Girl at the Rock Shows

Dang, it feels good to get back into shows. I find such a thrill in showing up at a venue without knowing what’s happening and ending up being blown away. That’s precisely what happened on Saturday night at Cloudland in South Minneapolis. Sure, I saw the descriptions of the bands and had seen the first band before, but beyond that, I was going in blind. All I knew was that the final band of the night was classified as “accordion punk” and, obviously, I was sold.

Local darling Butter Boys started the night just a hair after 8 PM. As mentioned, I’ve seen this group a few times before, but it has been a couple of months at this point, so I was excited to see what this band has been up to lately. They were up to their usual antics of giving the quickly growing audience their signature blend of pop sensibilities with a punk energy. There’s something about the vocals of this group that I really like. They are super easy to hear and understand, which you do not always get from a punk-leaning band. The syllables are exaggerated in this strange way that, as I sit here this morning, I fail to find the right words to describe, but they caught me on Saturday night just like they have all of the other times I’ve seen Butter Boys. There’s charm, there’s sass, there’s talent– really, Butter Boys has it all, and I really hope that, if you’re not hip to them already, you take a chance to catch them live soon!

Up next was a local band I had never heard of, Fierro. They took the stage with a sense of perfectly curated force and angst, giving the audience a powerful display of politically charged, fist-pumping anthems. Here’s the deal: I did not know that the Twin Cities had such a large Latin punk scene. I honestly don’t know if that’s even the right way to phrase it, but I’m in love with it, and it’s a scene that I hope to explore more. I loved how Fierro switched from English to Spanish throughout the set and had this energy about them that I had only ever seen online and in films. I know that sounds dramatic, and I’m probably just a blind idiot for not knowing that we had such a scene here in Minneapolis, but Fierro killed it on Saturday night and absolutely opened my eyes. Their music and their energy stoked a fire inside of me. It was a fire of rage and angst, and I loved how their sound gave me an outlet for that newfound feeling.

That theme continued into headlining act Ratas En Zelo’s set. Like Fierro, Ratas En Zelo is a politically leaning punk band. Their sound is intense, glamorously gritty, and definitely catches your attention. I thought for sure that it would be the lack of a guitar and the addition of an accordion that would catch my ears, but, really, it was the group’s overall sound and their endless amount of fire. Sure, I may not have been able to understand all of the words throughout their set as this all-woman group sang almost all of their songs in Spanish, but I understood the emotion they were giving with each song, and it was enough power to nearly knock me on my butt.

I mentioned that Ratas En Zelo was glamorously gritty, and I feel the need to expand on that a wee bit just because it’s such a juxtaposition. There was something elegant about the way these ladies powered through their set with such a sense of care, but, at the same time, it was all sweat and grit. They didn’t hold back from getting the audience moving or moving themselves, creating a flurry of activity throughout the room, but, even with that happening, their powerful anthems stayed at the forefront of the night, and every note seemed to be performed with this undeniable sense of care. This all created a set that was so easy to get lost in, and when it was done far too early, it left me wanting so much more of not only the group’s sound but also their energy. Ratas En Zelo’s set was one of those sets where, when I got home, I was not ready just to pass out. I was energized, fired up, and in love.

As a photographer, I am constantly aware of my surroundings at shows, especially when it’s an intimate show like Cloudland, where there isn’t a designated photo pit. This is because you never quite know when a foot or a limb may be flying your way as it extends out of the range of the pit. It’s been a hot minute since I shot a show like this where there was a pit that was dangerously close to where I was standing, but that’s exactly what happened during Ratas En Zelo’s set. At first, I was nervous and thought about pulling back and just settling for pictures shot from the back of the room in order to save my camera. That’s when I noticed what was happening. Everyone who was in the pit was making sure not to get too close to my spot against the wall. Maybe I’m being dramatic, and it was just how the small pit was forming, but I felt like people were watching out for me and another photographer who was there. I may have been a stranger to these bands, to this scene, and to the majority of the crowd, but they were looking out for me, and, at that moment, I no longer felt like a stranger.

Line Up:

Butter Boys

Fierro

Ratas En Zelo

Venue: Cloudland

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 26

Crowd Surfers- 1

Stage Divers- 0

Mosh-ability- 7 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- $0

Broken Bones- None Spotted

Spotted Flying Through The Air- 1 Body

Fights- None Witnessed

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 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)-

Butter Boys – 2

Fierro – 0

Ratas En Zelo – 0

Celebrity Sightings – None

Overall Score – 8.7 out of 10

Show on Deck — Clutch / Rival Sons / Blackstone Cherry

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