By: David de Young
If you were looking for evidence that the Twin Cities music scene continued to thrive during the weeks that First Avenue was closed you needed look no further than the Turf Club Friday or Saturday night. Friday featured a packed show that started with loop-master Martin Dosh playing in media res as concert goers thronged around his one man band in the center of the Turf Club floor. Revolver Modele rocked the house in the second spot, and Kid Dakota and Cloud Cult drew many music fans that I don’t regularly see at shows making for a cramped and almost bizarre night.
Then on Saturday there was already a line out the door by 10 p.m and the club was only admitting guest listees to the sold out show. Fortunately I was on that list. I missed openers The Get Up Johns despite being instructed by KQ’s Dave Campbell to get there early enough to see them. (Campbell was more vehement than normal in telling me to get there early, and despite my own failure I stress that you should always try to follow Dave’s advice on where your musical ass should be at any given point.)
Normally I have a good reason for being late, i.e. seeing another good show somewhere else. I wish I could say that Saturday, but my ass was seated in the balcony of another packed venue as Pat McGee warmed up for Better than Ezra at the Fine Line.
Saturday night at the Turf The Ashtray hearts were back from an extended live show hiatus to play one of their traditionally down-tempo, borderline mournful sets. I guess they’d been away for too long judging from the fact that more than a couple people told me they wished they’d “pick it up a notch.” Uh, remember, that’s one of the things the Ashtray hearts don’t do and that’s one of the reasons we love them. The band is currently finishing mixing new material with Tom Herbers at Third Ear and will be recording several new songs over the coming weeks. The new record is set to be called Perfect Halves. Their next booked show is Saturday, January 14th with Kid Dakota at the Triple Rock.
The Bellwether lineup Saturday included Eric Luoma and Jimmy Peterson on guitars and vocals, and Chadwick Nelson and Aaron Lundholm of the Hang Ups on drums and bass, plus Brian O'Neil of Big Ditch Road on pedal-steel. They blasted into their headlining set around midnight with “Make Your Goodbyes” from 2001’s Home Late album. Jimmy Peterson joked, “We’re gonna play Hotel California, alright?” before following up the opener with "Don’t You Run" from 1998’s Turnstiles.
A request for "8th Street" (possibly Bellwether's best known song) was shouted out by the guy beside me, so I took my turn shouting out my own, for “I Thought That You Were Dead,” one of my favorites from the new disk. (This despite the fact that I’d already talked to Eric Luoma before the set to be told they probably would not play this song, a simple one-off traverse-picked guitar and harmonica ditty.)
“This Time” was next, the first song the band would play from their new album 7 & 6 out just this week on Rustbelt Records. The new album is one of the biggest alt-country downers (meant in the best possible way) since Big Ditch Road’s Ring and marks a bit of a departure for Bellwether in terms of overall mood. It may be their best, most mature album to date, so this song’s opening line “This time doesn’t seem like ours” comes off as a bit ironic.
One of the reasons Bellwether was so missed was that they pretty much had it all, impeccable musicianship, great songwriting, stellar stage presence, and a terribly charismatic front man in Eric Luoma. Why they didn’t make big it the first time around is anyone’s guess, despite a successful tour of Europe where they were accompanied by Dana Thompson and Robert McCreedy (check out the group photos featuring members of all three bands on Dana’s site here.
The slow, sad waltz “Lately” also from the new release was next. Then the band whipped out “South Dakota” from their self-titled 2000 release. (With 4 full length albums to choose from now, let’s hope Bellwether’s future live shows are as diverse a grab bag of material as this one was.)
Back to Home Late for “Baltimore,” and then back to the new album again for the mid-tempo country-rock “St. Helena.” As the song concluded, Luoma said “if you thought that was delicious, Jimmy’s got another one,” and the band was back to their self-titled release for “Second-Hand Love.”
Since howwastheshow is prone to notice details, it was at this point that I wondered where Luoma’s glasses had gone. (Eric Luoma is one of the top members of the cool rock star glasses club along with Ed Ackerson, Gary Louris and three fifths of First Prize Killers.)
Luoma and Peterson did what the set list called an “acoustic moment” mid set that included Home Late’s opening track “Dim Light,” “Crooked Heart” and the album’s title song. Through the packed crowd I realized Brian O’Neil was still on stage as well filling in the mix beautifully on pedal steel. “He’s good like that,” someone mentioned to me, meaning that O’Neil is good at being subtly essential to the mix without drawing attention to himself.
“It’s been a long time, but you’ll forgive us though, won’tcha?” Luoma asked the Turf Club crowd before heading into “Lake” from Home Late and another stand out down-tempo track from the new album, “Willing to Trade. “
Luoma did some thank you’s, including one to Dave Campbell who curates the Heartbreak & Harmony" showcases along with Free Election Records that this show was a part of. “He’s the one with the mustache,” Luoma said before heading into “Way Back Round,” The opening track from Turnstiles.
Through “Big City,” “Afterthoughts” and “Angeline” I noticed Luoma seemed to be having way to much fun to not keep doing this. Personally, I hope to be seeing a lot more of this band in the years to come, and I understand from Luoma that another new album is already in the works.
The band played a short encore which finished up with “Southern California.”
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: Bellwether, The Ashtray Hearts
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