How Was The Show - Cloud Cult, The Forms at First Avenue

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Cloud Cult CD Release Show with The Forms at First Avenue on 4/26/08

Cloud Cult - Photo by Stacy Schwartz

In front of a packed to the gills First Avenue Main Room this past Saturday, Cloud Cult unleashed their brand new (and fingers crossed it’s not their last) album, Feel Good Ghosts, in what was surely one of the must see local CD release shows of 2008.

Michigan’s Mason Proper opened the early evening show (I missed them.) Then NYC’s The Forms filled the middle slot, opening with a song that almost felt like disco with its amped-up bass groove—they’re far from disco, of course, but many people remarked on noticing (and digging) the bass player’s sound throughout the set. Lead singer Alex Tween had laryngitis, but I don’t think that was the reason I found their easy-to-root-for, unpretentious indie rock unremarkable. Live, the songs tended to blend together and I would barely have noticed the Nirvana cover of “All Apologies” that was thrown in if I hadn’t picked up the lyrics on the chorus. That said, the audience listened politely and for the most part seemed more than just mildly interested, while a couple concert-going pals of mine took their set as an opportunity to hit up Jimmy Johns after hearing only a few songs.

Before Cloud Cult even began their headlining set, one thing was already clear. Sean Neary of Seymore Saves The World, Wapsipinicon and formerly of Tapes ‘n Tapes had joined the band on bass. Also within the last year, the band replaced drummer Dan Greenwood with Arlen Peiffer.

After a great showing at SXSW a few months back, Cloud Cult took to the road and had just returned (that day), band leader Craig Minowa pointed out, from warmer regions—Georgia, to be exact. And the band wasted no time warming up the unseasonably cool Minnesota crowd. The five musicians and two painters (the painters are an integral part of the band, mind you) opened with “Hope” from 2007’s The Meaning of 8, then cracked open the new album with the opening track “No One Said it Would Be Easy.” Feel Good Ghosts is yet another great Cloud Cult album chocked full of memorable songs. Though the band has been around a while and I’ve been familiar with them for much of that time, this is likely the first album for which I’ve come to appreciate them for who they are. I’m enjoying their pop sensibilities and song-crafting without getting bogged down in the important but nonetheless peripheral flower-child and eco-friendly aspect of the full Cloud Cult experience. Perhaps what’s most impressive is I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite album out of their last three discs, Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, The Meaning of 8 and now Feel Good Ghosts.

Cloud Cult - Photo by Stacy Schwartz

If you’ve never seen Cloud Cult—and even at this late date I could tell from miscellaneous Twitterings that there were some avid local music fans seeing them for the first time—I’ve already got the painting bit out of the way. But one other thing you should know about Cloud Cult fans. They’re not afraid to dance. Even all the way back at the back of the club.

Over the course of a 20-song set, Cloud Cult played eight songs off the new record, but liberal sprinklings from 2007’s The Meaning of 8 and 2005’s Advice From The Happy Hippopotamus were also represented, emphasizing my point earlier about all three of these recent discs being strong offerings.

About midway through the set right after “Journey of the Featherless,” Minowa said they’d finished up what he referred to as a mini acoustic concert in the middle of the set and “Now we’re gonna rock.” That rock consisted of “Freddy” (a song that appears on The Meaning of 8 as “The Girl Underground”) followed up with “Million Things” and “Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide.”

“Everybody Here is a Cloud,” the single off the new record was accompanied by the video of the song on the First Ave monitors, but it was never quite synced up and was in fact distractingly choppy on many of the screens. Live, the song was one of a handful that featured the painters, Connie Minowa singing and Scott West playing trumpet.

Cloud Cult - Photo by Stacy Schwartz

Craig Minowa thanked both openers and their sound engineer and promised, “Two more songs, then back to the farm.” Cheers arose as they broke into “Chemicals Collide,” perhaps the biggest hit off their previous album.

The band closed their set with the ballad “Love You All” which also closes the new album, and the song prompted one fan to bellow in response (fittingly) and loud enough to be heard over the crowd, “Love you too!”

All in all a high energy, fun and memorable show, and I can see Cloud Cult continuing to get bigger as word gets around. They play next locally at 89.3’s Rock the Garden at the Walker on June 21^st with Andrew Bird, The New Pornographers and Bon Iver.