Girl at the Rock Shows

I feel like I’ve been slacking on shows this year. It’s been a weird year, and it just hasn’t been my priority, what with everything else happening here in the Twin Cities. That being said, I feel like the shows I’ve been going to have meant the world to me, and Saturday night at a packed Turf Club in Saint Paul was no different.

I was super familiar with two of the three acts that performed on Saturday night, but I knew nothing about the opening act, Adeem the Artist. That being said, I instantly felt a connection with this performer. They were raw and vulnerable on stage, but added a sense of humor that I instantly related to. It was half self-deprecating, half self-aware, and it was beyond perfect. Born Adeem Maria Bingham, this North Carolina-born artist was a bit late to the party on Saturday night, but they had an excuse. They had found a small cannabis tea shop next door, which was a whole story in itself, full of humor and charm. Unfortunately, the delay in them hitting the stage made way for a shorter than planned set but Adeem the Artist packed it in.Musically, Adeem’s sound fits the alt-country mold of the night very well. It was rootsy and folksy, but there was this edge to their music that matched the DIY-punk feeling of this performer. There were moments throughout Adeem’s set when I wanted to dance, quickly followed by moments when I wanted to cry, but just when I was about to get super emotional, Adeem would add a spark of humor that left me with some of the heartiest laughs. To say Adeem The Artist’s set was a rollercoaster ride would be an understatement, but I loved every second of it and was pretty bummed when the ride ended.

Thankfully, William Elliott Whitmore was there to pick it back up and get me back on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. William Elliott Whitmore and I go way back. I know I’ve talked about my history with this insanely amazing musician before, so I’ll keep it brief, but I remember slinging his albums when I worked at a couple of small record shops in Des Moines, Iowa, growing up. Back then, I kind of wrote him off. His music wasn’t for me, but at the same time, I really didn’t take the time to appreciate it. He was classified under country, and, back then, if it wasn’t emo or metal, I wasn’t touching it. Fast forward to now, and William Elliott Whitmore is easily one of my favorite vocalists and lyricists of all time.

I may be a city girl now, but growing up in Iowa and going to a school that was a bit more country than city, I feel like I find a sense of home in Williams Sound. He sings a lot about growing up on his family farm in Iowa, and although I definitely didn’t live on a farm, I feel like hearing him sing about the slow pace of Iowa always helps me get over my random humps of homesickness. Add in William’s voice, which is deep, dark, and just absolutely stunning, and you are left with a sound that sinks right into my core every time and often leaves me an emotional wreck. Saturday was no different, but there was something almost celebratory about his set. He talked about how when the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti took place, he was on the West Coast. At every show he performed over there, he would inevitably hear someone praising the Twin Cities for the way we were all standing up to the issue. He went on to talk about how the Twin Cities are one of his favorite places and, more specifically, that The Turf Club is one of his favorite places to play because, as he put it, “it’s a real place.” It’s hard to really expand on that, but if you get it, you get it, and I feel like all of these comments praising the Twin Cities in general and the Turf Club specifically just gave William Elliott Whitmore’s set this extra spark of love and tenderness that was just amplified by the beautiful music he was performing.

Closing out the packed Saturday night show was the one and only Dave Hause & the Mermaid. This is not the first time I’ve seen this band. It’s not the first time I’ve written about this band. It’s not the first time I’ve been so moved by this band, and it’s surely not the last for any of those things, so please forgive me as I gush over my love for Dave Hause and this band.

Dave Hause has done it all. He’s done the solo singer-songwriter thing, he’s done the punk and hardcore thing with his bands The Loved Ones and The Falcons. No matter what form Dave Hause comes in, he’s one of those performers that you just instantly fall in love with. From the charm to the talent, there’s something for everyone when it comes to Dave Hause, and I love the fact that you can walk into one of his sets not knowing a damn thing but, within the first song, feel like this is the music you have been listening to your whole life. Stylistically, Dave Hause still absolutely fit with the more folksy beginning of the night that we got from both Adeem the Artist and William Elliott Whitmore, but he brought more of a rockin’ energy to the night with the help of his band, The Mermaid. This is part of his genius. Although this was full band and absolutely worthy of a small pit of sorts, there was something so intimate and vulnerable about all of the songs they performed. Each of the eighteen tracks (which included a cover of “Jane,” originally a Loved Ones song) hit like a knife to the heart, but in a beautiful and welcome way (if that makes any sense).

You could have taken many different paths when it came to how you enjoyed this show on Saturday night. You could have gotten all cozy with the intimacy of seeing these three acts pour their hearts out on stage, or you could have gotten lost in the humor and smiles that cast such a joyous haze over the packed venue. You could have latched onto the slight feeling of angst that slid into the night subtly, but seemed to come to a head as Dave Hause & The Mermaid performed “Dirty Fucker” towards the end of the night, or you could have gotten lost in the almost meditative state that the sheer musicianship of the night brought. A million different paths to take, but all of those paths led to the same place– a heck of an amazing night of amazing music.

Line Up:

Adeem the Artist

William Elliott Whitmore

Dave Hause and the Mermaid

Venue: Turf Club

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 42

Crowd Surfers- 0

Stage Divers- 0

Mosh-ability- 1 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

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

Adeem the Artist- 0

William Elliott Whitmore – 3

Dave Hause and the Mermaid – 7

Show on Deck —TBD

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