Girl at the Rock Shows

The holiday season is upon us, and although it can be absolutely lovely, it can also be extremely stressful. From short work weeks to dealing with family, it can often become a bit much, so now is the time of year that we all really need to check in on our mental health. Are you doing okay? Are you feeling more stressed than usual? Maybe stressed by work, strapped for cash, just stressed in general? If so, I hope you have a night like I did on Monday and find a concert that you can get fully and wholly lost in.

I had never been to The Southern Theater before Monday night. I have driven by it a million times, but Monday night was my first time stepping foot into this gorgeous theater. Built in 1910 and situated in Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, this venue is unassuming. A fairly plain building with a small marquee, but when you step foot in this theater, you realize just how much beauty is behind that simple facade. Past the small, no-frills kind of bar (which had super reasonable prices) is a barebones kind of theater. Although I definitely missed being in this place during its heyday, there’s something iconic about it. Exposed brick walls with cozy plush seats and an absolutely gorgeous illuminated arch towards the back of the stage, I was instantly enamored with the charm of this theater. I like how this theater has clearly been renovated but not changed. There’s something almost musty about it, old school and almost crumbling in a way, but, at the same time, it shows the tenderness of this venue and the intimacy that it can bring to a show. There is no floor, just a stage and then a steep incline of seats, meaning you feel like you are on top of the performance but also part of it. This really added something special to Monday night’s concert.

Kicking things off at this show was silver or lead. I didn’t know anything about this duo when walking into this show, other than the fact that Mark (one half of the duo and the one seemingly running the show) was the one who invited me out and was quick to introduce himself (which just added to the charm and intimacy of this show and venue), but I was surprised to see a familiar drumset placed on stage. It was the drum kit of the local pop-punk band Linus. I could feel myself getting excited, but I also tried to keep it in check. Although I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into with his show, I knew it was safe to assume that this wasn’t going to be a pop-punk night, and I was right. silver or lead is made up of Mark Ruark on guitar and Galen Higgins on drums. Galen is also the drummer for Linus —now the drum set made sense. Sure, that drumset looked familiar to me, but what happened on it was utterly foreign. Sonically, I would place silver or lead somewhere between an atmospheric post-rock sound and a noise-inspired vibe. There wasn’t really a discernible beat to much of what they did during their thirty-minute set, yet there was a structured feeling to it.

I’ve done the noise thing before and, as you may remember, it left me completely and utterly confused but also absolutely captivated. I keep dipping my toes back into this scene, hoping that it will make sense or that I will finally have an a-ha moment where I understand what’s happening. I can say, with certainty, that I didn’t get that moment as silver or lead played through their thirty-minute song (because that’s how these shows work– each set is a song– wait, is it even a song? I think someone I met from this scene told me it was a “piece”– whatever, you get it). That being said, I loved the use of a traditional drumset and guitar. Although they were making foreign-to-me noises, there was something almost inviting about seeing these traditional instruments being used in a completely untraditional way. Sure, this was already a weird night full of “weird noise shit,” as Mark put it, but I was already captivated by everything happening around me.

Following silver or lead was Illinois Department of Sound from, you guessed it, Illinois. This duo is made up of markobarloco and Joe Wallace. Although there were similarities between silver or lead and IDOS, such as they were both duos and both had a “Mark” in them, everything seemed to change when this duo took the stage. The sounds they were making leaned into something a bit more obscure and drone-like at times. It was another set spent trying to find a beat that I’m not convinced was ever there, and getting lost in soundscapes that felt as comforting as they did otherworldly. I won’t sit here and try to explain the music because, honestly, I didn’t understand, and, on top of that, I just don’t know the right words and phrases to use here, but there was more to this set. I noticed three crumpled-up pieces of paper on the ground, and at one point, markobarloco (who was behind the guitar, an entire table of pedals, vocals, and some computers and tablets) walked in front of the table full of pedals and grabbed the pieces of paper one by one. He would unravel them, read them, then throw them back down on the floor. After picking each one up, he went back to the middle piece of paper, unraveled it again, and then placed it on the table of pedals. I don’t know what was on this paper, and I don’t know why this struck me so much, but there was something about this moment that spoke to me. Maybe those papers were different routes that the sound could go. Maybe they were just positive affirmations. Maybe they were blank. Who knows. All I know is that it added a level of mystery and intrigue that hooked me.

After a short break, both acts took the stage for a collaborative set. Although it was more of the same– noises and patterns that didn’t quite make sense to me– there was one moment where all four men on stage fell into a groove, and I was captivated. I would get these little snippets of familiar riffs, or a certain tone would remind me of a particular act or song. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any notes on these. Although I had the thought of grabbing my phone and starting to jot down some notes, I felt almost paralyzed by the sounds I was hearing. It was as if I couldn’t move. The music had me stuck, and I realized how dramatic this all sounds, but I think this was finally my a-ha moment when it comes to noise.

Not all noise is for everyone, but there’s something for everyone in noise if you listen to it correctly. How do you do that? You let go. You take every thought in your head, every stressor in your life, and every feeling in your heart, and you throw them out the window. You replace that with the noise. You let the noise drown everything else out because, in that moment, that noise is all that matters, and although it may feel and sound chaotic at times, it will do wonders for your mental health. Trust me on this.

Line Up:

silver or lead

Illinois Department of Sound

Venue: The Southern Theater

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Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 39

Crowd Surfers – None

Stage Divers- 0

Dance-ability- 0 out of 10

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

Broken Bones- None Noticed

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None

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)-

silver or lead – 0

Illinois Department of Sound – 0

Overall Score –7.8 out of 10

Show on Deck — Phantom of the Opera

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