How Was The Show - Kid Dakota at The Turf Club

Filter by Type:
All
Local Live Music
National Live Music
Theatre
Festival
Filter by Year:
All Years
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002

HowWasTheShow Music Player (Beta):

This text will be replaced by the flash music player.

Please Visit Our Sponsors:

Kid Dakota CD Release Party at The Turf Club on 3/1/08

Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota - Photo by Alexa Jones

Kid Dakota’s release party for their new CD A Winner’s Shadow at The Turf Club was kicked off by a beautiful video of “Stars,” a powerhouse of a song from the Twin Cities band, and one of the new albums strongest tracks. Even the video elicited cheers from the audience, cheers which would be a frequent recurrence throughout the set that would follow. Kid Dakota vocalist and guitar player Darren Jackson commented later about the video that he and Ian Prince had had the easy part, as all they had had to do was show up and pretend to sing the song. Check out the video on YouTube here.

One of the best things about Kid Dakota releasing a new disc is it gives you the excuse (as if you need one) to go back and really listen to their back catalog again, each disc veritably required material in the canon of Minnesota music so far in the 21^st Century.

It was a little after midnight when the set itself began, kicked off by the complex rhythms of “Summer Cold” off So Pretty, the 2001 release that introduced me to the band. (You know that album by its cover, the infamous one featuring Darren Jackson with a bloodied face.)

As slower and darker songs graced the set, cheers arose even mid song showing just how much Minnesota loves this band and how anticipated this new album was. Other songs early in the set included “Crossin’ Fingers” also from So Pretty and the disturbing “Winterkill” from 2004’s classic The West is the Future. About this time I received a Twitter posting from music writer Jen Paulson who was watching the show from the other side of the room. Paulson wrote, “These Kid Dakota songs are sung like hymns.” It was aptly put, and I’d only add that those hymns often have a funereal or dirge-like air to them, while still somehow being uplifting in a strange way. (Twitter as a social networking tool, BTW has become handy for vicariously experiencing live music as it happens as people jot down their thoughts via SMS from the clubs, and it’s yet another way to share experiences with people who may even be in the same room as you.)

Ian Prince of Kid Dakota - Photo by Alexa Jones

It wasn’t until the fifth song that tracks from the new disc A Winner’s Shadow started to leak into the set, and the desolate, lonely street corner drug deal imagery of “Puffy Jackets” with its refrain of “When Will I be Free? / When will I stop torturing me?” sailed across the packed Turf. “Puffy Jackets” is one of a couple songs on the new album that use drug addiction, withdrawal and recovery as metaphors for seeking, healing and redemption. (Other songs in that vein include “Port Authority” and “Transfusion.”) Thought it's not a major theme, it's definitely there (as it was in songs like "10,000 Lakes" from The West Is The Future.)

Darren Jackson thanked openers Ice Palace then mentioned he and drummer Ian Prince would be joined on bass for a couple songs by Zac Sally, who played on Kid Dakota’s two previous releases. Those songs were the live version of “Stars” and the aforementioned “Port Authority.”

For “Transfusion,” “Long Odds”, “New York System” (the powerful opening track off the new disc) and “Chutes and Ladders” Jackson and Prince were joined instead by Brian Roessler (Fantastic Merlins, Electropolis) who plays double and electric bass on a couple tracks on the new disc.

It’s no overstatement to say this show had already blown a lot of people away already, but what was still yet to come was a tremendous two song encore that featured “Ivan” and “Pilgrim” from The West Is The Future with just Darren and Ian as a duo again. (With all due respect for the bass players, the duo arrangement is still my favorite way to experience Kid Dakota.)

“Pilgrim” brought the most massive sing-a-long of the night yet, and ironically perhaps, these words were an inspiring way to round out the evening:

Howdy there, pilgrim. You’re not transcendental

There’s nothing beyond you. There’s nothing to hope for.