Photo by Lindsay Kimball

Rodriguez
Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul
Wednesday, May 15, 2013

This historic week in downtown Saint Paul continued at the Fitzgerald Theater as a sold-out audience paid witness to the first public concert locally from Rodriguez. The now-famous Detroit singer/songwriter finally became a household favorite last year due to the miraculous story told in the Oscar-winning Searching for Sugarman film.

See Also:
Rodriguez: "They made love to my music, but they also made war to my music"

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Photo by Tony Nelson

Of Montreal
With Wild Moccasins
Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis
Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Most bands tour the country stocked up with all of their gear and a collection of merch. Of Montreal also packs as many costumes as a Broadway show.

From the skeleton-faced clowns who joined the band on stage during the first song, "Chrissy Kiss the Corpse," releasing a never-ending string of balloons for the crowd to devour, to the small reptile people in armless red jumpsuits during "Girl Named Hello" who eventually revealed their robust fake breasts into the eager faces of front-stage viewers, the band did not hold back on the theatrics. Oh, and at one point, someone dressed as Hercules battled a skeleton guy before they fired off leaf-blowers full of feathers.

See Also:
Slideshow: Of Montreal at the Cedar Cultural Center, 5/15/13

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Photo by Anna Gulbrandsen

Love is the Law Concert
With the Suburbs, Gay Men's Chorus, Jack Brass Band, P.O.S., Zoo Animal, and Hookers $ Blow
Ecolab Plaza, St. Paul
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

"Life is like a summer's evening," a lyric from the Suburbs' Tuesday performance proved to the second-most memorable statement of the night. After Governor Mark Dayton signed the gay marriage bill into law, the quickly assembled celebration show -- inspired by the Twin Cities band's 1984 hit "Love is the Law" -- was a delightfully warm, mosquito-deprived, and adoration-rich experience in downtown St. Paul.

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Slideshow: Love is the Law Concert

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Photo by Erik Hess

Limp Bizkit with Ryan Campbell
Varsity Theater, Minneapolis
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Limp Bizkit is still very much a "thing," and -- while nu metal is no longer a prominent genre -- still very much alive. The characters within are the DJ, the epic drummer on his raised platform drawing from old-school metal, the bassist wearing a Limp Bizkit T-shirt, costume-prone guitarist Wes Borland in a hoodie and light-up mask, and of course, the now bearded lead singer Fred Durst, charismatic, yet plays the role of the asshole frontman. Even the audience plays their role, a room of testosterone-filled, alcohol-infused crowd ready to "break stuff."

See Also:
Slideshow: Limp Bizkit at Varsity Theater, 5/14/13
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Photo by Mark Kartarik

The Thermals
with Strange Relations
7th Street Entry, Minneapolis
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

The Thermals are indie rock's consummate underdogs. They've never been as popular as they should be. Their albums are perennially underrated and it's more vexing with each passing year. The workman-like, scrappy punk rock the band peddles in is always enjoyable and they're prone to creating concept albums (the new one is about a "lone rogue in the night") that tell their stories in two-minute bursts of lean, athletic, hook-filled noise with just enough flourish attached to them to make each stand on their own and stand out at the front of the pack. All of this was on display Tuesday at the 7th Street Entry, where they offered up a veritable clinic on how put on a rock show.

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Photo by Erik Hess

Black Moth Super Rainbow
with the Hood Internet and Oscillator Bug
Fine Line Music Cafe
Monday, May 13, 2013

You can dress up the sound of Pittsburgh's Black Moth Super Rainbow with any sort of fancy micro-genre you choose and it will never be correct. Neo-stoner rock, electro-psychedelia, the list could go on and on, but it is the sound of one thing: drugs. BMSR is what drugs sound like. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, and Monday's show at the Fine Line was like an hour-long acid trip, if acid was something you smoked. If that makes any sense, and likely, it shouldn't. Like that statement two sentences ago, the band should be taken at face value and not dissected any further, though that's not an easy task given the deceptive complexity of most of the work and song structures that beg for questions to be asked. Monday didn't make anything more clear, but it certainly made things more fun.

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Photo by Erik Hess

Girls Got Rhythm Fest
With Cherie Currie, Marilu and the Machetes, Sugar Stems, and Is/Is
Amsterdam Bar and Hall, St. Paul
Saturday, May 11, 2013

Cherie Currie's explosive and enigmatic headlining performance that closed day two of Girls Got Rhythm Fest late Saturday night won't be forgotten soon. As a whole, the entire evening brought forth some pretty outstanding presentation and vivacious personalities: it was quite simply a blast. But, again, following Currie's time on stage, it was difficult to leave St. Paul with any other part of the performance on the mind.

See Also:
Girls Got Rhythm Fest night one at Amsterdam Bar and Hall, 5/10/13
Slideshow: Girls Got Rhythm Fest, Night One
Slideshow: Girls Got Rhythm Fest, Night Two

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Photo by Erik Hess

Girls Got Rhythm Fest night one
With the Avengers, the Gateway District, the Pinsch, Total Trash
Amsterdam Bar and Hall, St. Paul
Friday, May 10, 2013

While our local summer festival circuit seems to grow exponentially with every passing year, the 2012 maiden voyage of St. Paul's Girls Got Rhythm Fest made a strong case for its return by championing a criminally under-served pocket of our local music community. It's a strange irony that a town like ours, inundated with the rock 'n' roll feminism that gave birth to icons like Babes in Toyland, didn't have an event of this scale to celebrate women until a year ago.

While that first run of GGR may have suffered some of the setbacks that plague many festival start-ups, organizers Dana Raidt and Travis Ramin wisely decided to narrow their focus this time. Focusing on guitar-heavy, punk-minded groups created a far more cohesive experience, and landing San Francisco pop-punk archetypes the Avengers for the headlining slot made for a truly unique lineup on night one.

See Also:
Slideshow: Girls Got Rhythm Fest, Night One
Slideshow: Girls Got Rhythm Fest, Night Two

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Photo by stefan_pierce

Daughter
With Jeremy Messersmith
Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis
May 10, 2013

Two Glassnote recording artists on the rise delighted a sold-out Fine Line on Friday night, as London's Daughter and local singer/songwriter Jeremy Messersmith joined up for the first night of their tour together, a well-matched jaunt. While Messersmith was playing his first Minneapolis club date since signing with Glassnote, Daughter returned to the area in support of their debut LP, If You Leave.

This show lacked a bit of the intimacy and charm of Daughter's Entry debut back in October, but it was still magical, as they delivered a gorgeous 80-minute set that set anticipation high for their return to the Twin Cities in August to open for the National.

See Also:
Daughter and Choir of Young Believers at 7th Street Entry, 10/24/12
Daughter's Remi Aguilella talks band dynamics ahead of their Entry show Wednesday

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Photo by Youa Vang

Wits with Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, and Rob Delaney
Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul
Friday, May 10, 2013

Friday night's Wits session opened with host John Moe thanking everyone for attending, more so because it was opening night for The Great Gatsby in theaters. Moe went on to joke that unbeknownst to a lot of people, the original book was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald at the Fitzgerald Theater as a sketch for Wits, and because the audience was missing out on the movie, sudden bursts of hip-hop was promised throughout the evening.

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