the EP’s title track and new single, ‘Outcast’, with its 80’s-esque keyboards and chugging bass beat.
NeW bEAt FUNd
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Most Laid Back (and Lovin’ It) went to Los Angeles band
NeW bEAt FUNd, whose melting pot of
G-Punk (rock, rap, garage, sun/surf, and garage) covers as much ground as possible and does so seemingly without a care in the world. The stoner band introduced themselves right away to the crowd, stating their favorite food was guacamole, fave activity was swimming naked, and goal was to play on the moon… how could you not appreciate those facts?!
The band released the Matt (
Faith No More, R.E.M., Replacements)Wallace-produced
Sponge Fingerz (appropriately on Red Bull Records) last June and was a complete 180 sonically from NYC garage rockers Mainland, and couldn’t have been more “
California” with their sound.
Fans of
Sublime with Rome,
G-Love and Special Sauce and
Pepper will be right at home with the band’s sound and they surprised mid-set, by pulling out a slightly sludgy cover of
Rae Sremmurd’s ‘No Type’. “Here’s to friends!” singer Jeff Laliberte cheered before the band headed out with the bouncy ‘Sikka Takin’ the Hard Way’.
Family of The Year
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Most Melodic of the evening went to fellow Los Angeles band
Family of The Year, who hadn’t previously met the previous band, and couldn’t sound more different than them, either. The most established of the night’s acts, the band released a
self-titled second album (on Nettwerk Records) last September, and had to shake off a little rust for their first show in over three months.
The foursome (brothers Joseph and Sebastian Keefe with Christina Schroeter and James Buckey) started their 50 min. set on familiar ground, with ‘The Stairs’, the opening track from 2012’s major-label debut,
Loma Vista. The highly hummable ‘St. Croix’, a warm weather song to echo the (relatively) warm temps in the thirties locally wasn’t written about the nearby river, but a tropical destination where “you bring the ocean, I’ll bring the motion”.
“There should be no divide between the stage and the audience” singer Joseph Keefe said, as the band huddled in intimately over a single mic for a few acoustic songs starting with the knee-slapping ‘Buried’. ‘Blue Jean Girl’ from the new album (rumored to be about a girl from Minneapolis) followed, and ‘Summer Girl’, done acoustically by just the Keefe brothers, again harkened to warmer climates and similar states of mind.
Saved for last, the band’s biggest hit, ‘Hero’ which topped
Billboard’s Adult Alternative Chart, brought out video-recording cell phones, plenty of hands in the air, and those left in the building swaying inside the former movie theater. The crowd then fully took over singing the end chorus as guitarist Buckey delicately strummed the song’s chords.
With a touch of the familiar, and a heaping helping of “
the new”,
Go 96.3 seems to remain committed to exposing the area to up-and-coming bands and maybe giving a glimpse into who might be filling bigger venues, in the near future. And at a ticket price averaging just over $2 per band, the choice to go was a no-brainer.
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