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Podcast The Struts Setlist
Made Violent Setlist
Tour Dates
May 10—Pittsburgh, PA—Altar Bar
May 12—Norfolk, VA—Norva May 13—Atlanta, GA—Shaky Knees May 15—Jacksonville, FL—Jack Rabbits May 17—Fort Lauderdale, FL— Culture Room May 18—Orlando, FL—The Social May 20—Gulf Shores, AL—Hangout Music Festival May 21—Maryland Heights, MO—KPNT Pointfest May 22—Columbus, OH—Rock on the Range May 28—San Francisco, CA—Opera House May 28—Napa, CA—BottleRock Napa Valley June 5—Mendig, Germany—Rock am Ring June 3—Nurnberg, Germany—Rock im Park June 9— Sweden Rock Festival June 10— Pinkpop Festival June 11—Download Festival June 12—Nova Rock Festival June 16—Madrid, Spain—Mad Cool Festival June 19—Dover, DE—Firefly Music Festival July 2—Rotselaar, Belgium—Rock Werchter July 3—Arras, France—Main Square Festival July 14—Asbury Park, NJ—The Stone Pony* July 20—Reading, PA—Downtown Alive* July 21—Clifton Park, NY—Upstate Concert Hall* July 22—WayHome Music July 23—Cleveland, OH—R&R HOF* July 25—Detroit, MI—St. Andrew’s Hall* July 26—Cincinnati, OH—Bogart’s* July 29—Chicago, IL—Lollapalooza July 31—Montreal, Canada—Osheaga August 1—Portland, ME—Port City Music Hall* August 2—Boston, MA—Royale Nightclub* August 6—Washington, DC—9:30 Club* *supported by Dorothy Read More
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In the world of Star Wars fandom, May the 4th has become a playful, informal celebration day as its name is a play on words for the phrase “May the Force Be with You”.
In terms of Minneapolis rock shows, it was a Day of Force as well; that force delivered by the irresistible glam grooves of quickly rising UK band The Struts.
Buffalo, NY trio Made Violent brought a force of their own to the evening, opening with a generous 45min. salvo of loud, low-fi, garage/guitar rock of their own. The three-piece (bassist/singer Joe White, guitarist Rob Romano, and drummer Justin Acee) roared out of the gate with ‘Two Tone Hair’ which also begins their self-titled EP (on StarTime Intl/Columbia) and then charged into ‘Inside Out’, a quick 2 ½-minute track from the March release as well.
White has always brought a bit of bravado to the(self-acclaimed “world famous”) band, playing several new songs (incl. ‘On My Own’ and ‘Shadow’), even teased Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’ while tuning, as well as had White doing his best Liverpudlian accent to mimic Paul McCartney, who was playing just across the street at the same time. Ending with ‘Wasted Days’, which also ends the EP, Made Violent made the musical statement, on their terms, that they’re just getting started.
Derbyshire UK foursome The Struts had some promises to fulfill.
When the band had last played the Mainroom in Sept 2015, singer Luke Spiller was under the weather, resulting only in an eight-song/forty-five min. set, with the pledge that they would return and make things right. The resulting 95 min. arena-worthy, hedonistic throwdown was a night-to-day difference, electric in its energy, and put their previous appearance far back in the rearview mirror.
Spiller and the rest of the band (guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott and drummer Gethin Davies) echo the heyday of glam and good time rock with their own sound drawn from a mixture of Queen, Rolling Stones, The Sweet, and Slade, and Spiller obviously had picked up a few more Mick Jagger-esque moves, opening for the Stones in front of 80,000 in Paris and elsewhere.
‘Roll Up’ began the night with lyrics “Everybody wants, so get up, get up, get up to get some action” setting the tone, with Spiller conducting the crowd on cue to shout, clap or move, with a mere wave of his hand.
Breakout hit ‘Could Have Been Me’ was again inserted early into the set, the quartet obviously not believing they live and die on one genre-crossing radio hit, to have to save it until the end.
The band’s stage show has become more polished than last fall as well; pacing was near seamless, accompanying lights were more complex (six banks of stacked, arcing lights in front of the large logo backdrop were constantly in motion and sometimes literally blinding); and Spiller’s numerous costume changes during the set even seem more glittered than previous.
The band’s second US single, “Kiss This” from debut full-length Everybody Wants (on Interscope, released domestically w/extra songs after two years as an import) wasn’t saved until the end either, done not even a third of the way in, to rave applause.
Noting their last appearance at the venue after playing the song, Spiller acknowledged this night would be “a hundred times f##king better”. “I promised you a good show and we’re gonna deliver”, Spiller remarked.
‘Dirty Sexy Money’ had an arresting melody hook right out of the AC/DC playbook, ‘Let’s Make This Happen Tonight’ added extra excitement with Spiller working in “Minneapolis” into every chorus and the crowd shouting “Sympathy for the Devil”-sounding howls on cue back to the band, and ‘Put Your Money on Me’ had everyone participating with an “oh yeah” stanza after every line.
Ending the main set with a dedicated-to-Prince ‘Only Just a Call Away’, the encore began quickly after with guitarist Slack introducing the acoustic ‘Black Swan’ as being one of the band’s oldest songs, joined by Spiller in the last of his costume changes with overflowing black hat.
Tour personnel had taped lyrics to the front monitor just before the encore, so we assumed a cover song was coming next, but didn’t know which, until Spiller/Slack segued into ‘Purple Rain’, done in the same building which immortalized the song over thirty years ago.
A blistering ‘Where Did She Go’ ended the evening, the crowd’s hands and bodies moving side-to-side and singing along on Spiller’s command, before he then instructed the crowd to take a step back to crouch to the floor, before bursting into a jumping, dancing explosion of joy.
Call it a collective force of nature, call it the force of retro-meets-modern rock n’ roll, or just call it The Struts; on this night, promises were redeemed and their album title was correct- Everybody Wants.
In terms of Minneapolis rock shows, it was a Day of Force as well; that force delivered by the irresistible glam grooves of quickly rising UK band The Struts.
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Made Violent
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White has always brought a bit of bravado to the(self-acclaimed “world famous”) band, playing several new songs (incl. ‘On My Own’ and ‘Shadow’), even teased Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’ while tuning, as well as had White doing his best Liverpudlian accent to mimic Paul McCartney, who was playing just across the street at the same time. Ending with ‘Wasted Days’, which also ends the EP, Made Violent made the musical statement, on their terms, that they’re just getting started.
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The Struts
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When the band had last played the Mainroom in Sept 2015, singer Luke Spiller was under the weather, resulting only in an eight-song/forty-five min. set, with the pledge that they would return and make things right. The resulting 95 min. arena-worthy, hedonistic throwdown was a night-to-day difference, electric in its energy, and put their previous appearance far back in the rearview mirror.
Spiller and the rest of the band (guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott and drummer Gethin Davies) echo the heyday of glam and good time rock with their own sound drawn from a mixture of Queen, Rolling Stones, The Sweet, and Slade, and Spiller obviously had picked up a few more Mick Jagger-esque moves, opening for the Stones in front of 80,000 in Paris and elsewhere.
‘Roll Up’ began the night with lyrics “Everybody wants, so get up, get up, get up to get some action” setting the tone, with Spiller conducting the crowd on cue to shout, clap or move, with a mere wave of his hand.
Breakout hit ‘Could Have Been Me’ was again inserted early into the set, the quartet obviously not believing they live and die on one genre-crossing radio hit, to have to save it until the end.
The band’s stage show has become more polished than last fall as well; pacing was near seamless, accompanying lights were more complex (six banks of stacked, arcing lights in front of the large logo backdrop were constantly in motion and sometimes literally blinding); and Spiller’s numerous costume changes during the set even seem more glittered than previous.
The band’s second US single, “Kiss This” from debut full-length Everybody Wants (on Interscope, released domestically w/extra songs after two years as an import) wasn’t saved until the end either, done not even a third of the way in, to rave applause.
Noting their last appearance at the venue after playing the song, Spiller acknowledged this night would be “a hundred times f##king better”. “I promised you a good show and we’re gonna deliver”, Spiller remarked.
‘Dirty Sexy Money’ had an arresting melody hook right out of the AC/DC playbook, ‘Let’s Make This Happen Tonight’ added extra excitement with Spiller working in “Minneapolis” into every chorus and the crowd shouting “Sympathy for the Devil”-sounding howls on cue back to the band, and ‘Put Your Money on Me’ had everyone participating with an “oh yeah” stanza after every line.
Ending the main set with a dedicated-to-Prince ‘Only Just a Call Away’, the encore began quickly after with guitarist Slack introducing the acoustic ‘Black Swan’ as being one of the band’s oldest songs, joined by Spiller in the last of his costume changes with overflowing black hat.
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Setlist
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A blistering ‘Where Did She Go’ ended the evening, the crowd’s hands and bodies moving side-to-side and singing along on Spiller’s command, before he then instructed the crowd to take a step back to crouch to the floor, before bursting into a jumping, dancing explosion of joy.
Call it a collective force of nature, call it the force of retro-meets-modern rock n’ roll, or just call it The Struts; on this night, promises were redeemed and their album title was correct- Everybody Wants.
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The Struts at First Avenue, Minneapolis (04 May 2016) |
