Girl at the Rock Shows

Energized and sweaty shows are absolutely some of my favorites. I love getting lost in an excited crowd and seeing how music can make you act when it hits you just right. At the same time, I love a chill and relaxed show, and that’s exactly what I needed on Thursday night. It’s not that this week has been rough or as trying as others, but I just needed a night to decompress and gather my thoughts before diving into what will surely be an insane weekend. I needed calm vibes to help me find my zen, and I needed a chance to get lost in music as much as I wanted to get lost in conversations with friends. Thursday night at The Turf Club gave me all of that and so much more, making it a chill but perfect night.

The stories behind local opening act Jesse Swan Thorson are wild. As his bio states, Jesse has done everything from “mining alpacas for wool and chickening out of bank robberies.” When those things failed, he turned to music. Okay, none of that is true (at least, I don’t think it is? Maybe it is. That’s the fun behind Jesse. Jesse is a familiar face in the scene. Not only will you see him at various shows around town on any given night, but you will also see him grace local stages in the many forms he can take. From punk to country, Jesse does it all, and last night he took the form of a sensitive singer-songwriter (or at least as sensitive as Jesse can get). Something I have always loved about Jesse is the grit that he brings to his music. My personal favorite form of Jesse is in The Slow Death- a gritty local punk band with an insane amount of energy. That’s not who I was seeing on Thursday night, but you kind of got the same kind of feeling.

Jesse’s voice for this solo set felt like a lullaby but sounded like a punk. I know that those two things are starkly different and have no business even being in the same sentence, but I think you’ll understand what I’m trying to say if you take a listen to this solo stuff. It’s soft and sensitive, just like any good indie singer-songwriter, but it still has that Jesse flare. It still has this subtle sense of grit and angst that comes through here and there. Maybe it comes through in certain words, maybe in certain lines of notes, or maybe just from Jesse being Jesse. That was the charm of the quick opening set on Thursday night. Sure, some of the songs absolutely pulled at your heartstrings and were clearly full of love and passion, but right after playing these slow, whiskey-sipping kinds of songs, Jesse was quick to pull a few jokes out. The way he balanced out the set between tender and rough was truly perfect and something only a talent like Jesse Swan Thorson could do.

As I mentioned, Jesse is no stranger to the local stages or scene. He’s honestly a pretty huge figure here, so it was no surprise that he had an army of fans ready to support him during this solo set. What was surprising was when Jesse would be singing a guitar —just his voice and guitar —and then you would hear a third voice come in. I started looking for some sort of looping station on stage or anything of the like, but quickly realized that this extra voice (and at the end of the night, voices) wasn’t coming from the stage; it was coming from the audience. This is nothing new —fans singing with bands —but there was something super special about it. Maybe it was the energy with which the audience was participating, or maybe it was the fact that, given Jesse’s sense of humor, I couldn’t help but wonder if these were plants that he paid off to make his set feel just a little extra special. Regardless, it added this undeniable sense of love and charm to an already lovely and charming set.

Jesse Swan Thorson was great on Thursday night and honestly probably could have played the entire night without a single complaint from the audience, but he was not the star of the show (sorry, Jesse). The star on Thursday night was Cory Branan, and, hot damn, was I excited to see this man live. His name may not be a household name, and his songs may not be ones that you instantly recognize, but, in the right scenes and spaces of the music world, Cory Branan is a treasured idol, and I was so excited to see him for the first time in forever.

Cory is not my normal kind of music, but there’s something about this man that I just can not get enough of. I was introduced to Cory’s talent through my obsession with Lucero (another band that, although my absolute favorite of all time, is way out of left field compared to what I typically listen to). I don’t remember if Cory played with Lucero or something like that, but I know I instantly loved how Cory had a slight hint of the grit that Lucero comes with, but seemed to focus a bit more on the tender side of things. That’s exactly what was in the spotlight on Thursday night. Sure, there’s grit, and there’s definitely a level of snark attached to some of his songs and definitely attached to some of the banter between songs, but what really shines while listening to Cory Branan is the heart that he puts into everything. Although a stunningly powerful vocalist, the words that Cory tends to use have the feeling of being oddly softspoken. It’s as if he’s trying to read his diary and all of the intimate feelings inside of his head while making sure that they come across as powerful rather than soft. It creates a super cool and intriguing dynamic that will keep you locked into Cory’s world for as long as he will allow.

As mentioned, there was a wee bit of snark between songs from Cory. I don’t mean bratty snark, I mean funny snark. Hearing him talk about his life was truly hilarious, but I think hearing him talk about his interactions and working with other musicians was what I really enjoyed. Each story was more epic than the last and really drove home the point of how legendary Cory really is, but my favorite story was his story about Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional. I don’t remember the song and don’t remember what the line of words were, but basically, Chris changed the lyrics ever so slightly in a way that only Chris could. As Cory said, that was the difference between him and Chris. Okay, you had to be there. It would also probably help if I could remember more details about this small story, but long story short, Cory is such a humble guy with such a personality. Sure, his music feels like oceans, and when you realize all of the people he has worked with, he feels nothing short of a superhero, but at the end of the day, he’s just Cory Branan, and if you have the time and the ears to lend, he will absolutely leave you stunned, starstruck, and in love.

Thursday night at The Turf Club was not an intense show. It was the kind of show where people stuck around their tables or the bar for the most part. There was no sense of urgency, no sense of stress, no sense of anything other than the beauty and power of live music. It was perfect.

Line Up:

Jesse Swan Thorson

Cory Branan

Venue: Turf Club

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 40

Crowd Surfers- 0

Stage Divers- 0

Mosh-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

Celebrity Sightings – Jared McCloud; Members of Whiskey Rock ‘n’ Roll Club MPLS; Members of Panel

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

Jesse Swan Thorson – 0 in this form

Cory Branan – 0 Documented but I know I’ve seen him before

Show on Deck —Dan Deacon / Material

Shameless Self Promotion:

Join My Patreon Here!

Buy Me a Coffee (Seriously!)

Check out my playlist HERE!