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Prince is dead

Prince is Dead

There was no punctuation, no backstory, no emotion. Just three cold words flashing across the screen of my iPhone. A text from my roommate.

I had just come off of lunch break a half-hour before, but immediately retreated to the break room and consulted Twitter for more information. As I nibbled on an overpriced ($1.25) Nutty Bar purchased from the vending machine and frantically refreshed Twitter for the latest, I convinced myself the text from my roommate was not true. It was not possible that Prince was dead.

A week earlier his plane made an emergency landing in the Quad Cities on his way home from a show in Atlanta and he had survived. For a few days, it felt like he was immortal. Damn, he was riding his bicycle around Chanhassen soaking up the early spring sun less than a week after his near miss in Moline. Prince couldn’t be dead.

Twitter eventually confirmed the truth. Prince was dead. I must have gone into shock because as soon as the news was confirmed I felt like I had to get back to my machine and make more parts. As I walked to my machine tears crawled down my cheeks. I was a grown man crying in a machine shop, surrounded by other grown men who (I would later discover) had no feelings about Prince’s passing. But I went back to my machine and I machined parts and I did not leave work early to grieve. I just cried and machined parts.

I also texted my father.

I must have been around ten years old when I first discovered Prince, because we were still living in the mobile home in the vacant lot on the west edge of town, where a Super 8 motel now stands, when I heard my father talking to his friends about seeing the movie Purple Rain. My dad was the coolest person I knew and he talked about Purple Rain like it was the greatest thing he had ever seen, so I immediately believed Purple Rain was the best movie ever made.

I texted my father in between machining parts. I told him I loved him for the first time since Kevin Harvick won the race in Atlanta three weeks after Dale Earnhardt died, when I picked up the phone and dialed my dad’s number as tears streamed down big Chocolate Myers cheeks. I thanked my dad for introducing me to Prince and said “I love you”. Then I continued machining parts.

I finished my shift, went home to change clothes before biking to Mia for Third Thursday. My friends and I made Prince-related crafts (a cassette cover, I think) and wandered around the museum in shock for a while before I parted ways and biked downtown to meet my friend Sarah at the memorial block party on 7th Street outside of First Ave.

The block party was intense. We made our way to the door of the Depot and could go no further. Lizzo passed by, on her way to the stage, and I started the chant “Let Lizzo through”, which lasted for a brief moment. When the block party ended I hung around for awhile waiting to gain entrance into First Ave’s dance party before giving up hope of gaining entry and hopping on my bicycle for a late-night ride.

I spent a lot of time on my bicycle after dark the next few days, biking the city while working through my emotions. Those first couple of nights every bar and every car was playing Prince through their speakers, so I biked to the greatest biking playlist ever created.

I always circled back to First Ave every few hours, hoping to spend some time with Prince’s star painted on the outside wall. The crowd around Prince’s star stayed thick the first few nights though, so I continued cycling around the Cities until exhaustion won out and I rode home so I could sleep. Several nights after Prince passed, around 3am, I rounded the corner of 8th Street and First Avenue on my bicycle and noticed there was no one gathered around Prince’s star. (This was after the run of overnight dance parties had ended, but before Prince’s star turned gold.) I locked up my bike and walked to Prince’s star, the silence of a city asleep as my only witness, touched the star for a moment and paid my respects in solitude.

I still touch Prince’s star before every mainroom show I see at First Ave. It has been a year since Prince passed and I do not know that I have accepted a world where Prince does not exist. So I touch his star, out of respect, but also because a small part of me still believes it is impossible that Prince is dead.

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An Evening at The Warming House

A week after seeing Savannah Smith and batterboy at The Warming House, I returned to the venue to see a friend from the Improv scene--Erik Ostrom--perform an opening set for School for Girls.

The Warming House is located in South Minneapolis, sharing space with the Farmstead Bike Shop at the corner of 40th Street and Bryant Ave South. It is a quiet neighborhood, easily accessible by bike and bus (route 4), and a great location for a listening room.

I invited a Twitter friend (@Meteorshowered) to meet me before the show and arrived a few minutes before her. Once she arrived, we sat on the porch and introduced ourselves while enjoying a calm, warm summer evening. The porch at The Warming House is a perfect spot to meet pre-show for friends or couples, a quiet place to catch up before enjoying an evening of live music. 

As the show neared we went inside and I bought a La Croix before heading downstairs to the listening room. There is a great spot in the back of the room, two folding chairs on a raised platform, offering a great vantage for those who take a lot of photos at the show. As we descended the steps someone took this spot, but we were fortunate enough to score seats on the couch at the side of the stage.

After chatting for a few moments about the venue and the performer (a friend from the Improv scene), Erik Ostrom was introduced and everyone in the room applauded as Erik took the stage. Erik’s confident stage presence was a small surprise, but I had forgotten he has performed live plenty of times in the past. (Also, performing in front of so many people from the Improv scene--a very supportive group--might have lent to confidence on stage). Choosing from one of two acoustic guitars he used during the set, Erik smiled, made a self-deprecating comment and started playing. 

By Your Side, the second song in the set, was introduced with the disclaimer it would be the saddest moment of the evening. Erik informed us the song was about being stuck and the theme seemed to resonate on the couch where I was sitting. 

King Crab (or, The Alaskan King Crab King of Pierre, South Dakota), a song about a commercial fisherman who isn’t really a fisherman was a set highlight. For me, King Crab contained hints of the Decemberists and was performed at the right time in the set. The song displayed Erik’s ability as a lyricist, witty and perceptive while capturing his sense of humor. Erik’s raspy timbre rounded out the song. 

Shine, a song about the intimacy of marriage, was my favorite song of the evening. Repeating the refrain Shine like the ocean over and over reminded me of the repetitive nature of relationships, doing the same thing over and over again and finding beauty in the repetition. There was a beauty in the repeated refrain and Shine proved a perfect song to perform live in a listening room.

Erik brought two friends from the Improv scene and members of the headlining act School for Girls--James Rone and Sinez Yargici Lennes--on stage to share backing vocal duties for the final two songs and the harmonies that resulted were fantastic. Closing with Rocket Ship High, a whimsical number with an impromptu grammar lesson, Erik went out on a high note. Every opening act should close their set with a song like Rocket Ship High, an uptempo song about remembering but also going forward. 

Erik Ostrom performed a wonderful opening set and we enjoyed our time at The Warming House. But, with apologies to School for Girls, a free Soul Asylum show at the Stone Arch Bridge Festival had been announced earlier in the week and my friend and I decided to leave after Erik’s set so we could catch the end of Soul Asylum’s set. 

If you haven’t seen a show at The Warming House, I highly recommend the venue. With the small porch and the intimate listening room, it is the perfect location for a date or some one-on-one friend time. Check out The Warming House’s calendar here.

Visit Erik Ostrom’s amazing YouTube page here and hope he decides to perform again locally some time soon. 

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Best Music of 2016 (First Half)

(In chronological order)

Best Albums

DIIV - Is the Is Are

LNZNDRF - LNZNDRF

M. Ward - More Rain

Heron Oblivion - Heron Oblivion

Penny & Sparrow - Let A Lover Drown You

Haelos - Full Circle

Margo Price - Midwest Farmer’s Daughter

Eric Bachmann - Eric Bachmann

Andrew Bird - Are You Serious

Bleached - Welcome To The Worms

Colin Stetson - Sorrow: A Re-imagining of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor’s Guide to Earth

Beyoncé - Lemonade

Kacy & Clayton - Strange Country

Adia Victoria - Beyond the Bloodhound

Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

Big Thief - Masterpiece

Case/Lang/Veirs - Case/Lang/Veirs

Mitski - Puberty 2

Margaret Glaspy - Emotions and Math

Best EP’s:

Rayland Baxter - SOHO

Tiny Deaths - Night Flowers

Morly - Something More Than Holy

Fraea - Bend Your Bones

Chloe x Hale - Sugar Symphony

Monica De Blasio - Blackened Cities

Holly Miranda - Party Trick

Swanning - Drawing Down the Moon

Best Shows

Bully - Fine Line 

Low - First Ave (Current’s Birthday Party)

Polica - Lowertown Line Taping

Rayland Baxter - Turf Club

Jason Isbell - Northrop

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down - Fine Line

Penny & Sparrow - The Cedar

Haelos - The Entry

Father John Misty - Northrop

Black Mountain - The Entry

Communist Daughter - 331 Club

Heartless Bastards - First Ave

The Kills - First Ave

Sturgill Simpson - First Ave

Adia Victoria - The Entry

GRRRL PRTY - Rock the Garden

Best Spotify Playlist

Stephanie Jacobs - 2016 Part 1

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36-hour whirlwind of local music

Last Thursday was the opening night of Music in Mears 2016 and the beginning of a 36-hour whirlwind of seeing local music. 

After missing Dusty Heart at Acadia in March and arriving for their set at Indeed during Art-a-Whirl fifteen minutes late, I finally arrived in time to see an entire Dusty Heart set at Mears Park. Dusty Heart, a collaboration of local folk/country singer-songwriters Barbara Jean and Molly Dean, were the perfect opening act for Music in Mears 2016. 

Knowing the weekend would bring a heat wave, the largest opening night crowd ever for Music in Mears basked in the partly-sunny early evening skies as a steady breeze cooled attendees and carried the aroma of food trucks across the park. Children danced and played and older attendees sat in lawn chairs facing the stage as Dusty Heart began their set. Combining traditional Americana covers with original material, the ladies played a forty-five minute set. Cigarettes and Matches was the highlight of the set, showcasing the tight harmonies and multi-instrumentalists Barbara Jean’s fiddle playing. 

After Dusty Heart finished playing I stopped for a cup of coffee at Black Dog Cafe, before hopping on the Green Line and riding back to downtown Minneapolis. I caught Canadian band Plants and Animals in the Entry before heading over to the West Bank to see Church Dads play the second week of their Minneseries June residency at Nomad World Pub.

I arrived halfway through Church Dad’s set, during their cover of Frank Ocean’s Swim Good, ordered a beer and settled in to hear the rest of the set. The band shined on Don’t Make Me Wait, from the new Dick Scully EP. Lead singer Paula’s vocals had a smokiness to them not found on the recorded version, perfect for the Nomad setting. The bottom end of the song grooves and the keys make for a delicious jam. Closing out their set with a cover of Rihanna/McCartney/Kanye’s FourFiveSeconds, the band members took turns on vocals in a fun ending. 

I’m excited to see what happens with Church Dads during and after this residency. Having seen up-and-coming bands like Bones and Beeker and Jack and the Coax complete the Minneseries residency this year, it is interesting to see bands come up with new ideas to keep each show fresh. Church Dads still have two weeks left (and Silverback Colony is on the bill this week), so check them out.

After Church Dads finished playing, I heard word Private Interests were playing across the street at Palmer’s Bar. Private Interests were a late addition to the Memory Lanes Block Party and put on a very fun show under the tent (due to the rain), so I wanted to see how the band sounded indoors.

On their Facebook page, Private Interests cite only Cheap Trick and early-mid 20th Century American and Russian literature as influences and they are not lying about Cheap Trick. Private Interests has riffs for days. Imagine if Iron Maiden and Green Day had a child, the child absorbed all of his parents musical knowledge and then decided to cut an album during his rebellious teenage phase and you sort of know what Private Interests sound like. 

Friday night I was able to see one of my favorite local bands, batterboy, perform at the Warming House. It was my first visit to the Warming House and I enjoyed the intimate venue as well as the hospitable hosts (and the Cran-Rasberry La Croix) 

Savannah Smith opened for batteryboy, playing in front of a full house with her six string while perched on a stool in the middle of the stage. The crowd, mostly middle-aged seemed to enjoy Smith’s set from the beginning. Her unique style of vocal phrasing and vulnerability were a perfect match for the room and her humorous between-song banter kept the mood light amid all of her sad songs. Smith’s cover of Magnetic Fields Book of Love was a brilliant choice, performed at the perfect moment during her set. 

After a brief break, batterboy took to the tiny stage, managing to fit all five musicians and all of their musical equipment onto the stage while retaining enough space to play their instruments. The show was advertised as a chance to hear the band play their upcoming album Before the Silence Breaks with the opportunity to pre-order the album (and receive bonus material with the pre-order). 

Despite the intimate size of the room, the band was able to tailor their sound to fit the room. Before playing Recover, Cobey Rouse (lead singer, guitarist) advised us they were scaling back the song for the room but that it would be the rocker on the new album. The scaled back version rocked though, with a fantastic electric guitar riff and driving beat. A highlight of the evening was hearing the reworked Remember Me Now (from the original batterboy limited release North), now featuring distorted guitars and cello. The song received a rousing applause from the die-hard batterboy fans familiar with the original version. In a rare treat, the band was able to bring the trombone player who recorded in the studio with them for the show and hearing a trombone live on You Don’t Need To Disappear was special. 

Batteryboy sounded great and the new album is going to be amazing. You can pre-order the album Before the Silence Breaks here and also catch the band for their album release party at Icehouse on August 5th (with refundpolicy favorite, the Ericksons, sitting in as special guests).

After batterboy’s set had ended and I had pre-ordered my copy of Before the Silence Breaks, I moved on to the Nomad World Pub to join a birthday celebration featuring several local bands. Fury Things took the stage shortly after my arrival and played a blistering half-hour set, concluding with covers of Green Day, Beastie Boys and Husker Du. I’ve seen Fury Things a number of times now, but on the heels of seeing batterboy I was reminded of the Fury Things acoustic set at Southern Theater Sessions II back in late-2014. Talking with the band after their set at Nomad, they did not rule out playing another acoustic set in the future when I mentioned how rare the Southern Theater Sessions set was. If it happens, it will be a can’t-miss show.

On tap this week:

Friday, 6/17:

Erik Ostrom, at the Warming House, opening for School for Girls (get tix here)

Stone Arch Bridge Festival, now including a free Soul Asylum set on Friday night

Saturday, 6/18:

My favorite weekend of the year–Rock the Garden! It is only one day this year (going old-school) and has moved temporarily to Boom Island, but the line-up is killer and it is Grrrl Prrty’s last show ever, so another can’t-miss show.

Sunday, 6/19:

Stone Arch Bridge Festival finishes up with sets from local acts like Whiskey Rock ‘n’ Roll Club MPLS, Federales and Footfall. 

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A Sunday Funeral

I woke up in a fog late in the morning on the last Sunday of September, still hungover from two-for-ones at Mortimer’s the preceding Friday night. A quick glance at my phone revealed missed phone calls and incoming texts so I wiped the sleep from my eyes and started catching up with the world. There were missed calls and texts from my friend Jocelyn, informing me she was visiting from Iowa and wanted to meet for lunch. The surprise news of Jocelyn’s visit gave me a start and I lept from the couch, rushing to get ready for the day.

After sending a quick text to Jocelyn telling her to meet me at Hola Arepa for lunch, I showered, jumped on my bicycle and made the twenty-five minute ride to the corner of 36th and France. I arrived at the bus stop as the 14 approached, stowed my bike on the rack at the front of the bus and  hopped aboard for the ride to South Minneapolis. I knew the 14 would take me to the corner of Bloomington and 35th, where I planned to disembark and ride west on 35th to Hola Arepa. In my haste to shake off the remnants of a thirty-six hour hangover, get ready for a day in the city, bike/bus from Plymouth to South Minneapolis and meet Jocelyn, I had failed to take into account the May Day Cafe.

I met The nurse from St. Paul who broke my heart™ (Heather) for the first time at the May Day Cafe on another September day, two years previous. I arrived late, as I did often during my first year living in the Cities, and was in too much of a rush to consider being nervous until I was standing in line to order my beverage and Heather turned from the counter and approached me. Her eyes were more intimidating in person than in her pictures on eHarmony and she had a wide gap between her front teeth so, after agreeing to meet outside, I stood in line and wondered if I was going to like her.

I ordered a coffee and walked outside to find Heather sitting at a wrought iron table at the front of the cafe, smiling at me as I approached. She was leaning back against a dark blue fence, the color of the fence softening her bright blue eyes and making her straight, strawberry-blonde hair radiate. I sat down next to her and began to lose the doubt about whether I would like her as we got to know each other.

Having lived in the Cities less than a year, I was still prone to sensory overload at times. As we sat and chain-smoked Camel Lights the cars traveling up and down Bloomington Avenue, the cyclists and dog-walkers, the green awning of Movies on 35th street and the aroma of fresh-ground coffee beans held my head on the verge of swimming as I got to know Heather. I managed to hold everything together and the date ended up going longer than expected. Two and a half hours later previous obligations forced us to part ways and I left the May Day Cafe excited about prospects with Heather.

Jocelyn, her mother and her fiance (whom I had yet to meet) arrived, we exchanged pleasantries, took our seats and made our orders. After a few cocktails, arepas and catching up on each other’s lives we parted ways, leaving me and my sentimental heart alone on my bicycle in South Minneapolis with no plans for the rest of the day.

It is impossible to distinguish when Heather and the ideal dating her represented at the time merged. Perhaps they were always one and the same. Dating her was an ideal. She represented so much of what I was looking for when I moved here. She also appeared on the heels of a very difficult first year living here, a sliver of hope as I emerged from a dark period of homesickness, employment setbacks and financial difficulties. When Heather and I did not end up working out, I felt as if I had failed once again at the whole idea behind moving here. Heather became the face of that failure, the tangible representation of my first-year struggles. This is why it took so long to get over the relationship with her.

However, it had been two years and I had just decided I wanted to enter a new relationship. This new relationship was important to me, important enough that I knew I owed it to myself and to the girl that I not bring emotional baggage from previous relationships to the table. I had to get over Heather and I had to do it on that Sunday afternoon.

So, I threw myself a Sunday Funeral.

The last Sunday of September was being billed as the last nice day of the year. It was a prediction that proved false, but when you live in Minnesota you do not take chances with good weather in late-September. So, I slung my backpack over my shoulders, hopped on my bicycle and toured all of the old places I visited with Heather under the guise (on social media) of holding a funeral for summer.

As I pedaled to the Walker Art Center to visit the spot in the parking garage where I had my first kiss in the Cities, I recalled a feeling I experienced watching My Morning Jacket perform Wonderful (The Way I Feel) at Northrop Auditorium near the end of June. After the break-up with Heather, I sat inside of Canteen 3255 before it was a toast bar or Canteen 3255 and intentionally put myself into safe mode. I remember telling myself to keep moving forward, keep pursuing those things I moved here for, but to do so in a guarded fashion. I spent two years of my life attending concerts and art exhibitions and learning improv and discovering the Cities, but I was always on-guard.

Hearing Jim James perform Wonderful, with the opening stanza It matters to me/Took a long time to get here/If it would have been easy/I would not have cared took me back to the sense of awe and wonder I possessed when I first moved here. I remembered how open I was to everything and everyone at the beginning–and I missed that feeling. Summer was long and busy and I never got around to addressing how to return to the feelings of awe and wonder, but the desire never went away.  

After visiting the parking garage, I crossed the street and made my way to the pedestrian bridge connecting the Sculpture Garden with Loring Park. The bridge is my favorite spot in the Cities, a place where I go to reflect while also gathering energy to move forward. I stood on the bridge and stared out over downtown Minneapolis, wrestling with how to move forward–how to move on without being emotionally guarded. The answer was to keep moving, keep biking around the city visiting the old landmarks I first discovered while dating Heather and saying the goodbyes. So, I left the bridge and continued the funeral procession until I ended up in downtown Minneapolis early in the evening.

In the early evening hours of my Sunday funeral as I made my way through the streets of downtown Minneapolis towards the bus stop at the corner of Hennepin & Washington where I planned to catch the 14 bus going north towards home, I realized there was one more stop to make on my funeral procession. Instead of waiting for the 14, I pedaled back to 5th Street and got on the next Green Line train heading east.

I had to go to Lowertown.

The Saturday night of the Fall 2013 St. Paul Art Crawl remains one of the best nights of my life. I went with Heather–our fourth date–and it was her territory. She introduced me to a world I always knew existed but had not yet discovered. I had never been around so much art and creative people and whenever I was close to being overwhelmed by the experience she was there to keep me on track. Up until that night, I do not remember ever being happier in the moment than I was at the end of my first evening at the St. Paul Art Crawl.

Around the time of my Sunday funeral a Missed Connections post on Boston’s Craigslist went viral. An excerpt from the post resonated with me. And you were the source of all of it. You breathed your spirit into my lungs… The St. Paul Art Crawl experience I shared with Heather was the turning point, the time when I changed from being a tourist in the Cities to becoming a resident. She was my guide.

So I headed east for one final goodbye, winding up at the Black Dog Cafe. Over a pint of Bell’s Two-Hearted and a decent jazz band, I wrote a stream-of-conscious journal entry until my right hand refused to write anymore. I somehow wrote my way to where I wanted to be and the funeral was complete.

The funeral worked. Since the end of September I have recovered that wonderful feeling, that sense of openness and adventure. I have stronger relationships. I find myself saying yes instead of no. New adventures and opportunities have presented themselves, as if the Cities were brand new to me again.

Chasing a new girl was the impetus behind the Sunday funeral. The girl is gone (probably the title of my autobiography). I did not get a position I wanted with a new nonprofit last winter. I lost another job in March. Rejection has still come calling since last September, but I have not returned to safe mode.

My Sunday funeral concluded at the beginning of a lunar eclipse. I made my way west from Lowertown, biking and riding the Green Line towards Gold Medal Park before catching the 14 to Robbinsdale, stopping several times to see the progress of the eclipse. The trip was surreal, watching the moon disappear while traveling the width of the Cities. As I rode into the driveway of my home in Plymouth the eclipse was over and the moon had reappeared.

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Art-a-Whirl 2016 (Day 2)

The 2pm slot for Saturday changed for me late in the week and I decided to wing it from 2-3pm. Fair State is a half-block from one of my frequent bus stops, so I rode the 32 into NE and jumped off at Central & Lowry and caught part of Jourdan Myers’ set.

Jourdan played new material (seems to be a recurring theme this weekend) to a sparse crowd and fought technical difficulties (another recurring theme), but sounded fantastic.

Meanwhile, I discovered a friend I had not seen in a long time was going to see Chastity Brown at Elias Metal Studios and I decided to go as well. Chastity was accompanied by Luke Enyeart on guitar and the duo were amazing. Other than some technical difficulties with the kick sound box, the set was smooth. She played a new song “Whisper in my Ear”, a slow, soulful song for lovers. Giving a shout-out to The Current before performing Colorado was a thoughtful gesture, as well. The set was short and beautiful and worth the stop on my way to Dangerous Man.

I biked west after leaving Elias Metal Studios and arrived at Dangerous Man with a few moments to spare. During Art-a-Whirl, I like to surprise myself one or two times by checking out a band I’ve never heard of before. Rabbit Holes was one of those bands. A punk trio from Minneapolis, they played with a lot of energy and a really nice drum sound. By this point, I was starting to see more people I knew and beginning to talk during performances a little more than I’m used to doing. The band was tight though and I look forward to seeing them again this summer.

I saw Darin K (photographer) for the first time of the day during Rabbit Hole’s set and then I knew Art-a-Whirl had commenced. Darin is a madman during Art-a-Whirl, biking to and fro documenting the event. There were so many sets where I thought I had the perfect vantage point to watch the band only to look over and see Darin with an even better view. (check out his portfolio here)

Tiny Deaths followed Rabbit Holes and were one of the bands I was very excited about seeing as lineups for Art-a-Whirl started to trickle out over the past six weeks. Claire de Lune took the stage rocking an awesome outfit, wearing a Beyonce t-shirt that slayed. She, and her band, slayed during their set as well.  I’ve enjoyed watching Claire’s career blossom, post-Chalice, and love seeing Tiny Deaths live. Their performance of my favorite track Backwards was on fire, the band shredding while Claire pierced the track with her commanding vocals. This set was one of the best I’ve seen Tiny Deaths deliver.

Once Tiny Deaths set had ended, my friend Sarah and I retrieved our bicycles and made our way to Bauhaus. Bauhaus was much busier than we expected, with long lines waiting to enter. Once inside, we were amazed at how many people were there for the Liquid Zoo. Bauhaus and all involved definitely created a hit for Art-a-Whirl at their venue. 

Bad Bad Hats soon took the stage. The last time I saw Bad Bad Hats was during The Current’s Birthday Party at First Ave last January and I was impressed with how well the band sounded on an outdoor stage compared to their sound on stage inside First Ave. The band was playful, but focused. They delivered a great set, ensuring they will be higher on the bill should they play Art-a-Whirl again next year. 

Jeremy Messersmith took the stage next, with emcee Andrea Swensson (The Current, The Local Show, O.K. Show) and the band claiming it would be their only local show all summer. The band was fantastic. Like many of the other bands all weekend, Messersmith worked new material into the set list and it worked well. There were some complaints about the sound during Messersmith’s set, but I did not notice anything too out of the ordinary. Parking lots weren’t built with acoustics in mind so none of these Art-a-Whirl sets are going to sound like a show inside First Ave, but I thought the sound was good during Messersmith’s set.

Messersmith’s set ended and I fought through the crowd towards the exits, jumped on my bicycle and pedaled for the 331 Club. The Cloak Ox was playing at 8pm and it was a can’t-miss show for me this weekend. Jade, announcing the band, summed everything up perfectly when she alluded to the band members’ accomplishments with other bands before saying this band was her favorite work by the four. I agree. 

The Cloak Ox played a great set, reminding all in attendance why the four members are among the most respected musicians in Minnesota. Jeremy Ylvisaker playing guitar using the rim of a pair of sunglasses as a slide was my favorite moment in the set.

I left the 331 Club in a rush, but not before noticing P.O.S. standing at the entrance and marveling again at how tight-knit the musical community is here in the Cities. 

I made haste going from the 331 Club to Indeed, to catch the Black Eyed Snakes. I knew the venue would be packed and feared not being able to get close to the stage. After making my way inside and through the crowd towards the stage, I sort of stumbled upon the best spot in the entire venue.

It was my first time seeing the Black Eyed Snakes and I made the right call seeing this band (I was torn between this group and Kill the Vultures all week). Playing old-school blues on time-worn instruments, the Black Eyed Snakes blew me away with their hour-long set (including an encore). Alan Sparhawk showed us why we come running whenever he comes to the Cities. At one point he told us the band considered themselves to be the luckiest guys in town, but we were the lucky ones. 

It’s noon on Sunday and I’m off to day three, contemplating whether I’ll need to take a vacation day tomorrow:

On tap for today:

2pm-6pm Indeed (Dusty Heart/Matt Latterell/Superior Siren/Charlie Parr)

6-8pm      Anchor Fish & Chips (Valet/Romantica)

Topping off the Art-a-Whirl weekend seeing the Heartless Bastards at First Ave to end the day.

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Art-a-Whirl 2016 (Day 1)

I started off behind schedule for Art-a-Whirl 2016, showing up at El Taco Riendo a half-hour later than planned. It was fortunate the restaurant was not busy, so I ordered three tacos (tinga) to-go and choked them down with a bottle of water while sitting outside the restaurant. After finishing the tacos, I jumped on my bicycle and pedaled fast towards the 331 club.

The fast pedaling paid off and I arrived at 331 Club with three minutes to spare. After I spent time chatting with friends and meeting new people for a few minutes, Murder Shoes started playing and Art-a-Whirl 2016 had begun. 

It was my first time seeing Murder Shoes and I did not know what to expect. Within two songs, I was comfortable I had made the right choice seeing their set. Murder Shoes rocks, the two guitarists creating an intense wall of sound as the canvas for lead singer Tess Weinberg’s vocals. Early in the set, Tess mentioned her hands were shaking from nerves but the performance did not seem to suffer. She also spoke of the “tent sound” (more on that later) during her set, but by the second-to-last song of their set, Murder Shoes had found their stride and Tess’ vocals soared behind a tight band for the final two songs. 

After Murder Shoes ended their set, I said goodbye and rode to Fair State for BBGun’s set. Fair State, like the 331 Club, still had a sparse crowd. I enjoy watching the crowds swell as the evening progresses on the Friday night of Art-a-Whirl, the energy level changing with each band and last night had that vibe. 

BBGun played an abbreviated set (I do not know if they were only scheduled to play a half-hour, but most of the other bands I saw on Friday night played for 45 minutes). Al Church seemed rather energetic and the band was loose, chatty between songs and clearly having a good time. By the time they started playing the “song about Montana”, the band began to click and I remembered why I chose the BBGun/Fair State slot over all of the others. 

With BBGun’s set ending early, I had enough time to swing by 607 Studios and view the 57 Princes homage to Prince in Studio A. The exhibit was an amazing tribute to Prince, with art pieces from a variety of disciplines covering Prince’s entire career. There is one drawing of Prince from near the end, with the afro, that affected me. I only saw Prince play in person once, in 2015, so I identify more with his last look and seeing this picture brought up many emotions I had not felt for a week or two. It was with a tinge of sadness I made a quick exit from 607 Studios and biked to Indeed.

(note: the picture I took at the exhibit is not the picture discussed in the previous paragraph)

I arrived at Indeed in time to see Sam Cassidy and his band finishing up sound check and took the time to catch up on social media, seeing what everyone else was doing during Art-a-Whirl. I also began to notice a lot of familiar faces near the front of the stage–people who were venue-hopping like me. The emcee introduced Sam Cassidy as straight-forward rock and roll and it is true. During his set, I remember thinking Sam Cassidy and his band are the performers I always wished I could see when I lived back in Iowa and was bouncing around county fairs and small-town festivals. Sam was rocking what I refer to as the denim & stache look, clearly having fun with his new backing band–The All Night Canyons. 

At one point in the set, Ryan from the Red Daughters moved towards the front of the stage and did a little dance. It reminded me the first time I saw Sam Cassidy was with the Red Daughters as his backing band. For me, it was a moment that embodied the local music scene–musicians working together and supporting each other. 

It was an amazing set, particularly the Patti Smith-cover of “Because the Night”.

I biked back to the 331 Club, excited to see Bruise Violet for the first time since their gig for the Current’s Birthday Party at First Ave last January. Bruise Violet is brutal, live, and they were brutal Friday evening as well. From the opening screams of drummer/vocalist Danielle, the tone was set and the band powered through 35 minutes of power punk madness. Emily’s menacing glare and Bella’s bad-ass dreads embodied their take-no-prisoner sound. I enjoyed the three-part harmonies from the side of the stage, still somewhat in awe that a group so young can perform at such a high level. 

Communist Daughter is the band I had been waiting to see, and they followed Bruise Violet. This was the first time all evening where I was not rushing off to another venue between sets, so it was nice to relax and run in to people before finding a good spot near the front of the stage to enjoy the show.

I’ve seen enough Communist Daughter shows to see how they have integrated the new material into their set list well enough that it fits completely with the established songs from their catalog, and last night was no exception. Tracks like Beach Stalker and Balboa Bridge fit alongside Not the Kid and Northern Lights. 

The song I’ve been waiting for though is “All Lit Up”, where Molly takes the lead vocals. I have seen this song performed live three times now and last night’s performance was the best of the three. At a time when I am paying more attention to the ratio of female-to-male musicians I listen to, I am excited to see my favorite Minnesota band featuring more female vocals. This song, and the new album, are going to be great (and it is a crime against humanity that the record industry has not figured out how to get this album released yet).

While watching the set, I wondered what the hell has happened to Johnny? Two summers ago, he was talking about how much he hates the sun and now he’s wearing bright-colored clothing and smiling a lot during performances! I do not know what has happened, but I do know the band is sounding better than ever. Communist Daughter is a great live band, getting even better and when the album is finally released and they are able to put together a proper tour behind the new album the rest of the world will be able to see what this band is becoming. 

(Side note: Many complained about sound issues during the Communist Daughter set. A lot of those people weren’t there early, when Tess from Murder Shoes made her tent-sound comment. Playing in a tent in a parking lot with the sound bouncing off of brick buildings is never the perfect acoustic setting, but I found if you stand to the side of the stage by the Surly tent the sound is much better.)

It’s 11am on Saturday, so I’m off to eat some tacos at Maya Cuisine and then see a bunch of art and music. 

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Don’t miss your favorite local band this summer.

Summer is at our doorstep and it is finally time to get outside and socialize. With so many block parties and festivals, it can be daunting trying to figure out where to go and who to see. Before you know it, summer has slipped away and you failed to see your favorite local bands. Don’t miss your favorite local band this summer.

Block Parties and Festivals--Here is a chance to see a lot of local bands for free (or cheap), if we are not counting merch, beer and food truck expenses. This is a schedule of local bands playing outdoors this summer. (Minneapolis Parks lineup coming soon)

Summer Music Schedule (.pdf)--To be updated frequently throughout the summer, as new lineups are announced

Music in Mears--enjoy wonderful Thursday evenings at Mears Park in Lowertown with a lineup that is stacked this year!

Music in Mears website--with food truck and beer vendor schedules!

Music in Mears Music Schedule (.pdf)

Rhythm in Rice--Spend Friday evenings at Rice Park in downtown St. Paul, listening to an eclectic mix of global sounds. Curated by the same individual--Brian Horst--responsible for Music in Mears, this series of concerts fits in well with St. Paul’s Sounds Perfect 2016: Year in Music

Rhythm in Rice website--with food truck and beer vendor schedules!

Rhythm in Rice Schedule (.pdf)

*I largely stick to the types of bands you can find on The Current and lack the time or energy to go any further, so your favorite commercial radio band is probably not on this list.

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Happy Birthday, First Ave (My memories)

(My required pose by one of the stars at First Ave pic)

First Avenue turns 46 today and I took some time to compose a few memories I have made attending shows at First Avenue & the 7th Street Entry during the three years I have lived in Minnesota.

I’ve been to First Avenue 67 times–26 in The Entry and 41 in the Mainroom. In those 67 times seeing a show at First Avenue I have seen 167 bands–63 in The Entry and 104 in the Mainroom. While each show was unique and the vast majority were wonderful, a few memories stand out.

My first show ever at First Ave was in The Entry. Before moving here, I had been following a new guitar virtuoso out of the Seattle area named Reignwolf/Jordan Cook. I was fortunate he had scheduled a show in Minneapolis a few weeks after my move, and will always remember my first show at The Entry. Reignwolf played the guitar like a man possessed, something I had never seen in such an intimate room. The close quarters and loud guitars set the tone and The Entry is still one of my favorite places to see a band.

The first show I attended in the Mainroom was a few weeks later, during an approaching blizzard. Of Monsters and Men headlined (Elle King opened) and friends from my hometown in Iowa drove up to see the show. We stood on the floor, stage right next to the dividing wall between the floor and the ramp leading to the floor, about halfway in between the stage and the soundboard. I remember making a beer run in between sets and wondering if I would be able to find my group upon returning because the Mainroom seemed so big and overwhelming.

Another night I remember well is seeing Tame Impala immediately after watching the then-defending NBA Champion Miami Heat play the Timberwolves. Tame Impala’s Feels Like We Only Go Backwards was one of the first two songs I started liking when I moved here (and discovered The Current) and it was the first time in my life I was able to see a band performing a song/album so soon after discovering them. It was a night that validated my move here. (There was also a blizzard this night.)

A few months later my favorite musician, Jim James, came to town on his solo tour. As a member of the My Morning Jacket Fan Club, I was able to gain early entry into First Ave and this show was my first show standing on the railing at the front of the stage.

In October of 2013, nearly a year after I moved here, Volcano Choir came to town. I had just gone through a rough break-up and Volcano Choir’s album Repave was how I coped with the loss. This was the first show where I purchased a ticket from a scalper outside the venue ($80).

Ten days later, I saw Thao & the Get Down Stay Down (opening for The Head and the Heart) in the Mainroom. Holy Roller was the other first song I liked after moving (along with the Tame Impala jam) and I had also missed their show at the Cedar earlier in the year (right after losing a job for the first time), so this was a make-up show. The way I describe seeing Thao Nguyen live for the first time is to recount the story of a person standing next to me at this show. Before the band took the stage, this person mentioned they had never heard of Thao & the Get Down Stay Down. After the set ended, the same person turned to their friend and said “She is a genius”. I’ve seen Thao perform three times since, but the first time will always stay with me.

Sometime in the autumn of 2013 I discovered Communist Daughter and immediately took to the band. I saw them play for the first time in November of 2013 (and again a month later, when the curtain fell before their set was over). Communist Daughter is a band that has graduated from being one of my favorite local bands to just being one of my favorite bands. Seeing them for the first time on stage in the Mainroom was fitting.

I love The Current. Within 48 hours of moving here, I found the Current and fell in love. I attended my first The Current Birthday Party in January of 2014. It was my first time seeing all of the bands on the bill, but seeing Lizzo for the first time is the set that will always stick with me.  

A week later, I saw Lizzo (with GRRRL PRTY) again in the Mainroom. It was the Best Bands of 2013 showcase, and I had never seen that many bands on one bill before. I won a sight line table at the beginning of the evening and sat down while watching a show at First Ave for the first time. Halfway through Fury Thing’s set I realized sitting at concerts was not my thing and vacated the table, rushing down to the floor to see the rest of the show.

The War on Drugs came to play the Mainroom in September of ‘14. Their album Lost in a Dream had a huge impact on my life in early ‘14, particularly the song Red Eyes, so this show was a personal celebration of sorts. This was also the first show I attended in the Cities where I met up with a friend (My friend Rachel) at the venue. I had met people I was dating and people who had traveled into town for shows, but I had never made my way to a show knowing I would be meeting up with a friend until this show. It felt good.

(Also, seeing The War on Drugs perform Eyes to the Wind live blew my mind!)

Bob Mould played a two-night stand in the Mainroom in January of ‘15. I was not able to make it for the first night, but made it the second night. I was able to enter the venue early (and geek out because my name was on the guest list at Will Call right below Barb Abney and Lizzo) and stood close enough to Bob Mould that my crappy iPhone 4 camera was able to capture individual arm hairs.

A couple months later, Red Bull Sound Select promoted a show at the Entry. Stereo Confession, France Camp, Bully & JEFF the Brotherhood were on the bill and this is one of the most intense shows I’ve ever attended. The energy level was unreal. Stereo Confession, just back in town from touring and playing their second show since arriving, set the table. France Camp turned the table upside down. Then Bully took the stage and destroyed the entire room. I will never forget Alicia from Bully inquiring as to the safety/whereabouts of her father at the end of the set. By the time JEFF the Brotherhood took the stage the room was lit (from all of the Red Bull?) and their set was perfect in that time and place.

There were many other great memories created at First Ave during 2015. Heartless Bastards and The Kills stand out. As does Bully headlining (in The Entry) for the first time. Run the Jewels in October is one of my favorite rap shows ever!

Seeing P.O.S. headline solo for the first time is what I will always remember when I look back on the last few months of 2015 though. P.O.S. had his illness and kidney transplant shortly after I moved here and the only time I had seen him perform solo was at the after-hours for Bomba de Luz’s Live in Chicago release party in August of ‘14 (I believe it was his first solo performance after the kidney transplant). While the opening acts played on the Mainroom stage last December, someone let me in on the rumor Marijuana Deathsquads would be backing P.O.S. and my excitement grew as P.O.S.’s set time approached. The rumor proved true and the entire show was more than I expected. My friend and I hugged P.O.S. twice on the floor after the show and I left First Ave blown away.

2016 is still young, but memories are already being created. Seeing Lizzo headline and sell out the Mainroom was one of the better shows I have seen at First Ave (especially since the set gods heard my prayers and I was able to see Wet in The Entry before making my way into the Mainroom in time to see LIzzo take the stage). I went to both nights of The Current’s Birthday Party this year and seeing Tommy Stinson play a song behind the bar at the back of the room was crazy.

I’ve only been around for three of First Ave’s 46 years, but I’ve created many memories in those three years and look forward to creating many more in the coming years.

Happy Birthday, First Ave!

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I just made this playlist available offline so I can listen to it at work tomorrow without killing my data budget.

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A Favorite Local Band

I spent my first year living in Minnesota doing tourist-type activities, experiencing the new community as an outsider. As I neared the end of those first twelve months, I began to seek out activities and events to connect with the community and become an insider.

One of the first moves I made in my effort to assimilate was to begin volunteering for The Current/Minnesota Public Radio. I signed up to be a volunteer, attended a volunteer orientation session in late-fall of 2013 and began scouring the shift board for volunteer shifts. My first volunteer shift with The Current was an interactive shift near the end of February, 2014. I worked a merchandise table handing out free schwag, for the Southern Theater Sessions: Act I (night two) at the Southern Theater. The shift provided an opportunity to visit the Seven Corners district for the first time, and to see several bands I was not familiar with at the time (batteryboy, The Farewell Circuit, Nick Costa and The Ericksons). The volunteer shift met my criteria for volunteering in the first place--experiencing new places and sounds.

I arrived at the Southern Theater an hour before the show began, set up a display table for The Current, met Coby Rouse (batteryboy founder/singer, and organizer of the event) and waited for the show to begin. During performances, the lobby was empty and I was able to sneak into the theater and watch a portion of the opening sets. My shift was scheduled to end at the same time the headliners--The Ericksons--took the stage. When the time arrived, I tore down the merchandise table, accepted the free beer offer my flirting with the bartender had produced and climbed the stairs to the second floor foyer. I opened the door leading into the theater and walked into the auditorium, looking down on the stage to see The Ericksons playing for the first time.

Their sound, beautiful guitar and vocal harmonies, immediately took me to a place I often seek to be. I compare this place to the feeling of runner’s high, where I feel euphoric, my anxieties melt away and I find a sense of serenity. After all of the struggles of 2013--the homesickness, loneliness, loss of a job, loss at love--discovering a band able to take me to this place of refuge was fortuitous. As I have learned more about the band, I have learned a lot of their music seems to have been written in an effort to reach a similar place.

I made two more important decisions in early-2014. I quit smoking and I started taking Improv classes. Removing a steady source of calm from my life while adding the anxiety-inducing activity of standing in front of an audience performing improv was intense. However, I started listening to The Ericksons’ album, The Wild, before classes and found a sense of calm. (In my brief tenure as an Improv performer--seven shows--I would listen to the first three tracks of The Wild and then My Morning Jacket’s One Big Holiday to put myself in a perfect mindset before taking the stage.)

The Ericksons took a break from performing live in 2015 and I filled my time pursuing the long-shot goal of attending 125 shows in 2015 (I failed). I did not give The Ericksons much thought until it was announced they would be opening for Mason Jennings at First Avenue on my birthday, in early December. (First Avenue lets you in for free on your birthday and many of us First Avenue fans check the calendar frequently in the months leading up to our birthday to determine which bands we will be seeing for free.) I was ecstatic upon discovering The Ericksons would be playing at First Avenue on my birthday.

Opening bands at First Avenue can sound different if you have heard them at other venues (particularly as a headliner), and The Ericksons sounded different to me in their opening slot last December. I was with a friend and we were having  a good time at the show, so I did not think much of the difference in sound at the time. A few weeks later, I saw The Ericksons perform for the Loud at the Library series at Saint Paul’s Central Library. I attended the show alone and had time to contemplate the difference I thought I heard in The Ericksons’ live performance.

The sisters sound more liberated. They still play a tight set, but a new sense of freedom has crept into their performance. It feels different.

Then again, perhaps I am projecting. I have found myself in a more liberated place since last summer, enjoying a new sense of freedom in my experiences and interactions. My soul exhaled as the summer of 2015 came to an end.

Maybe it is a little bit of both. Bands and their fans can evolve together and, two years after discovering the Ericksons, I find I have evolved a great degree. Still, when I listen to The Ericksons I find myself going to that place--the place of serenity I treasure.

I wrote this piece three weeks ago, in mid-February, and then two life-pausing events occurred the first week of March. Last Friday night I went to First Avenue to see a few bands play for the Are You Local? 2016 event. The Ericksons were playing the same night, at the Aster Cafe and as I watched the first two bands perform on First Avenue’s main stage I felt a pull northward. I ended up responding to the pull, biking across the river and arriving at Aster Cafe a few minutes into The Ericksons’ set. A few minutes after arriving they played my favorite song, Gone Blind, and I started going to my place. The next song was my second-favorite, Simple As This. The opening lines, I’ve been dreamin of you/deep in the dead of night/I’ve been following through/on all kinds of things that just ain’t right, spoke to me in the moment and I spent the rest of the song fighting tears and finding needed serenity. By the end of the set, I found I was where I was supposed to be.

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The Jax Building in Autumn

We matched on eHarmony in mid-August of 2013 and it was a strong match. Her profile had a picture of her standing next to a high-top table wearing a beige blazer, strawberry-blonde hair pulled back tight. Even though I knew we had never crossed paths she looked familiar. It felt like we had met before, so I was immediately interested. She liked listening to jazz while sitting in coffee shops discussing philosophy and she was pretty, so I contacted her.

August of 2013 was a challenging month. I lost two jobs in 2013 and had quit a temp agency gig at the beginning of August to tend bar, only to discover the restaurant was weeks away from going out of business. Earlier in the summer I had applied for a bartending position with a vendor at the Minnesota State Fair and I found myself pouring beer in the sweltering late-summer heat at the fairgrounds as August came to an end, trying to earn enough money to cover September’s rent and take the eHarmony girl out on a date.

I stalled for a week, insisting we go through all of the match-making steps eHarmony suggests newly-matched people complete before communicating together via eHarmony’s messaging platform. We continued to be a strong match and the time came when all of the steps had been completed and we began communicating directly. She worked third shift, waking up each day at the same time I was busing to the State Fair to begin my shift. During the evenings she would respond to my messages and I would rush home from the park and ride ramp in Minnetonka after catching the midnight shuttle from the fairgrounds to read her messages before going to bed.

Labor Day weekend was a profitable weekend at the State Fair and I earned enough money to ask eHarmony girl out on a date. I sent her a message a few days after the State Fair had ended and she replied, agreeing to meet for a date. We met for the first time at May Day Cafe, early on a Friday afternoon in the middle of September.

Over the next couple of weeks we continued to see each other. We ate burgers at the Nook before bowling at RanHam Bowling, had a breakfast date at Bryant Lake Bowl and played mini-golf at the Sculpture Garden. (This is why my first Minnesota kiss occurred in the parking ramp at the Walker Art Center.) It was a time in our lives where we were both starting out on new chapters in our lives, and having someone to share this portion of the journey with was an experience I cherished. The last few weeks of September were wonderful, seeing the Cities from a new perspective while getting to know a new girl.

September drew to an end and eHarmony girl invited me to go crawling with her at the Fall St. Paul Art Crawl in early October. We had discussed art a lot while still communicating on eHarmony and I wanted to share this experience with her. We agreed to meet in Lowertown on Saturday afternoon of the crawl.

I had never been east of Hamline Avenue, so the drive into downtown St. Paul was new. With the aid of the navigation app on my phone, I made my way to Lowertown and parked in the Jackson Street Ramp. We were meeting at the Jax Building so I walked out of the parking ramp onto Fourth Street and took a right, making my way to Wabasha Street before realizing I was heading in the wrong direction. I approached several people on the street to ask for directions to the Jax Building before I found someone who knew what building I was talking about and turned me around in the right direction.

After heading east for several blocks, I arrived at the Jax Building. Eharmony girl was upstairs, helping one of the artists in her loft so I browsed the lobby while I waited. The lobby of the Jax Building, a labyrinth with various art disciplines on display, contained more art than I had seen in one place my entire life. I wandered around the lobby, eyes wide open, taking in this new environment until I received a text telling me to meet Eharmony girl in front of the building.

She sat on the stoop, wearing sky blue Chuck Taylor’s adorned with flowers drawn with a paint pen, smoking a Camel Light and drinking Dr. Pepper from a can. I sat down on the stoop and smoked a cigarette with her and we caught up on each other’s lives over the week since we had seen each other. When we finished smoking, we stood up and started crawling.

We crawled all over Lowertown that Saturday evening. It was a dizzying experience, so much so that as we stood on the third floor of the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative looking down on the atrium and she asked me what I thought of the Art Crawl my immediate response was “overwhelming”. The sheer amount of art was overwhelming, but I had a girl to impress so I kept up as she led me around and by the end of the evening I had fallen for the girl and I had fallen in love with Lowertown.

The thing with the girl didn’t last (This is probably the phrase that will go on my tombstone), but the affair with Lowertown is still going strong. I’ve enjoyed Music in Mears, events at Bedlam Lowertown, several trips to the Twin Cities Public Television studios for tapings of Lowertown Live, Saint Paul Saints games at CHS Field and four St. Paul Art Crawls. Every couple of weeks, I escape to the Black Dog Cafe for a couple of hours to drink coffee and write while listening to jazz. Every time I visit Lowertown I walk past the Jax Building and remember how far I’ve come since my lowest points in 2013.

I spent two years walking past the Jax Building without finding the courage to walk inside, though. The building was a barrier I could not cross, until last autumn. The Fall St. Paul Art Crawl 2015 was my fourth crawl and I was determined to visit every building on the crawl over the weekend. So, early on a Saturday afternoon two years after first discovering the Jax Building I returned, crawling throughout the building seeing art and wondering if I would see eHarmony girl.

Today I learned the Jax Building has been sold and it looks like the new owners will develop the property into a luxury apartment/condo complex. I am not a nostalgic person by nature, but upon hearing the news I fell into a spell of nostalgia this evening. There is a pang gnawing at my soul knowing the Jax Building, the launching point for my discovery of Lowertown, will be no more. I will miss walking through Lowertown without my touchstone, my reminder of where I was and where I went.

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Erik Thompson’s review of the Savages album Adore Life is the trashiest garbage trash of all-time.

Last week Erik Thompson wrote a review of the new Savages album Adore Life and it is pure rubbish. It is the trash rats avoid when they are digging through the trash for sustenance. It is so horrible that I do not recommend you read it at all. If you do read it and you die because it is so awful that it kills you, RIP.

Here are 136 reasons why Erik Thompson’s review of Adore Life is the worst.

1. The albums starts off with the strongest track, The Answer, and quickly devolves into mediocre pop psychology tropes. You spend the rest of the album like a heroin addict chasing that first high, to no avail. At the end of the album, you find yourself in the streets selling sexual favors for pennies on the dollar while wondering where all the time went and why your cheeks are so hollow. Come to think of it, the album and Erik Thompson’s music critic career have a similar arc.

2. Erik Thompson’s use of active verbs, colorful adjectives, sparse adverbs and grammatically correct sentence structures is misleading. Do not let him employ proper grammar in order to browbeat you into thinking Adore Life is better than average. The facade of having a firm grasp on the English language is a trick! Do not be tricked.

3. The almost-title track Adore almost shows promise near the end, musically building to an anticipated climax that would make for a great stadium anthem were it not for Jehnny Beth’s agonizing repetition of the trite adore life phrase. After she repeats the phrase for around the one-hundredth time you start wonder why Beth is mimicking the sound Dr. Phil and Oprah make when achieving simultaneous orgasms together on top of their piles of money.

4. Drugs. Erik Thompson does too many drugs, too often. Everything in moderation, Erik Thompson.

5. Erik Thompson clearly does not know his audience. He is writing for a community world-renowned for their high-brow taste in music and trying to pass off Savages as “the best rock band in the world today” is condescending. This is Minneapolis, Erik Thompson. Not Des Moines.

6. The claim “best rock band in the world today” rings hollow. It doesn’t even stand up to sub-categories. Best rock band in the UK today? Wolf Alice blows Savages out of the water. Best all-female rock band today? Sleater-Kinney runs circles around Savages. Click-baiting with patently false claims is no way to review albums, Erik Thompson.

7. Pre-teen girls in developing nations where writing tools have yet to be discovered have literally and physically written down lyrics with greater depth than the gibberish Savages spews on Adore Life.

8. The song Sad Person describes what you will be at the end of the album, and after reading Erik Thompson’s review of the album (which you should not read).

9-135. Think a thought. Hold on to the first thing that pops into your head. The completely undeveloped thought you just originated is immediately more interesting than any “thought” Erik Thompson had when he wrote his review for Adore Life.

136. Okay, it is actually a very good review, even though we differ in opinion on the album. However, a headline so audacious as to proclaim Savages “the best rock band in the world today” begged for a rebuttal, even if it was a tongue-in-cheek response from a wanna-be hack such as myself.  And, for real, you should read his review.

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I cannot stop listening to this song!

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2015: The Year to Build

The year 2015 was my third calendar year living in the Cities. I have read it takes five years to fully acclimate to a new home after moving, but 2015 made me feel like I am ahead of schedule. It was the first year where I knew people and places and had the money to do the things I wanted to do, so 2015 became the year to build in earnest the life I envisioned for myself when I moved to Minnesota.

2015 started out slow, as I was recovering from losing a job in November of 2014, missing a month of work and paying for Christmas. The frustration of being behind financially at the beginning of the year was compounded by the fact I had just moved to first-shift and had evenings free for the first time in two years. I had the time and I knew what was going on, but I had to spend a lot of time on the sidelines (my recliner) the first six weeks of 2015 as I rebuilt my finances.

I made it through those first six weeks of 2015 and then I started to build. Here are some of those building blocks:

Art

2015 was a wonderful year for art in the Cities and the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) led the way with their 100th birthday celebration. I viewed three of the most beautiful paintings in the world--Vermeer’s Woman Reading a Letter, Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks and van Gogh’s Irises. After I was able to regain my financial footing, I became a sustaining member at Mia and was able to take advantage of free tickets for The Habsburgs exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester exhibition and the amazing Delacroix exhibition (where I finally took advantage of the free--to members--audio guide during the tour). I also viewed the Gifts of Japanese and Korean Art from the Mary Griggs Burke Collection and was able to attend several Third Thursday events at Mia. In 2015, Mia became a larger part of my life and I look forward to continuing as a member and frequent visitor in 2016

I was also able to make more non-Rock the Garden visits to the Walker Art Center this year, as they celebrated their 75th Anniversary. I enjoyed several trips to the Walker, particularly the Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia exhibition. Lying in a Mayan Hammock while listening to Jimi Hendrix’s War Heroes was sublime. I also enjoyed viewing the Art at the Center: 75 Years of Walker Collections exhibition.

During 2015 I was able to view more art at events highlighting local artists. I saw 12 bands in two days and visited several studios in Northeast Minneapolis during Art-A-Whirl (largest open studio tour in the nation) weekend in May. Visiting the newly-relocated Soo Vac to see the Markers of Time: Prints by Marilyn A. Owens show in autumn was another highlight. The Fall St. Paul Art Crawl was a benchmark for me, as I was finally able to navigate St. Paul well enough to visit every studio during the weekend crawl for the first time in four attempts.

Culture

In 2015, I was able to immerse myself into a culture which allowed me to merge my identity--my desires, dreams, passions and tastes--with an existing framework as I continued building this new life in the Cities. While I continue to find the vast amount of social opportunities available here to be overwhelming at times, I found myself narrowing my focus while also broadening my cultural horizons over the past year. I continue to see the world with a child-like sense of awe as I discover more cultural opportunities which enrich and fulfill my life.

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and The Current have served a large role in the cultural landscape I have began to build for myself. At the beginning of 2015 I started to reevaluate my level of support for MPR/The Current. I had been a sustaining member since December, 2012, but was looking to increase my commitment to public radio. The same week I began to consider a deeper financial commitment to MPR, The Current terminated the services of one of my favorite on-air personalities and I paused for a couple days to reconsider whether I would increase my support. (I wrote about this period of reconsidering here.) After 72 hours, I decided to go forward with my increased commitment(s) to MPR/The Current.

Between volunteering 1-2 times a month, being a Legacy Society Member and a Leadership Circle sustaining member with MPR/The Current, 2015 brought so many wonderful opportunities. From exclusive shows and member events (like the Legacy Society Dinner) to working my favorite volunteer shift (staffing the membership tent at Rock the Garden) I’ve been able to meet amazing people in this community, including people who do the work that make MPR/The Current so beloved to me. If I have a cultural identity, it is my hope that a large part of the identity is my love for and support of MPR/The Current.

It is important for me to spend time with people who are creating art and my time as a student and volunteer at HUGE Theater has allowed me to be around creators. I finished Improv 401 class in March of 2015 and decided to step away from Improv for some time in order to pursue other goals. However, as 2015 drew to a close I found myself returning to HUGE Theater, picking up volunteer shifts. The Improv scene is an important part of my life and I look forward to seeing where the scene takes me in 2016.

An unintended benefit of the Art-a-Whirl and St. Paul Art Crawl events was my exposure to more taprooms and 11 Wells Distillery. 2015 was the year where I began to explore local alcohol options with more deliberation while rebuilding how I approach the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol will always be a part of my cultural pursuits, but I find myself taking greater care to experience different options for imbibing, while also consuming far more responsibly. I find I no longer drink to escape but to explore, and exploring the wide variety of beer and spirits available in Minnesota was an important part of my 2015.

Another cultural aspect I find important is the culture of bicycling found here in the Cities. During 2015 I was able to log a lot of miles on my bicycle, experiencing local trails, greenways and urban bicycling. Even when facing heavy traffic, I find myself in a more peaceful state of mind when bicycling (as opposed to driving an automobile). I was able to explore a lot of the Cities on bicycle in 2015 and look to further bicycling adventures in 2016--including getting to know fellow bicyclers in the community better.

I do not see myself ever being identified as a foodie, but I recognize the wonderful culinary opportunities we have here in the Cities and feel it would be foolish not to take advantage. I continued to enjoy Ruam Mit Thai in St. Paul in 2015, while broadening my horizons by attending Minneapolis Taste of the Nation Hot List in July and visiting many other area restaurants for the first time. 2015 was a year for building a broader culinary experience and I feel as though I will continue to build on these experiences in the future.

I was able to learn more about the Hmong culture in 2015. This included visiting the Minnesota Historical Center’s We Are Hmong Minnesota exhibition in March. Watching a grandfather show his grandchildren relics from the Hmong diaspora while telling his personal story was very moving.

Work

In many ways, 2015 was a frustrating year in my career. During my review near the beginning of the year I was not given a raise, even though I received the highest marks possible in every category of the review. Normally, I would have immediately sought other employment but I was committed to remaining with this employer for a full year because I did not want my resume to have another short-term entry on my employment history. Although I am not happy with my current employer, I was able to gain proficiency with 5-axis machines and gather experience working with materials I had not machined previously. I feel like the experience and knowledge I gained over the past year will be valuable as I return to school and move towards the next step in my career.

I spent some time, particularly towards the end of the year, working through a staffing agency as a banquet server. The flexibility of being able to pick up shifts whenever my schedule allowed was a great benefit, allowing me to work very part-time and earn extra money. Towards the end of 2015 a client I enjoy working with began to request my staffing agency send me to fill shifts whenever possible and bumped my pay by $1/hour so I look forward to continuing work with this client in 2016.

In the late-summer, I worked pouring beer at the State Fair for the third straight summer. I enjoyed working at the State Fair, interacting with people while making vacation money. With more experience, I was assigned better stations and earned more tips during the State Fair in 2015.

Music

2015 blew my mind! 95 concerts! Seeing my favorite band--My Morning Jacket--live for the first time. Exclusive shows. Prince jumping up on stage to join Alabama Shakes at Paisley Park. In the interest of brevity here, I’ve made a list of my favorite musical memories from 2015.

Relationships

2015 was an interesting year for relationships. It was the year when acquaintances became friends and friends became closer friends. The ability to travel several times throughout the year allowed me to maintain relationships with friends and family despite the distance that now resides between us. I also enjoyed the repaired relationship with my brother. It was a year with deeper, more personal connections.

I was able to see my mother on Mother’s Day and my Father the week before Father’s Day (when my brother and I surprised him by taking him to see Tommy James & the Shondell’s). Visiting Missouri twice (for the family reunion and Christmas) the second consecutive year was very important, as I was able to see my grandmother and visit with all of my extended family in Missouri. I also enjoyed hosting my brother and his wife at my home near the end of Thanksgiving weekend.

Any summer I get to see my old friends Charlie, Jason and Jocelyn is a summer I consider successful and I was able to see all three this summer. Visiting Jason and his family in Le Mars over the July 4th weekend was a fantastic time. Meeting with Jocelyn (who brought her mother and new fiancee) at Hola Arepa for lunch at the end of summer was a pleasant surprise that still brings me joy five months later. My vacation to Delaware with Charlie during the week of Labor Day, visiting the ocean for the first time while drinking a lot of Dogfish Head beer and relaxing was the best vacation I could have planned.

I came across The Decemberists’ A Beginning Song embarrassingly late in the year given it was the song I played the most on Spotify in 2015, but it is my personal soundtrack for a relationship I experienced in the autumn of 2015. While on vacation to Delaware, I found myself missing someone back here in Minnesota. After my return we ended up meeting at Festival Palomino--I’ll never forget Father John Misty blowing my mind, the show ending, hearing my name being called and finally seeing this beautiful girl I had been missing for two weeks. Over the next two months we got to know each other better and I saw a glimpse of something I had been searching for a long time. I experienced several moments of pure joy while with her, but the relationship did not survive autumn.

I will always remember standing on The Point at Henlopen State Park near the end of my vacation, watching the sun slip in and out of the clouds as it set over Delaware Bay when I hear the line “It’s the ocean. It’s the buoy. It’s you” from A Beginning Song. Not one for cliches, especially when applied to the end of a relationship, I choose one way to summarize the experience. The way I look at the end of this relationship is to remember the words to the chorus of A Beginning Song, “I am waiting. Should I be waiting? I am wanting. Should I be wanting? I am hopeful. Should I be hopeful?” and know that for two months the answer was yes and then in a matter of minutes the answer became no.

The final two weeks of 2015 brought a wonderful close to an amazing year. I was able to spend time loving and being loved by most of the people who are the most important to me. Time with friends, new and old, and family was precious.

On New Year’s Eve I was able to traverse candlelit trails at Fort Snelling State Park with my dear friend Rachel early in the evening before joining her later and toasting in the new year among friends at midnight. I also found a new friend near the end of the year and while this relationship is new and still-to-be explored, I had someone to kiss in the fresh first seconds of the new year.

Any year beginning with a kiss is bound to be a good year.

2016

I feel as if 2015 was the best year of my life, a year of building while still exploring and experiencing new things. No one knows what 2016 holds, but my sense is that I finished building the foundation in 2015 and have set myself up to have an even better year this year. I look forward to continuing to evolve, returning to school to further my career, seeing more shows, appreciating more art, spend more time biking, eating and drinking better, devoting more resources to nonprofits, telling more stories and developing more meaningful relationships.

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40 Music Memories from 2015

Meeting Alicia Bognanno’s dad while working the merch booth for The Current at the Turf Club before watching Bully (opening for Hamilton Leithauser) for the first time.  (1/17)

Watching Houndmouth live for the first time, at the Turf Club (2/21)

Seeing Zoo Animal live for the first time at Amsterdam Bar & Hall (3/7)

The Decemberists at Northrop (3/27)

Ibeyi at The Cedar (3/30)

Stereo Confession, France Camp, Bully, Jeff The Brotherhood at The Entry. Stereo Confession started the party, France Camp got it lit & then Bully destroyed the room before a concerned Alicia finished the set by asking if her dad was okay because she feared he had got caught up in the moshing (4/10)

Hearing Wolf Alice at the Turf Club, especially seeing Giant Peach live and the sound when they came out of the bridge into those Sabbath-esque riffs (5/5)

The 1-2 punch of Zoo Animal and Gramma’s Boyfriend on the first night of Art-a-Whirl at Fair State Brewing (5/15)

Sam Cassidy (backed by the Red Daughters) at Indeed Brewing Company (5/16)

The intimate Jeremy Messersmith set on the front porch of a Victorian mansion in the Cathedral Hill district of St. Paul with my friend Rachel. (5/27)

Alabama Shakes & Father John Misty playing the first show ever at Hall’s Island (5/30)

Alabama Shakes at Paisley Park and being close enough to the stage that when the guy next to me questioned whether Prince would appear I was able to point out the three white guitar picks with purple Prince symbols in front of us as evidence he would appear. Standing five feet from Prince while he shredded (6/1)

Seeing Bully perform on First Ave’s Mainstage for the first time (6/8)

My brother and I surprising my dad by taking him to see Tommy James & the Shondells for the first time at Port of Dubuque as his Father’s Day gift (6/13)

My third Rock the Garden. The lineup. Knowing so many people. The weather. It was a beautiful weekend (6/20 & 6/21)

Seeing my favorite band--My Morning Jacket--for the first time at Northrop  (6/26 & 6/27)

Heartless Bastards at First Ave  (6/29)

Watching Aretha Franklin perform at Saturday in the Park in Sioux City, IA (7/4)

Experiencing the 1-2 punch of Jason Isbell & Wilco at the Basilica Block Party (7/11)

First show with my friend Andrea, seeing the Strand of Oaks at Turf Club  (7/27)

The Kills at First Avenue (8/3)

Last minute, somewhat intoxicated decision to see the Foo Fighters at Xcel Energy Center (8/22)

Seeing The Tallest Man on Earth at First Avenue and hearing Timothy live (8/29)

Father John Misty destroying everything, including his pants at Festival Palomino (9/19)

The intimate, quirky Tobias Jesso, Jr. performance at The Cedar (10/6)

Seeing The Joy Formidable at Turf Club with someone I was seeing at the time, culmination to a beautiful evening (10/9)

Seeing Bully headline a show for the first time (10/12)

Kurt Vile & the Violators at Mill City Nights (10/21)

Rayland Baxter opening for Grace Potter at State Theater and his amazing cover of Dylan’s Love Sick (10/22)

Run the Jewels at First Avenue (10/23)

Mary Lucia returns to the airwaves, Bob Collins welcomes her back with the Tonight Show/Johnny Carson analogy (11/9)

Ben Folds’ private HH show at Turf Club (11/18)

Tiny Deaths at Amsterdam Bar & Hall, Claire de Lune nearly perfect & great cover of Sarah McLachlan’s Building a Mystery (11/21)

Communist Daughter at Amsterdam Bar & Hall, new songs having been perfected live and fitting in seamlessly with older material  (11/21)

Ben Gibbard’s private lunch set at Icehouse (12/4)

Grrrl Prty at First Ave’s mainstage, without Lizzo. Manchita’s “gender is over” t-shirt. Manchita & Sophia Eris

POS surprising everyone by having the Marijuana Deathsquads backing him at First Avenue (12/11)

Zoo Animal final show at Amsterdam Bar & Hall (12/12)

Seeing Johnny and Molly of Communist Daughter Sad Xmas Songs at Southern Theater with my friend Rachel. (12/13)

My first time seeing Max Timander’s new band, Cherry Cola, at The Entry (12/31)

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My 15 favorite songs from 2015. (15 Favorite albums/live shows to follow in next few days.)