Fitz and the Tantrums at NCAA Tip-Off Tailgate, Nicollet Mall Minneapolis (08 April 2019)

Fitz And The Tantrums Setlist Get Right Back Spark Out of My League Break the Walls Walking Target Complicated Fool Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Eurythmics cover) Fool's Gold MoneyGrabber L.O.V. HandClap The Walker Read More NCAA After successfully hosting last year’s Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four Basketball Finals come to town for an exciting weekend, whether a fan of college hoops or not. The Final Four is expected to bring 94,000-out-of town visitors … Fitz and the Tantrums There’s really no doubt left– Fitz and the Tantrums are no longer a secret locally; rather, are firmly established as a party-starting, crowd-inducing good time band that everyone now has their eye on. …

The road ends here--

So said all the signs around downtown Minneapolis as the city hosted its first NCAA Final Four Basketball Championship for the first time since 2001 and as a musical prelude to the big game, Fitz and the Tantrums played a free outdoor concert on the pedestrian-only Nicollet Mall, transformed for the weekend into the Tip-Off Tailgate.

The blocks-long area was filled with people visiting food and exhibit booths, waiting to ride the ten-story high Ferris Wheel, and seeing the sights on their way to nearby U.S. Bank Stadium for the tip off between favored Virginia and upstarts Texas Tech.

Los Angeles indie-funk pop/soul Fitz and the Tantrums have long been a local live favorite, first having played Bunker’s on an unbearably frigid sub-zero night in Feb 2011, then returning a mere five months later, to near triple-digit heat at the Basilica Block Party, and who have been returning regularly to the area and to crowds of growing size, ever since.

Starting by heavily leaning on songs from 2013’s More than Just a Dream (Elektra Records) singer Noelle Scaggs dedicated ‘Break the Walls’ “to all the rebels out there” as she and lead singer Michael Fitzpatrick jumped about the large stage. Sax player/musical director James King and drummer John Wicks teamed for a sax vs. drums tet-a-tet to end the buoyant ‘Complicated’ and Scaggs vocally shone on their Eurythmics cover.

Third single from More than Just a Dream, ‘Fool’s Gold’ remains criminally underrated, but a constant live staple, and Fitzpatrick asked before their breakout hit, ‘MoneyGrabber’ how many had seen the band before, and how many were seeing them for the first time, with the crowd only slightly leaning towards the newbies, but obviously gaining new fans along the way.

With the hour-long set building, the band closed strongly with their highest-charting song to date, 2016’s earworm ‘HandClap’ and the whistle-heavy bouncing pop of 2013’s ‘The Walker’, perhaps appropriate for all the basketball fans walking the several blocks from the concert to the nearby game.

For anyone that missed the free show (easy to have done, as downtown traffic on game night was Super Bowl-like), Fitz and the Tantrums just booked in a June 15 date at First Avenue along with tour mates Coin, on an off-night from their summer amphitheater co-headlining tour with Young the Giant.

The band’s new single, ‘123456’ is out now, with a new full-length due later this year.

Tour dates:

18 May Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival 2019 25 May Seoul Jazz Festival 2019 Olympic Park 12 Jun Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO 15 Jun First Avenue Minneapolis, MN 16 Jun White River State Park Indianapolis, IN 18 Jun PNC Pavilion at Riverbend Cincinnati, OH 20 Jun Maine Savings Pavilion Westbrook, ME 21 Jun Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion Boston, MA 22 Jun Fillmore Philadelphia, PA 23 Jun 92.3 Summer Open Queens, NY 25 Jun Virginia Credit Union Live Richmond, VA 27 Jun Stage AE Pittsburgh, PA 28 Jun EXPRESS LIVE! Columbus, OH 29 Jun Freedom Hill Sterling Heights, MI 30 Jun Jacob's Pavilion Cleveland, OH 02 Jul Brenton Skating Plaza Des Moines, IA 03 Jul Harrah's Council Bluffs Casino Council Bluffs, IA 05 Jul WhiteWater Amphitheater New Braunfels, TX 07 Jul White Oak Music Hall Houston, TX 09 Jul The Zoo Amphitheatre Oklahoma City, OK

10 Jul Walmart AMP Fayetteville, AR 12 Jul Ascend Amphitheater Nashville, TN 13 Jul Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amph Charlotte, NC 14 Jul Chastain Park Atlanta, GA 16 Jul Red Hat Amphitheater Raleigh, NC 18 Jul The Cuban Club Courtyard Tampa, FL 19 Jul St. Augustine Amphitheatre Saint Augustine, FL 20 Jul Bayfront Park Amphitheatre Miami, FL 21 Jul Central Florida Fairgrounds Orlando, FL 01 Aug Lollapalooza 2019 Grant Park Chicago, IL 02 Aug Wisconsin State Fair Park West Allis, WI, US 04 Aug Marymoor Park Redmond, WA 06 Aug McMenamin's Edgefield Amphitheater Troutdale, OR 08 Aug Santa Barbara Bowl Santa Barbara, CA 09 Aug Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre San Diego, CA 10 Aug The Forum Inglewood, CA 11 Aug Comerica Theatre Phoenix, AZ 14 Aug Grand Sierra Resort & Casino Reno, NV 15 Aug Greek Theatre Berkeley, CA 16 Aug Downtown Las Vegas Events Center Las Vegas, NV

(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)

Fitz and the Tantrums at NCAA Tip-Off Tailgate, Nicollet Mall Minneapolis (08 April 2019)

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