Video from Racktacular Art Bra Contest

Racktacular was a hoot, by all accounts. A great turnout, great music from bands Aviette, Maudlin and Hojas Rojas, and a definitely entertaining Art Bra competition. Show organizer Donette Ambrosy did a fabulous job of putting it all together and also served as hostess for the evening. Sadly, HowWasTheShow lost part 3 of our Art Bra video on the digital editing room floor, but hopefully parts 1 & 2 below will give you a sense of the creativity and fun that went into the creation of these, uh, "undergarments." The bras were modeled by the lovely and sexy ladies of Lili's Burlesque Review, and all in all 25 bras were showcased.

Video #1 includes the winning entry of the evening, "Treasure Chest" by Sarah White, who also happened to be celebrating her 32nd birthday.

Proceeds from the event benefited The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Fund.

KSTP Channel 5's 35W Construction Coverage

KSTP's Brad Sattin stopped by today to ask how neighbors were holding up in light of the ongoing construction on 35W (Crosstown Project) going on in front of our houses on Stevens Avenue in Minneapolis for nearly two years now. Here's Brad's report, which features me sporting the new haircut that I got in Lisbon on Saturday afternoon.



Read the full story here.

First annual NORTH BY MIDWEST MUSIC FESTIVAL at the Lowry Theater in downtown St. Paul on Saturday, July 25th 2009.

Willie McManus, a Minnesota musician who once called himself “the poor man’s Slim Dunlap” and counts among his heroes Bootsy Collins, Mojo Nixon and Terry Eason, has assembled the first annual North by Midwest Music Festival which will shake the Lowry Theater in downtown St. Paul on Saturday, July 25^th.

According to a press release, McManus said he conceived the festival for concert-goers who seek the festival environment but aren’t so fond of porta potties, heat, mosquitoes and sleeping bags. Many music festivals, he said, are hundreds of miles away and multi-day events. He was looking to create something less expensive and closer to home.

North by Midwest is a one-day, indoor festival that won’t empty your pockets. Emceed by HowWasTheShow.com founder David de Young, the event features a stellar lineup: The Magnolias, The 757s, Little Man, The Hard Left, Middlestates and Chemistry Set. Ample parking and great bars and cafés are right outside the theater’s walls, and a $10.00 pass gets you in and out the door as often as you like.

It all starts at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday July 25^th at the Lowry Theater, 16 5^th St West, downtown St. Paul. Tickets are available exclusively at The Electric Fetus in Minneapolis and on the day of show at the Lowry Theater, or by phone at 651 263 7992.

Here's the full press release from Willie McManus:

Music festivals spring up this time of year by the dozen. Most are long-established, far-away, days-long extravaganzas, featuring big name stars and big-ticket prices. There are twangy country music festivals, noisy alt. rock showcases, mud-caked jamborees and acoustic folk festivals all over the continent, where music lovers can shell-out hundreds of dollars for days of camping and living on beans for a chance to hear their heroes for an hour. These events work fine for most fans, but what if you’re stuck for time, not made of money, and can’t stand the porta-pottys, heat, mosquitoes and sleeping bags? Said one concert-goer: “I love the rock, but I hate the bugs and the bad food and the long lines at the toilets. It doesn’t work for me anymore. I mean, I’m not twelve years old.”

St. Paul’s Lowry Theater, near the St. Paul Hotel in the heart of that city’s downtown might have the solution. This July they are staging a one-day, INDOOR music festival that won’t empty your pockets, or leave you wishing you could remember what a hot shower was like. Hosted by David de Young, and featuring local greats The Magnolias, the 757s, Little Man, and musicians of rising talent equal to anything at ten times the price and distance, this could be the Woodstock for you. Ample parking and great bars and cafés are right outside the theater’s walls, and a $10.00 pass gets you in and out the door as often as you like.

The First North by Midwest Music Festival kicks off at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday July 25th at the Lowry Theater, 16 5th St West, downtown St. Paul. Tickets are available at The Electric Fetus in Minneapolis and on the day of show at the Lowry Theater, or by phone at 651 263 7992.

The 757s as Judas Priest?

No words need be spoken, save those below:

The Taste of MN
THE 757s w/ the Romantics, Whitesnake and Judas Priest
Harriet Island, St. Paul
757s @12:30p
FREE before 3p

www.tasteofmn.com/music.html

* The original photo is actually of a band called Manowar.

Report from the Pitkä kuuma kesä festival in Helsinki - Atmosphere, The Flaming Lips & Girl Talk

(Atmosphere in Helsinki - Photo by David de Young)

Pitkä kuuma kesä isn't the largest festival you'll visit, but it may be one of the most unique. Staged on the grounds of an out-of-use natural gas refinery in Helsinki,Finland, the festival hosted more than two dozen world-class bands this past weekend.

I had at least a double-dose of luck when it comes to how I ended up there. Arriving in Finland Saturday, for no other reason than I had not been, first a friend alerted me that local Twin Cities hip-hop group Atmosphere were performing in Helsinki on Sunday, then I happened to run into Wayne Coyne, frontman of The Flaming Lips, the headlining act for the festival weekend, as he purchased a cup of ice cream in the Helsinki City Centre. Enough luck yet? Wayne was then kind enough to put me on the guest list, saving me the 56 euros it would have cost for a one day pass. (A ticket for both days was priced at 90 euros in 2009.)

After touring the city by bus and boat Sunday afternoon, I took a cab to the festival site and arrived just Mogwai had begun their set on the larger of the two stages ("Lava" is Finnish for stage.) It was my first time seeing that UK band live, and they seemed a little reserved, but their down-tempo rock was a good way to ease me into my evening.



Video clip of Atmosphere's "Sunshine"

Up next on the Klubilava was Atmosphere, playing as a 5 piece this night, from The Twin Cities USA. They opened with "God Loves Ugly," and their set included many references to our fair city of Minneapolis. The set featured songs from their most recent album, "When Life Gives You Lemons..." plus some older tunes. The Finns seemed pretty impressed by them overall, participating with hands and fingers in the air when prompted, and the front row sang along to many songs. Slug was wearing a P.O.S. T-shirt, which thrilled me (P.O.S. is wrapping up his/their own tour of Europe right now) enough that I shouted out between songs, "Nice t-shirt," which prompted a friendly "Thanks" from Slug. While telling one story, Slug joked, "You have to forgive me, my English is not so good." He told of arriving in Helsinki on Saturday, which was a rather chilly and gray day, but that the Finns were still out partying until all hours of the night. Sunday's weather, on the other hand, was damn near perfect. Mid-set he introduced "Guns and Cigarettes" saying he's not normally political, but he thinks it's a shame that cigarettes
are getting more expensive while guns get cheaper.


(The Flaming Lips in Helsinki - Photo by David de Young)

The Flaming Lips came on at 9PM, and the sun remained up for their entire set (sunset was around 10:50 PM last night.) One newspaper reported that the Lips had canceled their laser show tonight because they were in too close proximity to the Helsinki airport (20 kilometers.) It must have been my 7th or 8th time seeing The Lips, mostly at European festivals, but several times in Minneapolis as well including The Uptown Bar in 1988 or so and First Avenue. Wayne Coyne asked the pot smoking side of the crowd (stage right) and the beer drinking side of the crowd (my side) to move together into the middle to help support him during his space ball walk which he did before the opening song "Race For the Prize." I recall in Denmark a few years ago Coyne had introduced "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" with a short speech about how much he was embarrassed that George Bush was the president of the USA, but this time he quipped, "How lucky can we be to have Obama?" which drew many cheers, including my own. I gotta say it is weird (first time in as long as I can remember) that I would be proud in Europe to cheer publicly the President of the United States and have those around me actually do the same.

Coyne mentioned Michael Jackson's passing as he segued into a slow 1/3 time version of Madonna's "Borderline." He played "Taps" on his automatic trumpet after a few words on how he wishes the US would end "this stupid war" and that was possibly the most emotionally moving moment of the entire night. He said there were so many funerals, that there were not enough musicians to play "Taps" and someone had invented this instrument to do it. He looked forward to a day when the only people who had to play such an instrument were The Flaming Lips. My eyes got wet enough that I actually had to wipe them.



Set closer/encore was "Do You Realize?" for which I pressed myself up against the front barrier and got some good video. The size of the crowd was such that it felt like there was more confetti and more balloons flying around than normal at a Flaming Lips show.

Yet to come was Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis), whom I have never really gotten into, but I waited out his entire DJ set (some of it back in the beer garden.) Wasn't a bad way to end a Sunday night in Finland. The sun was down (sorta) by midnight as I left the festival grounds and walked half the way back to my hotel, flagging a cab eventually as I had no idea where I actually was, just a sense I was walking in vaguely the right direction.

I met Wayne Coyne in Finland

(Wayne Coyne -publicity photo)

By all counts, my European Rock 'n Roll tour 2009 is off to a Flamingly great start. Leaving Minneapolis Friday evening June 26th with a short stop in Amsterdam (long enough to check in on Foursquare and get my "Newbie" badge) I arrived in Helsinki, Finland early Saturday evening. There's a 8 hour time difference which really ate up a lot of my Saturday.

Fortunately, it's midsummer and I am as far north as Stockholm and Oslo (Helsinki is at 61°15'N and 28°15'E) and it's light out pretty much 24 hours a day (sunset 10:49 p.m., sunrise 3:58 a.m.) so I was able to drag myself out to wander a bit. Without even trying, just on the other side of the train station from me, I immediately stumbled onto The Tuska Open Air Metal Fest. Outside the gates, hundreds of punters in black t-shirts and long coats were swilling bottles of Koff beer. There was one band to go when I arrived, Suicidal Tendencies were closing out the night. I opted to skip the 43 Euro entry fee to see only one band and moved along.



Checking Twitter from my hotel, my friend Dahli informed me Atmosphere was in town. Their website told me a festival I didn't even know about, Pitkä kuuma kesä 2009 was in full swing and the lineup also included The Flaming Lips and Mogwai so I resolved to try and find if tickets were still available, where it was, etc.

As luck would have it, no more than 45 minutes later while wandering the City Centre, I ran smack dab into someone who would know stepping out of an ice cream shop, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne himself. Far too jet-lagged to even be nervous, I introduced myself and said I had just arrived in town from Minneapolis, had heard The Flaming Lips were playing in town and asked if he could tell me where the concert was and how to get there.

We chatted for 5 minutes or so about the various European festivals at which I've seen the Flaming Lips in the past, including my top show of all time, the Lips at the then Witness Festival in Dublin (reviewed on HowWasTheShow here.) The biggest joy was to actually get to tell Wayne face to face in casual conversation that the Dublin show had be my show of a lifetime so far. (It was a memorable one where The Lips replaced the White Stripes as headliner after Jack White of the White Stripes had hurt his hand in a car accident in Detroit a few days before.)

Unsure himself if the festival Sunday in Helsinki was sold out, Wayne offered to put me on the guest list, took my business card for HowWasTheShow with my UK mobile number on it so his wife could text me the deets.

Looks like my Sunday evening plans are set.

Rock The Garden 2009 review and videos

This year's Rock the Garden, featuring musical acts Solid Gold, Calexico, Yeasayer and The Decemberists was one of the most enjoyable outdoor festivals I have attended in America in many years. And it wasn't just because the music was consistently great.

This year the Rock the Garden planners wisely rotated the stage 90 degrees clockwise to face the hill where the old Guthrie used to sit (and where most people chose to sit last year anyway, even if they faced the side of the stage instead of the front.) As outdoor concert venues go, it's really quite a lovely natural amphitheater, and I hope it all worked out well with the neighbors living in the nearby homes and they'll be able to set up again like this for future festivals.

Good times, good friends, good beer, and a crowd estimated at at least 8,000 filled the afternoon from 3PM until the sun went down.

If you were there on Saturday, you may never forget the closing number of the night, The Decemberists covering Heart's "Crazy on You." Kyle Matteson quipped on Twitter that it's "Not a good sign when a cover far and away eclipses your entire set," but nonetheless it was both a definite WTF as well as cool as hell moment for those of us who were there.

Here are a few video highlights we captured including both "The Engine Driver" and the "Crazy On You" set closer. A full photo set by Jenn Barnett will be posted shortly on the main site.

Excerpted clips from the Decemberists' Set


The Engine Driver


Crazy on You, Heart Cover & closing number