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)

Photo by Samantha Franklin

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)"

Erik Hess

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

Anna Gulbrandsen

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

Daniel Corrigan

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

Anna Gulbrandsen

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

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

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