J-Rockers from Osaka, Shonen Knife brought the Ramones-style punk to the 7th Street Entry with a vengeance one fateful Thursday night in October. Recent City Pages “Picked To Click” champions Red Pens gave the girls of Shonen Knife a welcome worthy of their international travels. The near-capacity crowd was a happy one.

More photos and words after the jump.

Minneapolis natives Red Pens started the night out with a rousing set of their noisy two-piece rock. The Shonen fans in attendance – in fact, Shonen Knife themselves – seemed to really enjoy the melodic, fuzz-laden set. “Street Issue” and “Phase You Out” were highlights, as usual. The ‘Pens proved themselves quite worthy of the landslide accolades they received from City Pages voters recently.

Click here for a slideshow of the Red Pens set.

Shonen Knife kicked their set off with the same classic, Ramones-flavored punk that made fans of Nirvana and Sonic Youth decades ago. They put on an awesome show. It was like hearing the Ramones through a J-Pop girl-rock filter, a filter with the “awesome” knob turned up to 11.

Click here for a slideshow of Shonen Knife’s set.

The music of Lucero is tough to define. They wind through so many sub-genres of rock – centered, mostly, on a southern roots-rock vibe – that people have a hard time describing their prolific back catalog. They have a reputation for raucous live outings and, as a newcomer to the Lucero fan base, I was excited to check it out. To say that they rocked the house with their nearly two and a half hour set would be a massive understatement.

Photo sets and details after the jump.

While there were two openers on the bill, the responsibility fell solely to Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcom, who opened up the night with a fiery set of Mississippi blues rock. Cedric Burnside, the drummer of the duo, has a storied history. Grandson of blues legend R.L. Burnside, you can tell that blues rhythm is just a part of who he is. Burnside is one of the best drummers I’ve seen in a long time – if ever – and had a wicked punch to his vocals that I won’t be forgetting any time soon. Lightnin’ Malcom, who’s performed with many of the greats of southern blues, held his own in the duo as well with a bluesy guitar and vocal combo that hit just right. It proved to be a perfect warmup for Lucero, getting the crowd stoked for some serious rockin’.

Click here for a slideshow of Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Maclcom’s set.

By the time Lucero took the stage the crowd was pretty well stoked. Their two and a half hour set covered vast amounts of their back catalog with highlights from their new album standing out quite well. Some in the crowd commented about their new brass section – which they appear to be excited to tour with – and the “E Street Band” sound that it gave some of their songs. Not having seen Lucero previously I can’t comment on the difference but I can definitely say that the set had flashes of Springsteen and Hold Steady with the music wholly standing on its’ own, apart from these influences. It was a rockin’ good time for everyone in attendance and, after a very long set and some wicked encores, Lucero called it a night.

Click here for a slideshow of Lucero’s set.

Rhymesayers’ P.O.S. tore through a sold out mainroom at First Avenue with the fury his audiences have come to know well. Fresh off of a busy schedule of touring through the Summer and early Fall (including a few Twin Cities Building Better Bombs shows) this was a hell of a homecoming for the hometown hero. The show provided some eclectic tunes to an audience that was packed full of fans – new and old.

More after the jump…

The openers for the show, hand picked by the gregarious headliner himself, ranged quite a bit in their styles. The first up, Moonstone, brought with them a blend of vocoder-enhanced classic rock and spiritual spoken word. Being an orthodox Lunarian parish, their Reverant Mackert has much to say to the crowds they inevitably draw. Fresh off of a third-place billing on the City Pages “Picked to Click” this year it’s obvious to see why those in the know in the local music scene have been following these guys. Their rich psychedelic tapestries may have caught the crowd by surprise but, based on the murmurs of praise, I’d say that they may have a few prospective Lunarians joining their parish.

Next in the eclectic mix were Prof and St. Paul Slim enlightening the crowd with their unique blend of mid-90’s braggadocio and modern hip-hop synthesizers and deep beats. Down up front the kids knew every word, up in the back folks were grooving to the beats – these guys tore the place down. Slim’s been no stranger to success lately, scoring a hit with a Minnesota Golden Gophers them song (”Play4Brew”, featured prominently on his MySpace page) and releasing an acclaimed album earlier this year (”Recession Music”). The future looks bright for the Prof and Slim, here’s to hoping we’ll see many more shows from these guys.

Changing the pace quite a bit, one-man electronic band Slapping Purses gave the crowd something they couldn’t have expected to have sandwiched between a pair of rap acts – electronic noise reminiscent of u-Ziq with a bit of Venetian Snares thrown in for good measure. ‘Purses stood with his wicker suitcase and custom-made rhinestone skull microphone at center stage kicking some rhythms and glitched-up melodies that few in the mainroom could’ve fathomed. What set this set apart was the addition of a live drummer, it brought alot of energy to what might’ve been an empty stage. Strange looks wandered around the room when the set started but it didn’t take long for the incredibly heavy beats and noise to infect the crowd. By the end of the set, nearly three and a half hours after the main room doors opened, everyone was chomping at the bit for P.O.S. to take the stage. When he did, he opened up with this: “Can you build your own microphone? I don’t think so. Give it up for Slapping Purses.”

With that, P.O.S. rolled right into a set full of headline-worthy tracks, starting with “Let It Rattle” and going through until the last encore with “Stand Up (Let’s Get Murdered)”. Throughout the set P.O.S. showed off not only his lyricism but his great attitude as well, smirking when a plaid mad bomber hat was thrown on stage and returning with some witty banter about said hats between songs. Toward the end of the set, while observing a group of moshers in the crowd he gave them a bit of wisdom, “I’m all for mosh pits but I’m not for black eyes on little girls.” DJ Plain Ole Bill looked like he was having a blast throughout the show too, dropping large amounts of turntable skill throughout the show. The set featured many favorites from 2009’s Never Better along with a few choice selections from the back catalog. Highlights included Sims and Dessa joining for support during “Low Light Low Life” and a heartfelt rendition of De La Souls, dedicated to his mother Grace, that struck a very positive nerve with the crowd and contributed even more to the overall great vibe at the show.

Overall the show was one of my favorites this year. It put an eclectic mix of great local artists in front of a crowd that was receptive, perhaps uniquely so, to experience new things. The crowd had to be one of the best I’ve seen in a long time as well, wiping away bad main room memories from other recent shows. If P.O.S. is coming to your town you owe it to yourself to check out his show. He’s currently touring with Eyedea and Abilities, another great Twin Cities punk-inspired rap act. Check his Rhymesayers artist page for dates and details.

Saul, along with some musical friends – local and national – dropped by the Varsity Theater to put on a hell of a show Sunday night. Locals Dearling Physique and No Bird Sing joined pop-punkers American Fangs from Houston and hip hop impresarios CX Kidtronic & Tchaka Diallo in opening for the legendary warrior poet, providing a vast array of flavors for the crowd’s perusal and enjoyment. Based on the responses from the crowd, some horizons were definitely broadened – stated by show staff as a prime goal of the Afro-Punk movement.

Photos and details after the jump.

Minneapolis locals Dearling Physique opened up the night with their theatrical blend of downtempo electronics, trip-hop and soaring guitars. Their set reminded me of everything I love about Massive Attack’s “Mezzanine”, Tricky’s brooding darkness and Aphex Twin’s “Seleted Ambient Works 85-92″.

Photos of Dearling Physique:

Click here for a slideshow of Dearling Physique’s set.

Another local favorite, No Bird Sing, brought their soulful instrumental hip-hop to what appeared to be an unsuspecting crowd. To say that “Devil Trombones” brought down the house would be an understatement. The Twin Cities are lucky to have such talent brewing within our city limits – the out of town crew (and reportedly Saul himself) seemed to be very impressed by the two local openers. As well they should be, they brought some great tunes.

Photos of No Bird Sing:

Click here for a slideshow of No Bird Sing’s set.

Houstonites American Fangs came with the modern power punk, showing the kids how punk rock has evolved in the last 20 years. Slick and well-produced, their incredibly active front man and crew had the crowd moving and, frankly, made it tough for a no-flash photographer to get photos. This is a good thing. Their boundless energy on stage made for an incredibly entertaining set.

Photos of American Fangs:

Click here for a slideshow of American Fangs’ set.

After a brief interlude featuring some four-on-the-floor, booty-shaking beats from CX Kidtronic & Tchaka Diallo the one and only Niggy Tardust took the stage. The character, created by Saul Williams, as an outlet for a more aggressively overt side of his personality. Niggy Tardust is being laid to rest after this tour allowing the now Paris-dwelling Williams to progress into a new era. Judging by the incredible energy and great vibe presented during his set I’m inclined to believe that Niggy is going out with a bang, at a high point in his life cycle. Highlights from the set included an incredible cover of Bjork’s “Declare Independence” that had Saul’s own lyricism woven through it and the Trent Reznor-produced cover of “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. Other tracks, like “Tr(n)igger” and “NiggyTardust”, took on an entirely new life in their live context, breaking free of their album versions and busrting into a vibrant crowd-centric experience that I couldn’t have anticipated.

Photos of Saul Williams:

Click here for a slideshow of Saul Williams’ set.

The tour, presented by social network Afropunk.com, has more stops to come. Check out details of the tour here and be on the lookout for this awesome tour coming through your town.

Varsity Theater, 10/25/2009

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]]> http://www.noisedamage.com/2009/10/26/afro-punk-tour-2009-saul-williams-brings-friends-to-the-varsity/feed/ 1 http://www.noisedamage.com/2009/09/08/mic-check-mic-check-one-two-one-two/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://www.noisedamage.com/2009/09/08/mic-check-mic-check-one-two-one-two/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:14:27 +0000 admin http://www.noisedamage.com/?p=6 Is this thing on? I hope so. If it is, then hopefully some text will show up in the right place.

This will eventually be a photo blog focusing on all things Minneapolis/St. Paul music and, occasionally, the musicians that come through the awesome venues in our town. For at least a few weeks I’ll be tweaking and constructing behind the scenes. I’d say to expect greatness but, frankly, one can’t predict those things too effectively.

If it’s working then these should show up too: