Two great local bands came together at the Icehouse Friday night. The Paper Days celebrated the release of their CD “Falling is Easy” with their buddies The Heavy Set closing out the evening.
While the Icehouse’s stage is not exactly small, it was crowded by the amount of instruments The Paper Days brought with them. They took the stage to “Northern Sky” and lead vocalists Madeline Ramirez and Scott Schmitz set the mood for the evening. Smooth, peaceful, harmonic and quite interesting. Over the course of the evening the five-piece band rotated a total of 11 musicians on stage including their producer Matt Patrick, a string section, extra percussion and a trumpet player.
Schmitz made the statement of the evening when he encourages fans to call local radio station The Current to request their songs “Harassment is a valid business strategy”. They closed their 60 minute set with the title track off their CD “Falling is easy”. Overall a very cool band and great CD.
Set List: Northern Sky / I won’t fall / Holdin’ / Little Bird / When I’m gone / A Word we used / Stand strong / The Bottle / Dance me / Can’t afford to be reckless / Lately / Falling is easy
Closing out the evening was Minneapolis 4 piece, The Heavy Set. Their song “River” just made The Current’s top local songs of 2015 list. They started their set with “Minnesota Homegrown”. The band is composed of Jake Ilika – vocals, guitar, Jim Trouten – electric, lap steel guitar, Jamie Groth – bass and Zac Barbieur – drums. Illika had recently moved here from Winona to work on the band’s second album “Everybody’s Got A Mountain” which was release in November 2015. Their sound was
more quite a bit livelier, which was a good thing considering that their set kicked off after midnight. I really enjoyed their music and hope we will catch The Heave Set again
Set List: Minnesota Homegrown / Circling the drain / River / Chance to change / Eagles on the ice / Start over / Cane / Good times / Gettin’ tired
