Whenever Starset is playing near Minnesota, I always try to get to their show. It is different every time I go since they are constantly adding new things on stage to keep everyone’s interest. So, when I saw they were playing at Skyway Theatre in Minneapolis, MN on February 18, I knew I had to be at the show! This Sunday Funday started around 6:30 pm for me and as I walked up to the venue, it looked like there wasn’t a lot of people there. Once I looked around the corner, however, I saw a good sized line of people waiting to get in. The main venue floor filled up rather slowly, but it did fill up. It wasn’t too long before it was time for the first band to go on.
Year of the Locust took the stage and started out the show with a ton of energy. They got the crowd going with both heavy and fast songs as well as some emotional slower songs. Part of the way through the first few songs, the drummer could be heard saying that he got way too drunk before the set, which resulted in laughs from everyone. They pushed through the set still and kept the crowd going throughout all of it. Year of the Locust was a great start to this Sunday night of live music.
Grabbitz isn’t a name that I had heard before this show, but I’m sure I’ll hear the name again. With only a turntable and himself, he sang his songs to what I assume were the beats that he had made. The Skyway suddenly turned into a dance club, but people seemed a bit unsure about what to do. They eventually got into it part of the way through his set. He had a ton of people hovering around him filming and it turned out it was his birthday. A group came out and surprised him with a cake and Grabbitz joked as he said goodnight and started off stage. He did continue though with a few more songs. Grabbitz was an interesting choice to add on this show, but the crowd seemed to enjoy the performance.
I had caught the next band, Palisades, last year at The Cabooze and thought they did an excellent job. So, I was excited to see them again and see how they have progressed in the last year. It seemed there was some mic issues for the lead singer early on, but it didn’t take long to get that fixed. They brought the crowd back to the rock side of the show and had them get a circle pit going after a few songs in. The energy level certainly got kicked up a few notches during their set. It seemed there was quite a few people at the show that had come to see Palisades and they were not disappointed by their performance. Palisades has some good momentum going lately, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back again soon!
During the stage change, the large screen that hides the drummer and the string players told the crowd to download the Starset app for content during the demonstration. I was a little upset that my phone wasn’t one that could download the app, but I certainly got a sense of what was going on from others that had their phone out. I only saw a little bit, but there were planets floating around during the show which was pretty cool. Other than the larger screen that was sometimes clear and sometimes white, the lack of the large clear screen for the singer rounded off the differences at this show. The guitarist’s still had the cool suits and the string section had some cool light up helmets on. Most of the stage stayed pretty dim with the occasional blast of lights from the back of the stage. Even the helmets had light in them, which allowed everyone to see them a little better. Heavy smoke added to the atmosphere at this show as well. As far as the show, Starset put on a very powerful performance this time around and the crowd singing along and cheering with every song showed that Starset knows how to entertain! I couldn’t think of a better way to end my weekend!
As always, get out and support live music and I’ll see you out there!
