In my four years living in the Twin Cities, I have gone to a lot of concerts. And what I’ve learned is this: Minnesotans love to stand still. Multiple times, locals have complimented me on my energy, and lamented how damn difficult it is to get Minnesota crowds to break out of their shells. But…
By Alexander Marketos [email protected] Life on the road for a touring band gets inevitably strenuous. They play the same songs every night for months on end and answer the same questions from interviewers, not to mention how they spend their time between cities crammed like sardines in a tour bus or van. At First Avenue’s…
What’s kitty-corner from the Target Center, covered in silver stars and arguably the coolest scene in downtown Minneapolis? FIRST AVENUE. The signage is unmistakable: bold capital letters against a background design like the staff lines of sheet music. On Tuesday, April 18, the dark Mainroom venue is well-packed by 8:00 p.m., when the opener, Waxahatchee,…
Skip your Wednesday night class because Kaoru Ishibashi, better known by his stage name Kishi Bashi or “K,” is bringing his dreamy, synthy, electro-pop to First Ave on October 12. Minneapolis is one of many stops on his extensive North American tour for his latest album, Sonderlust, and he is excited for you to be…
A night at First Avenue usually consists of strobes, a steady bass that stays in your ears for a few days and maybe a few hundred gallons of foam. It’s not the kind of place you’d expect to see Sam Beam, who goes by the stage name Iron & Wine. Beam, a contemporary folk singer…
Full disclosure: Neko Case is my cool aunt. And high school English teacher. And therapist, actually. And local bartender. And guardian angel. And she’s my pet—a cat when I need cool wisdom, a dog when I need affectionate understanding.
Crystal Castles w/ Pictureplane Sunday, May 5 @ First Ave. Crystal Castles have released three excellent albums of dark 8-bit electronica, most recently 2012’s creatively titled “III.” Despite the strength of their recorded material, rumor has it the two-piece’s live performances are often, for lack of a better word, bad. Are vocalist Alice Glass’s onstage…
“Trippy,” “hallucinogenic,” and most frequently “kaleidoscopic” are all words often deployed to describe the sound of Australian neo-psychedelic group Tame Impala. But reducing the band and their breakout album Lonerism to old stoner-music clichés misses the point. The vocabulary of psych rock alone won’t suffice. We’re not watching youtube videos of Woodstock or listening to…
