Girl at the Rock Shows

My ears are still ringing from the show on Tuesday night. It was a good show, don’t get me wrong, but it was also a loud show. Probably the loudest show I’ve been to in a hot minute. It added a sense of ferocious energy to the usually quaint Turf Club in Saint Paul, and I loved that. Typically, when I walk into this venue, all is cool, calm, and collected, but the booming sound of music that radiated throughout the building changed that, and it was a welcome surprise.

I promised you more thoughts on MURF in this review, but the fact is, I’m not sure I have any more. I just saw MURF open up the Gustaf show on Sunday, but seeing them as the opening on Tuesday didn’t spoil my love for them. This is a quirky band with such an explosive stage presence that I could literally see them night after night and not get bored. Not knowing their specific songs or anything like that, I can’t tell you if they played the same songs on Tuesday as they had on Sunday, but I can tell you that watching them on Tuesday filled me with the same sense of fire and passion. It’s this kind of fire that makes them the perfect opening act for any show. As they took the stage and powered through their opening set, I forgot about the stress of my day. I forgot about the mess I had left in my kitchen or the fact that I didn’t get nearly as much done on Tuesday as I had planned. All I had in my mind was MURF and their insane talent and energy. What a way to kick off a Tuesday night show.

Following MURF was a ridiculously short set from Citric Dummies. This group is local, but this was the first time I had ever seen their name. That being said, I hope it’s not the last. Like MURF, Citric Dummies brought an insane amount of energy to the room. Although it wasn’t in the same almost theatrical form, this second band had me hooked by their loud sound and interesting banter. I only say interesting because of the vocalist’s attitude and the way it seemed to affect the drummer. I’m not sure if it was part of a schtick or not but the singer was berating the audience a bit during the set. Eventually, the drummer spoke up and told him to lay off a bit. Again, I couldn’t tell if this was part of their schtick or not, but I know it definitely caught my attention and made me love the attitude of this band.

Stylistically, Citric Dummies can most easily be classified as punk, but I feel like that doesn’t do this band justice. There were moments of a slight hardcore influence, and others had a more post-punk feeling to them. It didn’t matter what vibe I was getting from this band; the trio blasted me with their sound throughout their uber-quick set, and I felt myself falling deeper and deeper in love with them with every passing track. I wasn’t watching the clock, but I reckon that the band was only on stage for about twenty minutes. Although this was very in line with their punk vibe, it just felt a bit weird with the way they abruptly left the stage. Maybe it is part of their schtick; perhaps that’s just all they had time for. I don’t know, but I do know I hope to see this band again soon.

By the time the headliner took the stage, the audience had filled up and I was intrigued as to why. I’ll be honest: I had never heard of headlining act Cherubs before and, with the slow start of the night, I felt like I may not be alone but, as the trio took the stage and, I realized just how much The Turf Club had filled up over the past hour or so, I couldn’t help but let intrigue get the best of me. I moved a bit closer to the stage and readied myself for whatever it was that brought all of these people out on a stormy Tuesday night.

Cherubs hails from Austin, Texas, and has been around since 1991. They had a twenty-year break from 1994 to 2014 but are back, and clearly, they are back with a vengeance. From their noise-induced punk music to their insane amount of energy yet also attention to detail when it comes to their live performances, I get it and started to wonder why they ever broke up in the first place. The loudness of the show honestly made it a bit hard to hear all of the individual moving parts of this band, but that seemed to be the point. Cherubs play loud music. It’s the type of music that, like the previous two acts, forces you to forget everything else. The mind-numbing thumping bass, ear-piercing glitter of the cymbals, and the ferocious strumming of the guitar are all that matters when Cherubs is playing, and, for a Tuesday night, I couldn’t have asked for anything else.

My Tuesday night could have gone all wrong. It was storming outside, which, although I love thunderstorms, made me want to just be at home curled up on the couch. I toughed that feeling out, only to get to The Turf Club and realize that I had left my batteries for my camera charging on my desk back home. This is something I have done in the past because I’m always a bit frantic trying to get out of the house. It always sets me off and leaves me with a pessimistic taste in my mouth, but something about the three bands that performed on Tuesday night made me forget all about it. Sure, I don’t have photos to share with you, and that’s a huge bummer, but for the first time in a hot minute, I was left with nothing more than the music, the company I was with, and the feeling of being at a live show. To say it was refreshing would be an understatement.

Line Up:

MURF

Citric Dummies

Cherubs

Venue: The Turf Club

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 46

Crowd Surfers- 0

Mosh-ability- 2 out of 10

Amount of Alcohol Spilled on Me- $3.02

Broken Bones- None

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None

Pukers- 0

Passed Out Kids- 0

Idiots Taken Out By Security- 0

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

MURF – 3

Citric Dummies– 0

Cherubs – 0

Celebrity Sightings – Ann of Mostly MN Music; Ryan of Unstable Shapes

Overall Score- 8 out of 10

Show on Deck- Field Trip / Joan of Profile / SED / Brother Means Ally

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