I’m all about bipolar shows. There’s just something about walking into a show and getting completely different moods and vibes from multiple bands on the same bill while trying to find the common thread between them. This was the challenge on Wednesday night. The two bands that were performing at The Turf Club in Saint Paul were starkly different yet they somehow were the perfect fit to soundtrack my night.
Opening up the quick show was local act BlurCurve– a band that has been on my “need to see list” for far too long. They are one of those acts where I feel like I see their name everywhere and on stacked bills but just have not had a chance to check out. Thankfully, I changed that on Wednesday night. BlurCurve’s set started off with a straight-up 90’s alt-rock vibe before twisting into something just a bit more hard-rock adjacent. Honestly, the style of this band was all over the place but all of the members made sure that you were along for the ride with their engaging show.
There was something captivating about the way the vocalist Alythia performed. They had this way of giving a super powerful performance that had you stuck in the palm of their hand while also giving you an absolutely staggering showing of talent when it came to the actual singing all the while dancing and smiling like there was no tomorrow. Although there were moments in their set where the music leaned a bit more hard-rock than I can typically handle, the performance from this band kept me hanging on and the way they seamlessly transitioned through many different genres in the blink of an eye kept the set interesting to me even with those few moments that just didn’t hit the spot.
Demob Happy’s sound, like that of BlurCurve, is truly hard to classify but, if I had to narrow it down, I would say it was swagger-filled rock with electronic tendencies. Like I said, hard to classify but that doesn’t change the fact that I was stuck in this band’s world throughout their set. I loved the blend of genres but, what I loved the most, was the energy with which the songs were presented. This band was all business, you could tell that by the way all of the members seemed completely entranced by their own instruments yet they found time throughout the set to connect with the audience. There were moments as simple as a member nodding to those in the front of the crowd to the drummer ramping people up by screaming “Come on!” in the microphone during a song. I know these are all things that all bands do when performing but there was just something a bit more special about the way Demob Happy did it.
This brings me to the revelation about what BlurCurve and Demob Happy had in common– passion. Although the two bands were so different when it came to their sound, both bands presented their art with a sense of fire that was tough to ignore. Even as someone who knew nothing about either act prior to walking into the show on Wednesday, I left feeling like I had been sold on two incredible products and, at the end of the day, was both of these bands’ jobs– to sell people on their music and their vibe. Well, BlurCurve and Demob Happy– mission accomplished.
