Vol. 4 Episode 11.5

Veronica Falls with opening act Cold Showers at the 7^th Street Entry in Minneapolis MN 3-16-2013

This is the second time that I had been to the 7^th Street Entry. The first time was to see the same band, Veronica Falls, last year. You can read all about that concert in the post for Vol. 3 Episode 6.5. The 7^th Street Entry is a secondary club to the famous First Ave in Minneapolis MN. My wife was unable to attend this time so I brought my father-in-law, who loves music as much as I do. There were a group of four young adults, three girls and one guy, in line ahead of us. They had come to the concert on a whim, never hearing anything from the groups before. The girls didn’t seem to care who was playing, just that they were out of the house and doing something else. The guy on the other hand wanted to know if they were any good. I told him that I had been to see them the year before and that I had been into them since they started releasing music. This wasn’t exactly true as I got into them on their first single with Slumberland Records. This was after their first two initial singles. That little group found themselves right in front of the stage on the left side through the whole of the concert. The doors opened a little after 8 PM by my clock.

My father-in-law and I sat right behind the dividing wall that separates the dance floor from the main floor. I chose not to have a drink this time. I think that this made it easier to document what was happening during the event. My father-in-law told me stories of when he was in college out of the city. The big bands would come to play at this venue and he and his friends would come up to see these bands. They would stay up late and skip school the next day to recover from the event. That was funny to me because my view point is that of your spending how much to pay for your school and you are going to skip a day to see what ever band play music? I love music as much as most fanatics out there but I just don’t understand waiting money like that.

Just before the opening band came on stage I went to the merch table and bought the tour CD version of Veronica Falls Covers EP Vol. 2. I got number 76/100. The band wasn’t selling their own merch this time. I don’t know who the guy was that was selling at the merch table but he was not a musician for either of the bands. As Cold Showers started playing I saw James Hoare (Lead Guitarist for VF) and asked him to sign the paper slip case for the Covers EP I just bought. He was happy to do so. I asked him if the other members were going to come out. He told me that the rest of the group were going to come out to listen to the opening band play. Not thirty seconds later Patrick Doyle (Drummer for VF) walked out. I asked him to sign the case. He was just as happy to sign it. I asked him if he remembered me from last year. He gave me a, “Yeah, sure I do.” answer. Not that I don’t believe him. I then asked him why he stopped tweeting with his own account. He told me that he got kind of bored with it. I told him that he wrote some very funny stuff and missed the small conversations that we had. It was really a couple of one liners shared between us here and there, but still good stuff. I caught Roxanne Clifford (Lead singer for VF) as she was walking in from The Depot. She was totally fixed on getting in to see Cold Showers. I had to put my arms out in a friendly gesture to get her attention. I held her drink as she signed the case for me. I did not want to keep her from her mission as she seemed to want to get to a specific spot in the club. I caught Marion Herbain (Bassist for VF) a little bit after Roxanne came in. She was just as happy to sign something for a fan. So, just like last year, I got the band to sign the CD version of their new covers EP.

After getting all of Veronica Falls signatures I made my way back to my seat to watch the rest of the Cold Showers set. As I was listening to this band play it occurred to me that they have a sound that is similar to two UK bands that I really like. I heard sounds that reminded me of Joy Division. I also heard sounds that remind me of The Smiths. The drummer for the band actually used the core drum kit for Veronica falls. It has to be very annoying to lug around two kits and the stage set up for the venue is so small that they probably could only get the one drum kit up on stage anyway. The guitarist for this band played a cream colored Mosrite guitar. This is one of my favorite sounding electric guitars. The ventures and Man or Astro-Man? play this guitar. It has a very unique sound that I really like. The bassist was also the lead singer for the band. He had a deep voice like Morrissey (The Smiths) or Ian Curtis (Joy Division).  I am not sure what he was playing for a bass but it looked something like a Fender P-bass. They also had a keyboardist. He made some interesting noises but was basically there to fill in the holes. This was a good set but I have enough music from the originators that I don’t think that I will be hunting their music down. Although, I would for sure recommend them to friends, they are a good group, just not for me.

There was a bit of a change over before Veronica Falls took the stage. They opened the set with the opening track to the new album, Tell Me. I still like the fact that they can play the songs on their album the way that they sound on the album. I also thought that they did an amazing job with the feedback on the track My Heart Beats. I thought that they would get it close but the track, as they played it, was absolutely perfection, just like on the album. I did not think that there was much change in their style from one year ago other than the group seemed to have more fun on stage than they did last year. Last year was their first tour and they seemed a bit shy. This year they were dancing and swaying to their own music as they played and they seemed to work with the crowd and have fun with it. At one point Roxanne missed a chord in one of the songs and laughed at her misstep on the mic but then continued right along with the rest of the song.

The set was a good mix of tracks from the first album and from the new sophomore album. I was a bit disappointed that they did not play any super deep cuts. I am a big fan and the unheard tracks are usually not played as much. I would have been super excited if they had played Back Page though. That is one of my favorite songs but it is also like the super secret B-side too. All in all it was a great concert and I am glad that I didn’t have to miss out on it. I will go and see them every time they come to the twin cities! Thanks to Cold Showers for putting on such a great set. Also, to Veronica Falls for signing my copy of the Six Covers EP Vol. 2 and for coming to the twin cities a second time. Thanks to First Ave/7^th Street Entry for the space and time. Come back soon and keep putting out more music. I will keep buying it!

Veronica Falls set list:

Tell Me

My Heart Beats

Beachy Head

Broken Toy

Waiting For Something To Happen

Bad Feeling

Found Love In A Graveyard

If You Still Want Me

Burry Me Alive

Wedding Day

Teenage

Come On Over

Encore:

Right Side Of My Brain

Starry Eyes (Roky Erickson cover)

If you want to see a different point of view you can read this review.