Last night, the Minneapolis music scene got treated to a punk rock extravaganza as Pierre, Tightwire, Absolutely Not, and Murf pulled no punches and played a high octane show at Mortimers Bar. Most of these bands are Twin Cities locals, aside from Absolutely Not who proudly hail from the big city of Chi-town. I haven’t seen any of these bands before, and I was personally the most excited to see Tightwire for the first time. Tightwire is a local pop-punk band that has been on my radar for a few months now, especially after the release of their catchy new album called, Six Feet Deep.
Unfortunately, my evening did not go as planned and I ended up missing both Pierre and Tightwire’s sets. Now I’ll be honest. I consider myself a veteran of punk rock shows, however, Thursday night I made a rookie mistake. I went on Facebook and checked out what were *supposed* to be the set times for the show thinking they were generally going to be followed. I was wrong. By the time I arrived I was late to the gig and missed the band. A combination of my bad timing and weather creating transportation hassles left me SOL.
Here is a tip: show up early for punk rock shows because there is no plan and the punk rock show will wait for no man.
(Editor’s Note: Fortunately, one of our photographers was there to work with one of the bands so we got photos for all of them.)
Pierre
When I arrived at Mortimers’, I caught the last half of Absolutely Not. Absolutely Not is a garage rock band from Chicago. They sound like a blend between Mindless Self Indulgence and White Reaper creating a perfect, chaotic sound. They delivered a powerful, and entertaining show full of glitz and glam. I was digging their vibe and so was the crowd.
Murf delivered a noisy, chaotic, high energy set. The wall of aggressive noise radiating off the band filled the room and sparked almost everyone in attendance to start dancing and moshing. Their set almost seemed short, because there was so much going on at all times, I could not look away — especially with the vocalist flailing and bouncing all over the stage screaming his heart out.
Mortimers is a rather intimate venue, and there is no place to hide in the boxy bar space so the room encourages maximum crowd participation and attention. This was exactly the type of setting Murf thrived in, as they managed to command the stage with a certain power and energy right from the get go. The band had an infectious presence that the crowd seemed to instantly pick up on. Dancing, moshing, jumping, screaming back at the band, you name it. Members of the audience were keen on grabbing the mic, jumping onto the stage, and screaming along with the front man. Murf also had two drummers going full force behind the band, playing in almost complete synchronicity which was a trip to see.
All and all, I highly recommend attending a Murf show if you want to get your face melted off. This band can absolutely bring the brutality.
Overall, (even though I was late) the show was a ton of fun and shortly showcased what an unbelievable local music scene we have here in the Twin Cities. Last night was the perfect quell to my snow induced stir-craziness. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I am looking forward to catching Murf again. I will have to try harder to catch Tightwire and Pierre another time — sorry again guys!
