Retribution Gospel Choir, Lookbook, Communist Daughter to play 501 Club Grand Opening

(Retribution Gospel Choir - Photo by David de Young)

501 Club to open on 5.01

I dropped in to the 501 Club this past Sunday evening after the Unconvention screening to find the new club welcoming, and the food and service great. (Okay, I admit co-owner Jon Oulman was sitting at the end of our table, but still.)

The hummus plate was awesome, the GLBT (I believe that's what it's called) comes with Guac, and the Bacon Cheeseburger I tried was as good as any I've had.

Also, if the house merlot is any indication, the house wines are as decent as the ones at the 331 Club. (The 331 Club in N.E. Minneapolis is also owned and run by the Oulmans.)

HowWasTheShow will be on hand Friday evening for the grand opening which features some of our favorite bands in Minnesota, Retribution Gospel Choir, Lookbook and Communist Daughter.

(Important note for the directionally challenged: The 501 is on SOUTH Washington Avenue, i.e. the main downtown side of Hennepin not the warehouse district side.)

From the press release:

501 Washington Ave. S., occupies the space that formerly housing Matty B’s. Jon and Jarret Oulman have given the place a complete makeover. On Friday, (5/01) The club celebrates its Grand Opening Party in true form with Retribution Gospel Choir, Lookbook and Communist Daughter. The show starts at 930pm. The 501 will host free music and entertainment most nights of the week.



Unlike the 331, the 501 will serve a full bar-fare menu, including burgers and pizza. Rick Truax, longtime chef at Nye's Polonaise and J.D. Hoyt's, will run the kitchen. Look for familiar happy hours and daily specials that 331 patrons know and love.



Watch for Chuck and Blake’s Triva starting on Wednesdays at 7pm (May 6th Start) and also watch for a Sunday Brunch at the 501 Club starting Sunday May 10th.

501 Club
501 Washington Ave. S.
www.501.mn
612.338.3848
Open 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. every day.

"We Are The People" interactive video from Empire of the Sun

"We Are The People" interactive video from Empire of the Sun.

The video contains links to free downloads, exclusive remixes, a message from the band, competitions (for artwork and an ipod) and much more.

View the video full size here: www.empireofthesunsound.com/wearethepeople

Four Videos from Voltage Fashion Amplified 2009

By request, here are four videos from my Voltage 2009 video collection.  First is a montage of miscellaneous video outtakes (somewhat randomly shot, I should mention.) Then there are three full length songs from bands Mercurial Rage, Gospel Gossip, and Lucy Michelle & the Velvet Lapelles.

I saw many video cameras at Voltage, but I have yet to see very videos of Voltage '09 surface on the internet. Please share links to your own Voltage Fashion Amplified photos and videos in the comments.

Selected video clips from Voltage 2009

Mercurial Rage - "I Sold My Soul For Sex"

Gospel Gossip

Lucy Michelle - "Postcard"

Unconvention, A mix tape from St. Paul, RNC 08 Premier

On Sunday, April 26th, I attended Chris Strouth's new film, Unconvention, A Mix Tape from St. Paul. RNC 08, which premiered at St. Anthony Main as part of the 27th Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. The screening sold out.

It was an intense, adrenaline producing 2-hour ride which brought back the feeling of being on edge that I had while watching the independent media coverage of the event at the time. (I was one of thousands of people worldwide who was gripped by live coverage by the Uptake and on Twitter as the riots and chaos ensued outside the Excel Center in September of 2008.)

The main take-away I got from the film (and the initial coverage) is that had these independent journalists not been on-hand capturing the confrontations between police and citizens on the streets of St. Paul, those of us who consume news might have been left with an entirely different story of the convention, the one told by most of the mainstream media of the events (or non-events) going on inside the convention hall.

Kudos to Strouth for putting this footage back out in front of people and for helping to bring it to a wider audience so the events of September, 2008 are not forgotten. I also think Strouth did a tremendous job of stepping back and letting the footage speak for itself. And I think it does speak rather loudly. Issues of free speech, freedom of the press, and the right to peaceable assembly almost loom larger in retrospect than the multiple issues that differing groups of protesters were attempting to raise by their various marches and events.

At times, I was so engrossed by this film, I was actually surprised I could not smell tear gas in the theater.

Below are some clips from the lively Q&A with the filmmaker that transpired after the film. Clips 3 and 4 include some rather heated comments from a few audience members.

Videos of entire Me and My Arrow EP Release

Me and My Arrow, the nine member Twin Cities super group made up of members of producers and musicians from Minneapolis bands It From Bit, Parts For All Makes, The Future, and Plastic Chord barely fit on many local stages. The collective, which is headed up by lead vocalist (Ice Palace guitarist) Jacob Grun released their first EP to an enthusiastic bunch of fans and friends at the Turf Club on Saturday night (April 25th.)

HowWasTheShow was on hand planning to catch the performance and viddie a couple songs, but we got carried away and captured each of the 9 songs in the set.

I had been hearing about the band for quite some time, but this was my first experience catching them live. I was particularly impressed by the energy raised by their constant motion on-stage lending even more enjoyment to their sweeping and dramatic orchestral, power-pop sound. Particularly animated was Bella Koshka violin player Hillary Davis, and I was sad to hear it was her last show with the band.

Here's the starting video:

And here's the entire set playlist of all 9 videos on YouTube for hands-free enjoyment of the entire set.

David de Young and Chris Strouth on WCCO

David de Young talks about Voltage: Fashion Amplified 2009, and Chris Strouth talks about his new film, Unconvention on WCCO radio with Esme Murphy on Saturday, April 25th.

MP3 File

Weekend - Unconvention, M. Ward and Voltage 2009

I'm going to see M. Ward at First Avenue tonight. Check out this gorgeous video for "Hold Time," the title song from his new album.



Tomorrow I'm going to see the premiere of Unconvention at St. Anthony Main Theater at 5:15 p.m.



Last night I attended Voltage 2009. Here's a spliced up mix of the video clips I captured which feature each of the Voltage 2009 bands, Mercurial Rage, First Communion Afterparty, Gospel Gossip, Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles and Maria Isa.

Tune into WCCO Radio at 830 AM at 7:30 p.m. tonight (4/25) or at http://www.wccoradio.com and you'll likely hear me talking about each of these three things.

The Bad Plus & Wendy Lewis cover Lithium at The Fetus

It's my favorite song of the past week, Wendy Lewis and the Bad Plus's wigged out cover of Nirvana's Lithium. This performance is from Saturday, April 18th at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis.

It's one of those things that's "so wrong it's right."

The song is from their album For All I Care. They celebrate with a release show at the Cedar Cultural Center next Saturday April 25.

Enjoy.



The Bad Plus | Electric Fetus | Record Store Day [04.18.09]| Minneapolis, MN from Justin Andert on Vimeo.

Also in HD.

Videos from Nightinghales & Communist Daughter at the 331 Club

Videos from Communist Daughter and Nightinghales at the 331 Club, Saturday, April 18th, 2009.

The 331 was packed for a free show Saturday night featuring two up and coming Twin Cities bands, Nightinghales (featuring Ben Sommers and Michael Lopez) and Communist Daughter (former members of Friends Like These plus drummer Christopher McGuire.) The show was headlined by Idle Hands.

Communist Daughter - Not the Kid


Communist Daughter - Oceans


Communist Daughter - Northern Lights


Nightinghales - Walking With The Dead


Nightinghales -


Nightinghales -

David de Young and Anna Lee talk Voltage on WCCO

Excerpts of David de Young of HowWasTheShow.com and Anna Lee of Voltage Fashion Amplified talking about Voltage on WCCO Radio with Esme Murphy on Saturday, April 18th.

Voltage is coming up at First Avenue on Friday, April 24th. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster or First Avenue and its ticket outlets.

MP3 File

mpls ltd turns 10 and happy record store day

Saturday is Record Store Day, so get out and support one of the few remaining independent record stores in Minnesota. A few of our favorites are Roadrunner Records on Nicollet, The Electric Fetus and Treehouse Records on Lyndale.

On Saturday, Twin Cities record label mpls ltd also celebrates 10 years putting out great local music with a party at the Turf Club featuring some of the bands they have had the honor of working with over the years including First Communion Afterparty, Strangelights, Mercurial Rage, To Kill a Petty Bourgeoise, Basement Apartment and DJs Tim Ritter and Matt Werner.

With your paid admission to the 9 p.m. show ($6 at the door) you will receive a free limited edition 7" Vinyl record.

Rift Magazine 36 Hour Songwriting Contest #7 - Videos, Audio and more

Saturday night, April 11th, I participated in the 2009 Rift Magazine 36 Hour Songwriting Contest at The Beat Coffeehouse.

This year's show featured:

In Part 1:

Dave Mehling, Nicholas Roesler, Jen Markey, David de Young (me), Adam Marshall, Eliza Blue, Chris Hall, David Brusie.

49 minute audio podcast of Part 1.

Open player in new window | Download

In Part 2:

Sam Keenan, Nikki Schultz, Eric Kalenze, Holly Newsome, Neil Zumwalde, Claire Taubenhaus, Andrew Lynch and Shug E.

50 minute audio podcast of Part 2.

Open player in new window | Download

The 16 contestants each had 36 hours to write a song based around the subject "the meaning of life." The results varied from a ballad telling the story of the songwriting process itself (my own song), to Jen Markey's tale of a weekend conference that told her "life is empty, life is meaningless" so you have to put your own meaning into it, to the winning song, the ethereal "Happy Human" by Andrew Lynch.

HowWaStheShow has full audio and selected video of the evening. (Photos by Jenn Barnett are forthcoming.)

Video highlights

Andrew Lynch winning song, "Happy Human":

Jenn Markey's "Life is Empty, Life is Meaningless"

David de Young's "Ballad of the Rift Magazine 36 Hour Songwriting Contest"

Claire Taubenhaus - "Life is..."

Neil Zumwalde

Nikki Schultz's "Struggle to Fight"

Andrew Lynch wins the contest (Point of view video basically, as I was on stage with the contestants)


See more videos in the Rift 36 Hour Songwriting Contest YouTube Playlist.

Triple Play of HowWasTheShow Webcasts - The Hootenanny, Dan Israel CD Release & The Rift 36 Hour Songwriting Contest

(Image - Dan Israel by Steven Cohen.)

Perhaps you have enjoyed some of the 15 Mad Ripple Hootenannies HowWasTheShow has broadcast, one each Thursday since January 1st, 2009. All 15 are archived for your listening pleasure on the website and in the podcast archive on the howwastheshowcast blog.

This weekend, HowWasTheShow pulls out the stops and broadcasts live for 3 straight nights.

Thursday, April 9th we bring you the Mad Ripple Hootenanny as usual from the Beat. (Tune in for very special guest Slim Dunlap of the Replacements.)

Friday, April 10th, we are live from the Acadia Cafe on the West Bank bringing you the Dan Israel CD Release Party. (Check out this review of Dan's new album See The Morning Light in the City Pages.)

Then Saturday, April 11th we are back at the Beat Coffeehouse for the Rift Magazine 36 Hour Songwriting Contest. (Twin Cities songwriters will perform songs that as of the time of this posting they do not yet even know the subject of. And I should know, because I am a contestant. Yes, Saturday I will take the stage to play a song that doesn't even exist yet.)

All of this will take place on the web at http://www.howwastheshow.com/index.cfm/action/live

Bookmark it!

Happy 5th Birthday More Cowbell!

Our friends over at More Cowbell are celebrating their fifth anniversary on Thursday, April 16th with some of our favorite bands, two of whom (Romantica and The Evening Rig) have helped us celebrate our own birthdays in the past.

More info in the press release below. See you at the Turf!

Minneapolis music blog More Cowbell celebrates 5 years of music coverage.

Minneapolis, MN - More Cowbell (morecowbell.net) will celebrate 5 years of local and national music coverage with an anniversary concert at the Turf Club in St. Paul, MN on Thur, April 16th featuring Romantica, The Evening Rig, & The Absent Arch.

Romantica have built themselves into one of the most popular and well received local bands over the last 5 years. Their last record 'America' wound up on Paste's End of Year list in 2007 and they are currently putting the finishing touches on the follow up. The band are also one of the hardest touring local bands as well embark on another tour with national touring artist Carrie Rodriguez on May 8th in San Pedro, CA.

Romantica are also playing a very special tribute concert for Katherine Olson featuring Storyhill among others on May 3rd at Grace Church in Edina. For more info on the tribute show and to purchase tickets, go to http://www.concertforkatherine.com/.

The Evening Rig have only been around just over 3 years, but in that time they've amassed quite a resume. From opening for Memphis rockers Lucero at the Triple Rock for their very first live show, to opening for The Hold Steady at a sold out show at First Avenue, to two sold out shows with Lucero last December. Just last month they released their second full length record entitled 'Is Doin' Stuff' which has been getting incredible reviews.

The Absent Arch's debut album 'Keep Calm and Carry On' made many local music critics best albums of 2008 lists. The earnest lyrics and emotional vocals of lead singer Will Markwardt tug at your heartstrings, and the band's musical talent will impress even the most jaded skeptics.

Tickets for the show are $6 at the door and the show is 21+. A flyer for the show has been attached.

What: More Cowbell 5th Anniversary Party

When: Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 9pm (Doors at 8pm)

Where: Turf Club (1601 University Ave, St. Paul, MN)

Videos from the sold out Solid Gold, Yer Cronies, Switzerlind show

Current rock kings of Minneapolis Solid Gold headlined a bill at the Turf Club last night (Friday, April 3rd) that sold out well before doors opened. Also on the bill were Yer Cronies and Switzerlind.

What do all three of these bands have in common? I understand they all have ties to Apple Valley, MN.

HowWasTheshow was there and has a couple videos from each band on the bill. (If you have the bandwidth, click the HD button to watch them in HiDef.)

Solid Gold - Set opener "Bible Thunder" and song 2 "Armoured Cars"





Yer Cronies - Divi Divi Tree + 2 new songs







Switzerlind - 2 songs

Concert for Katherine Poster to share on blogs, Facebook

Here's a GIF of the Concert for Katherine poster to share.

Please link it to http://www.concertforkatherine.com

3 videos from The Twilight Hours (new duo from John Munson and Matt Wilson)

The Twilight Hours, are a new group formed by John Munson and Matt Wilson, former members of The Flops and Trip Shakespeare.

The duo will be in residence every Thursday in April (that's five Thursdays, folks!) at the Nomad Pub in Minneapolis for the West Bank bar's "Minneseries."

Exclusive for you here on the How WasTheShow blog are 3 songs they performed Thursday, April 2nd at the Mad Ripple Hootenanny at the Beat Coffeehouse just moments before they headed off to soundcheck at the Nomad.

"Deep All The Way Down" by The Flops


"Ooh La La" (The Faces)


"Till This Dream ..."