Let Me Hold Both Your Hands In The Holes Of My Sweater

When was the last time you stood outside all day waiting to get into a concert? I honestly don’t remember mine. Maybe it was when I saw Good Charlotte for the first time at First Avenue back in 2016. Or maybe it was the free Jonas Brothers show in 2019. Regardless, it doesn’t happen often for me, and I sometimes miss that feeling of pure excitement and adrenaline. People don’t line up for hours for every show, but they absolutely did on Thursday night, The Neighborhood at The Armory in downtown Minneapolis. I didn’t get there early enough to see the line and can’t tell you what time people started lining up in the cold air, but the piles of discarded blankets, chairs, and plastic ponchos (since it was raining almost all day) by the front doors of this massive venue were insane. It brought a sense of excitement to my heart. Maybe I was at this show to hear that one song from that one band, but to many other people, this was the show of a lifetime, and they were not about to let anything stop them from enjoying every second of it.

noise dept. Got the Thursday night show started. At first glance, this act is just a human behind a table consisting of a computer and surely other electronic doodads. Truthfully, not my favorite kind of act, but there’s something different about noise dept. Although the quick opening set was primarily heavy, industrial-style beats being pushed through the speakers, there were moments when the human behind the table would sing. These are the moments that really dazzled me when it came to this opening set. Their voice was smooth and oh so very emotive, and I love the way that the tenderness of these moments seemed to clash with the more electronic style of the beat in such a contrasting but beautiful way. Honestly, there wasn’t much to see here, but it quickly became clear that noise dept. It’s the kind of act that you feel, not just watch, and, with that in mind, I have no doubt saying that they killed it and definitely got the night started off right.

Up next was Neggy Gemmy (formerly Negative Gemini). I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t understand Neggy Gemmy’s music or what was happening. To be honest, I kind of hated what this set was but I’m not going to be a brat here. Neggy Gemmy has a name and, although I may not understand why, I give her and her two bandmates props for getting up on this massive stage and doing their thing. The massive stage may have been the downfall for me. I felt like this trio got swallowed up by the space. Don’t get me wrong, the two mobile performers (one was stuck behind a turntable so they couldn’t move much) did their best to move around and get the audience going but they just felt so small and almost amateur when compared to the length and height of the giant LED screen concealing the back of the stage.

Unfortunately, the music didn’t save this set for me. It was a very California-styled electro-pop. It had this almost 90s nostalgia attached to it (which I did enjoy), but with a softness that I wish had been a bit more edgy to really catch my attention. Neggy Gemmy stalked the front of the stage while softly singing to the audience. Although I didn’t get it, the rest of the audience clearly did, and the first few rows (which is what I could see from the photo pit) were eating up every word and phrase in such an electrified way. Truthfully, I think that Neggy Gemmy is one of those acts that is just a bit too young for me. I’ve read up on her, and a lot of the material I’ve seen talks about the emotion that she puts into her music, but I just didn’t feel it on Thursday night. I blame my age and, unfortunately, there’s nothing that Neggy Gemmy could have done to change that.

I feel bad calling headlining act The Neighbourhood a one-hit wonder, but, for me, and many of my friends that I’ve talked to about this show, that’s exactly what they are. Their 2013 single “Sweater Weather” hit the charts and skyrocketed off into the stratosphere, but I feel like that was the only thing I ever really heard from this band. Clearly, I was not paying attention, but good thing the thousands of people in attendance were there to school me and help me see that this band is so much more than just a one-hit wonder.

The Neighbourhood’s set wasn’t just a concert; it felt like a full-blown experience. They didn’t just power through their massive twenty-three song set; they took their time with it, splitting the show into three acts, each with a distinct and beautiful vibe. I’m not going to ruin it all because, truly, this was an experience, but I really loved the attention to detail that this band gave to curating their show. I didn’t know all of the songs. Truthfully, I only knew the hit, and that wasn’t played until the final act of the night, but that didn’t stop me from falling into The Neighbourhood’s world in an almost dramatic way. The attention to detail wasn’t just in the set curation, it was in the songs themselves. This band didn’t hold back and made sure every element of their sound was not only performed live, but could be seen.

Taking photos from a photo pit sometimes makes me feel guilty. The photo pit is that sliver of emptiness that typically sits right in between where the stage ends and the audience begins. It’s a place where I never thought I would be, but now I call my home. I love being up there and know that this vantage point to a concert is one that not many people get to see. That being said, there are times when I feel like an imposter. Thursday night was one of those nights. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited for this show and instantly fell head over heels in love with this band that I knew very little about, but I felt like I was taking something away from the ecstatic fans in the front row. I know I wasn’t, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit bad that, unlike them, I wasn’t absolutely losing my mind and screaming along to every word like my life depended on it. That being said, being able to see that and be able to turn my head from that chaos to the cool, calm, and collected energy that was radiating from the stage really added a special something to my experience at this show.