Minneapolis, Minnesota’s P.O.S. performing a last-minute Coachella send-off show at the Turf Club in Midway, St. Paul, Minnesota. Stef was testing a new live stage show that includes live drumming, guitar and sampler work from Building Better Bombs along with his live DJ and friend, Plain Ole’ Bill.
Taking a short break from SXSW recap posts was worth it.
Several of these photos were used with permission by Minneapolis, Minnesota’s City Pages and their Gimme Noise music blog for a photo slideshow and an article recapping all three shows.
More photos and shattered thoughts after the jump…
This was only the third time I’ve seen P.O.S. perform and the first time up close. Both earlier performances were at First Avenue but they were quite different. The first was a sparsely-attended show that had him opening for Cursive (when he was billed as “a very special guest”. By the time he was deep into an incredible rendition of “Been Afraid” I knew it – P.O.S. is no ordinary performer. The anthemic, intricately structured songs were backed by lyrics that spoke heavily to me about seeking identity, fractured love that saves and islands of raw optimism among oceans of cynicism. Check a review of that show by Erik Thompson with photos by Jon Behm archived at Culture Bully, they described that fascinating show better than I could!
My second experience with P.O.S. was in the same room but it was a totally different beast. Not only did he have a hand-crafted, eclectic opening lineup (Moonstone, Slapping Purses, Prof and St. Paul Slim) and but the place was sold out, way sold out. I hadn’t gone to the show with the intention of shooting – I had never shot in the First Ave mainroom before that night – but the show was so unique that I had to run to the coat check and get the old D70 out for some photos. Check out the Gimme Noise review of the show to see how that went (spoiler alert: it was awesome).
So what about this show? I’m not sure I can even crystalize the experience into words. That’s why I bring my camera after all. The fact that I got some great practice with slow-synchro flash speaks volumes (to me at least) about the high energy of the show. So, yeah. It kicked ass.
“Hey, we’re gonna get a mosh pit down here for the next minute and a half…”
See a slideshow on Flickr or check out individual photos from the set below.
Sweeeeeet!