Monday night at the Cedar can be summed up on one word: Chill. LA band The Bird and the Bee’s tour promoting their current album “Recreational Love” stopped in Minneapolis.
DJ Jake Rudh once again proved his can match his playlist perfectly to the mood of the evening. Playing Space Pop in the same set as the theme from the Peanuts is not an easy task but was accomplished with style.
Alex Lilly and her Fireflies do double duty as band for the main act but their opening set was quite interesting. Lilly is a veteran of Touché and Obi Best. Her venture into the solo path is so new, she does not have solo CDs available yet.
When she took the stage, she joked that it felt like playing at a prom. The combination of 4 female voices was quite interesting with the background vocals at times giving a haunting feeling to a song. A few of the more electronic moments reminded me of Portishead.
Paranoid Times is the only song available at times and definitely worth checking out.
Set List:
No Name
Photogenic
Tippy
I want
I look 4
Paranoid Times
Firefly
The Bird and the Bee is usually composed of Greg Kurstin and Inara George but yesterday’s show had Inara backed up by Wendy Wang (guitar and vocals), Alex Lilly (vocals and keyboards), Samantha Sidley (vocals).
George took to the stage and frowned at the weak response when she asked the audience how they were doing tonight. Then a voice from the crowd told her: “That was pretty good for Minnesota!” The laughed and kicked off the set with “Here we go!”
The Bird and the Bee are described as Indie Pop and the mood reflected their light spirited approach. The set was jinxed with a few technical issues but the band took them in stride and they did not impact their performance one bit. An unexpected funny moment was when Inara brought up that she was told “Life begins at 40” and an audience member responded with “50!” to which she replied that she was not ready to deal with Menopause and then laughed as a hush fell over the crowd. Lesson learned: Menopause = mood killer at concerts.
Overall The Bird and the Bee delivered a great set and I really enjoyed their performance. Oh, and Inara, the answer to your question in “Fucking Boyfriend” is yes, but I may have to fight DJ Jake Rudh to settle it 🙂
Set List:
Polite
Will U Dance
Again & Again
Man
Young & Dumb
Recreational Love
My Luv
Runaway
Take me Home
Sara Smile
Can’t Go 4 That
Fucking Boyfriend
Love Letter
Encore:
Preparedness
