Girl at the Rock Shows

Sunday night’s show was one of those “I’m here for that one song” type shows for me. You know the kind. You hear one song that instantly gets stuck in your head. You wake up daily with a portion of the song repeating in your mind and you just can’t shake it so you decide to check out the band as a whole. Most people would just sit down and listen to said band at home but not me, I go out and see them live. That’s, in a nutshell, how I ended up at The 7th Street Entry on Sunday night but it ended up turning into much more than “just that one song”.

Being a chilly Sunday night here in Minneapolis, I wasn’t expecting much crowd-wise from this show so was a bit confused and shocked as I walked into the intimate venue to find a full house. I may have not known what I was getting into but it was clear as soon as opening act Olive Klug took the stage that I was the only one unprepared for this show. The excited conversations happening around me quickly turned into a deafening applause for Olive which instantly seized as she took the microphone and leapt into her set.

For being only 25 years old, Olive is clearly wise beyond her years. Her folksy songs spoke of relatable trials and tribulations that we all go through and she did it with a raw emotion that truly moved me in a way I wasn’t expecting. I really can not understate the rawness of her performance. She wasn’t trying to be anyone other than herself and that charm came through loud and clear throughout her half-hour opening set. From moments that she had the audience roaring with laughter to moments where even I was damn near moved to tears by her all-too-real lyrics, her performance was dynamic but perfectly understated. Sure, she knew what she was doing as she played through her songs but there was something so informal about the performance. From teaching the audience some of her song then stating that we would all probably forget those lines of words by the time they hit in the song so just sing whatever you want to the almost awkward faces she would make while holding some of the longer notes in her set, there was just something real about Olive that made her more than a musician on stage– it made her feel like a friend.

Olive explained that she had been to the Twin Cities about a month ago and, on that visit, had decided that she wanted to move here. She admitted that the fact that it was still snowing on Sunday maybe has her rethinking that but she did mention she is planning to return in the fall. I will absolutely be there with tissues in hand ready to feel all the feels that Olive so effortlessly made me face on Sunday night.

Olive was great and there were definitely people in attendance on Sunday that were solely there to see her but, after a quick shift, the excitement I had felt when I walked into the venue at the beginning of the night returned as Daisy the Great took the stage. Hailing from Brooklyn, Daisy the Great may have hit it big with their remake of their own song “The Record Player Song” that came out in August of 2021 and featured AJR in it but this band has been around for much longer than that. Daisy The Great came to fruition in 2016 and have release two full lengths and two EPs since then. Although to me they were “that one band that play that one song that I can’t shake from my head”, they were so much more than that to those in the audience and that made for an absolutely stellar set.

At the core, Daisy the Great is a pop band but that doesn’t feel right to say that and leave it. There are so many elements that this group has intertwined into their sound including folk, indie hip-hop, alternative rock.. the list goes on and on… but all of those things make this group a stand out act. Beyond their distinct sound is the connection between vocalists Kelley Nicole Dugan and Mina Walker. Watching these two women interact on stage was absolutely a highlight for me. They truly came off as best friends as they powered through the nearly twenty-song set. From moments where they had synchronized dance moves to moments where the audience would say something to make one of them laugh which would turn into a laughing fit between the both of them, it was just so heartwarming to see such a friendship in the spotlight.

Although my eyes were glued to Kelley and Mina throughout the set, Daisy the Great’s sound would have been nothing without the amazing band behind them. Honestly, it was massive for a pop band. Four other members joined the two on stage and each of those members brought a special sauce to the night and to the music. I’m not sure what I was expecting from Daisy the Great but this full sound and huge band was not what I had in mind knowing the one song I knew from them. The power that these four other members brought to the stage was undeniable but seeing Kelley and Mina perform a song as just a duo yet still having an undeniable sense of power behind the performance was all I needed to see and hear to know that Daisy the Great is definitely more than just “that one band with that one song”.

Of course, for me, hearing “The Record Player Song” was the cherry on top to my night but I really walked away with a love for this band that I was expecting to. It’s nothing against them but I had honestly chalked them up to just another pop band that would be nothing more than a flash in the pan with their catchy single. After witnessing their magic live, I can honestly say that I expect huge things from this group and I can’t wait to be able to brag about that one time I saw them in a super intimate venue right before they blew up and took over the world.

Line Up:

Olive Klug

Daisy the Great

Venue: 7th Street Entry

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Sausage Fest Meter: 3 out of 10

Average Age of the Crowd: 19

Crowd Surfers: 0

Stage Divers: 0

Mosh-Ability: 1 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me: $0

Spotted Flying Through the Air: Nothing

Pukers: None Spotted

Idiots Taken Out By Security: 0

How Irritated I Was With Audience: 1 out of 10

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember):

Olive Klug – 0

Daisy the Great – 0

Celebrity Sightings: None

Overall Score: 8 out of 10

Show on Deck: The Band of Heathens / Luke Callen

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