Nicholas David at First Avenue, 5/10/13

Categories: Concert Review
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Seeing Nicholas David live isn't like watching the man on television. It's infinitely better.

Anyone who followed season three of The Voice can attest to David's astounding showmanship. The tall, bearded, "family man from Minnesota" captivated audiences around the country with his uniquely soulful renditions of classic tunes week after week until he placed third in the competition.

The first sold-out show of a two-night stint at First Avenue was packed to the brim, with hardly any space to move around both upstairs and on the main floor even while David's opener, DJ Heatbox, warmed up the stage, which was filled with plants and prayer flags, Buddha statues and incense. A few minutes before 10 p.m., clad in a gray fedora, brown suit jacket, vest, and orange pants, Nicholas David emerged onstage to whoops and hollers, before bowing at the audience and launching into his first song.

See also:
Nicholas David on life after The Voice and selling out First Avenue
Nicholas David's final performances on The Voice (VIDEOS)

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JD McPherson wows at First Avenue, 5/4/13

Categories: Concert Review

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Photo by Samantha Franklin
JD McPherson with the Cactus Blossoms
First Avenue Mainroom, Minneapolis
May 4, 2013

Forget what you think you know about rock 'n' roll. Until you've seen JD McPherson play, you don't know the genre. McPherson is modern music's unequivocal leader in rock 'n' roll revivalism, and on Saturday night at First Avenue, he proved to all of Minneapolis why that was.

McPherson, dressed in his trademark denim jacket with his hair slicked back just so, burst onto the stage with enough energy to power the lights in the mainroom, and he played his guitar with a furious flourish. The band--also similarly uniformed--opened with the infectious rockabilly-style tune "Firebug," and it was just all uphill from there. With McPherson's music partner and producer, Jimmy Sutton, on upright bass, the band commanded the stage as though it might be their last performance ever.

See also:
JD McPherson releases Christmas single "Twinkle (Little Christmas Lights)"


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Har Mar Superstar returns to the Turf Club, 5/4/13

Categories: Concert Review

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Erik Hess
Har Mar Superstar
Turf Club, St. Paul
Saturday, May 4, 2013

Sean Tillman may not live in Minnesota anymore, but he still knows it's important to dress in layers.

Tillman's sex-symbol-by-fiat alter ego Har Mar Superstar took the Turf Club stage after midnight draped in a black hood and some sort of matching African-print mumu deal, under which he wore a lightweight suit and, we later learned, a black sleeveless t-shirt. When he left more than an hour later, he was shirtless, his proud girth glistening in the stage lights.

And yet, in a defiant act of artistic maturity, he left his pants on.

See also:
[Slideshow] Har Mar Superstar returns to the Turf Club, 5/4/13
Har Mar Superstar's star turn

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Purity Ring at First Avenue, 5/2/13

Categories: Concert Review

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Anna Gulbrandsen
Purity Ring with Blue Hawaii
First Avenue, Minneapolis
May 2, 2013

Purity Ring is all about atmosphere. Whether it's onstage or on their insanely popular debut album, Shrines, the Edmonton-based band paints a picture that sticks in your brain long after you're done listening.

See also:
[Slideshow] Purity Ring at First Avenue, 5/2/13
Purity Ring at First Avenue, 9/14/12

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DJ Shadow at Mill City Nights, 5/2/13

Categories: Concert Review

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Daniel Corrigan
All things being equal, DJ Shadow is better as his job than you are at yours. Thursday at Mill City Nights, the former Joshua Davis drove that point home tenfold with a 90-minute set of songs that were largely unrecognizable to the vast majority of the crowd, but held everyone rapt for the duration despite it.

See also:
DJ Shadow at First Avenue, 7/17/11
DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist at First Avenue

More »

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dj shadow

James Blake at First Avenue, 5/1/13

Categories: Concert Review

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Anna Gulbrandsen
James Blake
With FaltyDL
First Avenue, Minneapolis
May 1, 2013

From the moment James Blake tentatively burst onto the music scene in 2010, his inventive music has boldly defied definition or classification. Blake's proven to be too orchestral and delicate to be considered straight dubstep, while too ornate and textured to be thought of as merely pop. And all of those intoxicating facets of his dynamic sound were on full display at a sold-out First Avenue on Wednesday night, as James and his tight, two-person backing band enthralled us all throughout their 85-minute performance, which highlighted Blake's earliest work as well as the direction he is planning on taking his music in the future.

See also:
[Slideshow] James Blake at First Avenue, 5/1/13
James Blake at First Avenue, 9/28/11
James Blake at 7th Street Entry, 5/16/11

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Fatoumata Diawara at Cedar Cultural Center, 4/12/13

Categories: Concert Review
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Photo by Youri Lenquette

Fatoumata Diawara
Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis
Friday, April 12, 2013

There wasn't a n'goni or djembe to be seen or heard at the Cedar Friday night. Fatoumata Diawara played a flashy cherry-red guitar any aspiring teen metalhead would drool over, and she fronted what looked like a standard rock band: electric guitar, electric bass, trap drums. But the shifting polyrhythms and high-wattage guitar the quartet delivered for nearly two hours was hardly rock or blues or funk. It was just what the Malian-raised singer called it: "a development of our traditional music."

Born in Côte d'Ivoire and now living in France, the 30-year-old Diawara clearly sees herself as a standard bearer for a new generation of cosmopolitan Africans, especially African women. She once sang backup for the queen of the Wassoulou sound, Oumou Sangare, and though her voice is less robust, her sense of how to tweak that sound without betraying its essence is just as keen and pronounced, and so is her commitment to female solidarity.

See Also:
Fatoumata Diawara: I'm working on a voice for women that didn't exist before


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Toro Y Moi at Fine Line Music Cafe, 02/20/13

Categories: Concert Review
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Photo by Anna Gulbrandsen

Toro Y Moi
With Dog Bite, Sinkane
Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis
Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The ample crowd at Fine Line Music Café got a satisfying display of Toro Y Moi's sexy stylings last night. Some weren't afraid to outright demand it -- hence the reasonable request of one loud fan, "Make my nipples hard."

See Also:
Toro Y Moi and Braids at the Entry, 04/03/11

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Get Cryphy 5th Anniversary at First Avenue, 2/8/13

Categories: Concert Review
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Photo by Anna Gulbrandsen
Get Cryphy 5th Anniversary
With Slug, Brother Ali, MaLLy, Lizzo, Haphduzn, Sophia Eris, St. Paul Slim, Rapper Hooks, Lazerbeak, Big Dylan, Ander Other and more
First Avenue, Minneapolis
Friday, February 8, 2013


The Get Cryphy crew capped off another solid anniversary show on Friday, ringing in five years as the sweatiest, most raucous hip-hop dance party in town by expanding beyond the confines of the First Avenue Record Room into the mighty Mainroom area. Once again, the night sold out fast and the crowd riled up quickly.

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Cam'ron at First Avenue, 2/6/13

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Photo by Erik Hess
Cam'ron
With Greg Grease
First Avenue, Minneapolis
Wednesday, February 6, 201
3

Cam'ron played to decent-sized mainroom Wednesday night, but it had the feel of a show at Epic. The space was definitely nicer, the crowd livelier. But performance-wise -- yeah. It was short, but anticipated and enjoyed. A lot of standing warranted a bit more of a show, I'd hoped, but hey, he opened with "Killa Cam" and went into "Get 'Em Girls," and generally what he played was well-calibrated to keep the crowd happy.
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