On Thursday night at First Avenue in Minneapolis, two of the hottest, but very different, indie rock bands right now came together for a spectacular show.
A Place To Bury Strangers, “New York’s Loudest Band,” manned the stage for 35 minutes with only two sources of light, both video projectors, transmitting surreal beams of light into the audience. Their title held true, and it was still deafening through my recently purchased earplugs. Stand-out track from 2009’s Exploding Head, "In Your Heart", was the only cut in which I could make out vocals. Nevertheless, ATBS were triumphant, and they made art out of deafening sound, using the simple lineup of guitar dripping with effects, bass, and drums to their advantage.
The Big Pink were my main reason for going to First Avenue on March 18th, and although they didn't receive great reviews from the Star Tribune or my dad, I enjoyed their set thoroughly. Opening with the single "Too Young To Love" from their breakout debut album A Brief History Of Love, the stage was clouded with tons of mist and a bevy of strobe lights. Songs such as "Velvet," "Crystal Visions," "Tonight," and "A Brief History of Love" were brilliant live, but the middle of the set became a bit dragged out. Massive indie hit "Dominos"closed out the set in raucous fashion, having the crowd actually involved in the set for the first time all night.
All in all, it was an above average night, with APTSB greatly exceeding my expectations and The Big Pink playing a nice, normal, but typical set. Maybe the best part of the night was the fact that the concert let out well before 10 o' clock, with the 7:30 p.m. start time not being the trickery that it usually is.
Set List:
Too Young To Love
At War With The Sun
Frisk
Velvet
Crystal Visions
A Brief History Of Love
Count Backwards From Ten
Twilight (Electric Light Orchestra Cover)
Tonight
These Arms Of Mine (Otis Redding Cover)
Dominos
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