Sometimes I Think All I’m Ever Doing Is Trying To Convince Myself I’m Alive

My friend and fellow photographer, who was also at the show on Monday night at the 7th Street Entry, put it best: “I have the crabbies today.” It’s as simple as that. I had the crabbies. It wasn’t a bad day or anything like that, but after getting home and getting a letter from my HOA that really set me off (it’s a long story, but long story short, defund the HOA), the crabbies were real, and part of me wishes I was anywhere other than stuck in a packed venue. At the same time, I knew this was right where I was supposed to be. I needed live music to take me away from the drama at home and needed to get myself out of my own head in a way that only live music can do.

It has been just about a year since I’ve seen local rockers Dad Bod, so I was thrilled to see that they were the first band of the night. They took the intimate stage promptly at 7:30 PM and instantly whisked me away from everything. Dad Bod isn’t the most upbeat band. Honestly, most of their songs are slow and sad, but there’s an energy that radiates from this band on stage that seems to amp everything up to the perfect level. Joined by Emily Schoonover (Bugsy) on guitar, if you had shown up to this show not knowing what to expect or having never heard of Dad Bod before, I have no problem assuming that you fell deep into their world within the first song.

As mentioned, the music of Dad Bod isn’t the most uplifting, yet something about their set is. Even the band knows that. At one point during an instrumental break in one of the tracks, vocalist Callie Marino jumped off the stage and joined the young audience that was bopping around to the sounds. You could see Callie participating in selfies and just getting lost in the bopping around. Although such a small moment during Dad Bod’s set, it was one that made my heart flutter. After spending the instrumental break in the audience and then taking the stage again to wrap up the set, Callie just said, “Aren’t they great?!” And Callie was right. This entire band is really great. They are talented and have a story to tell not just through the words of their songs, but also through their music. Callie admitted that this was a rare performance for them. Dad Bad is taking some time off to go into “album mode,” as Callie put it, but they just couldn’t resist the chance to open for Daisy the Great. Maybe it was a fluke, maybe it was just a chance, whatever it was, I’m so excited that I got to see Dad Bod during a summer when the chances of seeing them were slim to none, and I am just so excited to see what album mode brings to the world.

Daisy the Great, the headliners of Monday night’s show, are currently on tour with Tash Sultana. Unfortunately, that tour is not coming to Minneapolis. Daisy the Great took matters into their own hands and scheduled this Sunday night as a supplemental kind of show to the tour. Although I would have loved to see them open for Tash Sultana, I was thankful that Daisy the Great decided to fill their off time with more intimate shows like this one.

The last time I saw Daisy the Great was back in April 2023 at this same venue. I don’t remember much from that show, but I do remember that it was a full band, so I was a bit surprised when Daisy the Great showed up as just a duo on Monday night. Truthfully, after digging into the band a bit more this morning, it makes sense. Daisy the Great isn’t really a band. It’s a duo consisting of Kelly Dugan and Mina Walker. Although I’ll always be partial to a full band sound rather than something more acoustic-based, it’s Kelly and Mina’s vocals that have made Daisy the Great a stand-out since 2016 and made their debut single, “The Record Player Song,” such a hit.

The way Kelly and Mina’s vocals swirl together is something to envy. They are completely harmonious, but at the same time, they have this way of creating a slight sense of tension with certain words and phrases. It’s a little Meg and Dia, a little Tegan and Sara, but I feel like those comparisons are just cop-outs because of what those groups are. Really, Daisy the Great is in a bit of a world all their own with their indie-pop sound that leans into something a bit more commercially pop at times and something a bit more tender and emotional at others.

I’ll be the first to admit that there isn’t much more to say about Daisy the Great’s set on Monday. It was lovely, it truly was, but there just wasn’t much to see. Typically, this would be the downfall of a set for me. I want energy. I was jumping and doing high kicks. I want sweat dripping down my back, and I want to see other people getting into the music, but that wasn’t the vibe of Daisy the Great, nor should it have been. Daisy the Great was cool, calm, and collected, and, in turn, that was the energy of the room. It may not have been my normal cup of tea and may not have even been what I wanted, but it absolutely cured my case of the crabbies and set me up for success when it came to the rest of my Monday night and into Tuesday morning.