Co-headliners Disappears and Weekend with opening act
Teenage Stranglers at The 7th
Street Entry in Minneapolis MN
on 9-7-2013.
I took my father-in-law to see this concert. I bought the
tickets on the day that they went on sale a month prior to the show. I had not
ever heard anything from Disappears or the opener, Teenage Strangler. I don’t
think that the show was sold out considering it was not as packed as the last
concert I had been to at The Entry that was sold out.
We showed up at the venue at a point where I thought we
would be late for the opening act. I realized that I was wrong when I could
hear The Smiths playing on the speakers at the front door. The show had not yet
started. I looked at my clock and saw that we still had about twenty minutes to
go. I could see that it was nearly empty inside as we walked in. We looked at
the merch table for a minute or two before we sat down. I brought with the
sleeve for the second single that they had released with Slumberland Records
for them to sign after their set. I saw that they were still selling that
single along with the album it is a part of. They were also selling CD copies
of the Red EP and copies of the latest album too. There were also two different
prints of t-shirts. There was a white one with the new album cover graphic and
a black one with the new Weekend logo. I kind of wanted the black t-shirt but I
didn’t bring any cash with me to get it. I knew that I already had all of the
music that they had on the table so I wasn’t really hurt that I didn’t get
anything. We took our seats, a pair of stools at the half wall dividing line
next to the stairs down to the dance floor and waited for the show to start.
The first band took the stage at about 9:10. The groups name
was Teenage Strangler as I read it from the record that they had at the merch
booth. I noticed that there were a lot of older folks around listening to the
music. I thought that was slightly odd as the concert was for a couple of noise
rock groups. As I listened to a few conversations, it is hard not to, I
realized that most of these people were friends or family of the group. I
thought that it was cute that all their friends and family were there to
support them. They are a two piece group that consisted of a male vocalist/guitarist
and a standup drummer (a guy too). The drums consisted of a big floor tom, a
snare drum and a cymbal. The guitarist had a tendency to play the same riff
with a different pedal each time during each of the songs they played. It made
for some confusing music. They obviously needed another guitarist to satisfy
his needs. I could tell he had desires for the group but couldn’t do it all
himself. I hope that he gets what he needs for the group sooner than later. His
vocals were good but, I think, needed to be more expressive, to keep my
attention. It seemed like most of the friends and family left after their set
was over. There was not many people that came in to refill those empty spaces
though.
At about 10:00 Weekend took the stage. I was actually hoping
that they would play last because that means that they could have done an
encore or had a longer set but they were on second, not that big of a deal
really. I wish that I had recorded this set. The songs that were played from
their first album sounded so much better live than they do on the record. I
actually started to but I wasn’t happy with when I had started to record so I
abandoned the recording for text notes instead. They had a smoke machine setup
with blue and green lighting. I made a really cool effect with the smoke on
stage considering the sound of the group it fit in really well.
There were four members in the band playing. There was a
drummer, a bassist, a guitarist and the vocalist/guitarist. There was some real
magic being made between this group that night. The set started off with the
guitarist playing the opening to Mirror. I always thought that there was a
keyboardist in the group somewhere that never got mentioned in the credits. I
was super surprised to find out that those amazing synth sounds were made by
the second guitarist on his guitar. It was absolutely beautiful! I know the
words to the song and sung along to it as it was played. It didn’t seem like
anyone else knew the words though. I also sang along with most of the second
song July but I don’t know all of the words for that song yet.
The first three songs that were played were also the first
three songs from the album in the same order. The next two songs were from the
previous EP called Red. I knew the fifth song, Hazel, well enough that I could
sing along to that as well. This was actually the song that got me into them.
In between a few of the songs they talked very little. They
did mention that this was the first time that they had been through the twin
cities. I didn’t think anything of it as we are not like New York or LA, the big hitters that will
make a band like this some serious money. I was happy that they had finally made
it out to play here though and would love it if they could keep coming out on
tours. I thought that they played a very solid set. Everything sounded as good
or better than what I had copies of at home. I think that the best songs that
were played were Mirror, Hazel and After Image. The song After Image actually
surprised me. It was a track that I had paid no mind to from their first album
but hearing it live gave it new life for me.
After they were done I ran up to the stage and took a look
at what they were using for equipment and talked to the guys for a couple of
minutes but tried to stay out of their way as they were getting their stuff off
the stage for the next set. I think that I was the only person running around
trying to get their signatures. I ran into the bassist first. I asked for his
signature and he gladly did so along with a quick story. He told me that he
wasn’t a part of the group for the End Times single that I had in my hands but
that he was the guy that did the remix for the B side track. I thought that was
kind of cool, relevant on both levels. I then found the lead singer working at
the merch table and got his signature. Later through the set of Disappears, the
second guitarist was at the merch table. I got his signature then. We waited
around quite a bit for the drummer to appear. I thought that he would have been
the easiest to find as he was wearing a black shirt with a skeleton graphic on
the front. I was wrong as he put on a jacket over the shirt after the set. This
made it a little bit more difficult to find him. I kept my eyes open though and
half way through the set of Disappears I found him standing in front of the
sound booth. I got him to sign it, shook his hand and said thanks for playing.
He was pleased as punch.
After getting all four of their signatures I was happy to
get out of there. I had decided that Disappears was not nearly as good as
Weekend after hearing some of their songs on the hunt for the signatures of
Weekend band members. It was about midnight when we got out of the venue. It
was probably the last song from Disappears too. I was also tired.
Both the Teenage Strangler and Disappears didn’t seem as
solid as Weekend did. It may have been that I know Weekends songs or it could
have been that the other two bands had not played as a group as long as or gelled as well as Weekend
has. Either way it was a great concert that I am glad that I went to see. I
even got my father-in-law interested in getting some releases from Weekend. I
will just have to point him over to Slumberland Records.
Thanks to The 7th Street Entry for having these three groups. Thanks also to the three groups for being here. Thanks especially to Weekend for making my night so magical! Come back again soon, I will be there if you will.
Weekend Set list:
Mirror
July
Oubliette
Sweet Sixteen
Hazel
End Times
After Image
Celebration, FL
Youth Haunts
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