I had a chance to do some traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday and took a trip up north to Minneapolis. I watched some hockey, ate some great food, and, of course, took the opportunity to check out a local show.
I went into this almost totally blind but got really lucky with a great show. I was staying next to 1st Avenue (as seen in Purple Rain) and right next/connected to it is 7th St Entry. That’s where I caught locals Blaha, Tongue Party, and Cysters. First of all the venue; I was really impressed with 7th St Entry. It’s a small space with the stage centered well, there is a raised area with bar stools and then another raised area behind that you can sit on. So, three chances to have a good view. The sound was good, the bar had local beers on tap, definitely a good place to see a show.
The first band was called Cysters. They reminded me a bit of Queens of the Stone Age a bit, but not too much. For the $10 cover price I was already feeling pretty good about the night but things got better from there. Second up was Tongue Party, the most unique sounding band of the night. Intense heavy punk while not exactly crossing over into hardcore, don’t take my word for it, check them out for yourself: Bandcamp
The headliner was Blaha. This was their cassette release show for their new album Survival Climb. They treated the crowd to some good garage rock despite some technical difficulties with the guitar effects board. The problems eventually got worked out in time for singer Mike Blaha to had off the guitar someone standing directly in front of him in the crowd to finish out the last song. The kind of thing you’ll only see on a local show like this where most of the people probably know each other.
I have to say all three bands were great. It was awesome to catch a glimpse of some bands in the Minneapolis scene. I picked up the Blaha cassette for $5 and got a download code for it and an older album, can’t beat two albums for $5. If you’re ever there or if they go out on a tour some day you won’t be disappointed if you give them a chance and check them out.
Entreaty 