Girl at the Rock Shows

One show just wasn’t enough for me on Monday night. Everything feels out of control, and I feel absolutely powerless. I’m not the only one. I know this. With today (Tuesday) being election day, I feel like we are all just holding our breath and just hoping that things go smoothly and some things start to change. Although we can all be hopeful, we can also suffer from severe anxiety and stress over the whole thing, which is where I found myself on Monday night. Sure, being at the First Avenue mainroom to see the legendary act The Damned was amazing, but my heart needed something a bit more. I needed a show that made me feel a bit more grounded, and that’s exactly what I got at First Avenue’s sister venue, The 7th Street Entry.

I may have walked into this show completely blind, other than having seen one of the three acts once before, but within the first few seconds of ARDO’s opening set, I knew I had made the right call and that this was a show my heart and soul needed. ARDO is a musical genius, a prodigy of sorts. That’s not what his bio says, but that’s what I felt as I watched him perform his set on Monday night. I’ll be the first to admit that his slightly ambient sound was a bit too calm for where my head was at first, but as he moved through his set and the various movements and moods that make up his distinct sound, I realized that this was exactly what I wanted. Complicated rhythms were matched with seemingly random notes from guitar or saxophone at any point in his set. At times, I couldn’t find a discernible beat; other times, I fell into ARDO’s self-produced groove. I spent part of ARDO’s set trying to understand what I was hearing, and other parts of the set floating on his notes. Long story short, this was a set I didn’t just see or hear; I felt it, and that theme stayed with me throughout my time at The 7th Street Entry on Monday night.

My introduction to The Swongos, the next band to grace the stage and the only local on the bill, was back in March of last year when they opened for Yuuf. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a lot from that show, but I remember having a really good, carefree time with The Swongos and falling head over heels in love with their quirky sound. What I don’t remember is an absolutely insane vibraphone player or having as much fun with them as I did on Monday night. Clearly, things have changed with this band over the past year and a half. They have added a member and seem to have really honed in on their sound, which, this time, hit me like a perfectly crafted wave of surf rock with rocks and pebbles made up of everything from pop to punk hidden within those waves. It’s an infectious sound and one that definitely got the audience moving to the beat. As a friend I ran into said, “I even moved my hips because that assignment was understood.” The Swongos create an atmosphere I think we all need a little more of in these crazy times. They don’t care what you do during their set, as long as you are enjoying it and escaping the darkness that plagues us when we step outside of spaces like this. Smiles spread around the venue, and the floor quickly turned into a chill but super cute dance floor of people moving however the music hit them. The Swongos didn’t say anything to encourage it; their music and aura did, and that’s what made them such a fun addition to Monday’s line-up.

Closing out Monday night’s show at the 7th Street Entry was Diles que no me maten. Don’t worry, I had to look up what that meant too, and it instantly broke my heart but also made me love this group a little bit more. Diles que no me maten translates to, “tell them not to kill me.” I’ll let that sink in for just a minute. Diles que no me maten is a band from Mexico City, and they are currently on an absolutely massive tour that has taken them all over the place. They have found themselves in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the day before the election, and their name translates to “tell them not to kill me.” Again, I’ll let that sink in a bit. Honestly, while watching them on Monday night, I couldn’t help but think about how brave this group of musicians is. It’s not easy to be any minority in the US right now, and here are these kids from Mexico, touring and just trying to spread some love and their music across the country, while the government is trying to disappear people just like them. It’s all so heavy. All the thoughts I had as they set up on stage broke my heart and, truthfully, I feared for them, knowing what might happen in the next couple of days. That’s when the music started.

Ambient and meditative but with a clash of jazzy shards of glass that poke up and stick you right where it hurts before someone comes and puts a warm bandage over your wounds. That’s what the music of Diles que no me maten sounded and felt like to me on Monday night. I know that’s a super random, seemingly hard-to-understand description, but take a listen to this group and try to tell me I’m wrong. Their sound is calm and definitely has this zen kind of quality to it, but there are moments where you really get to see the musicianship behind this band shine. Some points during their set had a groove and an almost jam-band quality to it, with the way the members seemed to be freely doing whatever they wanted to do, but other moments felt a bit more structured yet evoked such a strong sense of emotion from everyone in the room that it was hard to believe that it wasn’t all organic and improvised in a way. It was stunning and one of those things that my words will never do justice to, but that’s okay because this is a band that you can’t just sit at home and listen to. I mean, you can, because it’s gorgeous music and will definitely be the soundtrack of my day as I try to keep my cool while the world comes crumbling down around us with the election and all, but feeling this music changes things, and seeing the band members feel what they are creating is hands down exceptional.

Doing two shows in one night is a rough balance to pull off and, truthfully, when I got downtown to start my plan of attack on how I was going to accomplish the two shows in one night thing, I instantly regretted my decision but, much like a night of two shows takes balancing, my night of emotions needed some balanacing and I found that between the two shows I covered. Sure, seeing The Damned at the iconic First Avenue mainroom was great, but there was something so stunningly beautiful about experiencing Diles que no me maten that really stuck with me. This show felt as important as it did calming, and I truly wish Diles que no me maten the best on their future travels and hope they make the trek back up to the Twin Cities sooner rather than later.

Line Up:

ARDO

The Swongos

Diles que no me maten

Venue: 7th Street Entry

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 32

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

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 0

Celebrity Sightings – M.A.Y.

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

ARDO – 0

The Swongos – 1

Diles que no me maten – 0

Show on Deck – Basement / High Vis / Big Boy / Lowertown

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