Twin Cities’ radio station 93X calls their holiday event “Nutcracker” and described the show at the Myth “A concert you can bring your girlfriend to”. Looking at the audience it may be more accurately described as “A concert that your girlfriend goes to with her friends, and it you are lucky, you get to come too”. Whatever the motivation, fans were in for a great night.
The last time UK band The Struts were in Minneapolis to play First Ave, singer Luke Spiller was sick but still delivered a great show. He promised to make up for it next time, and boy, did he ever!
Taking the stage after music from the Neverending Story and a speech track The Struts hit the gas pedal and never stopped. I thought Spiller was impressive the last time around but last night was a a totally different level. He only stops moving when he needs to be near his mike and his interaction with the audience is first class.
Two thirds through their short set The Struts led the audience through a sing-along and it was not your garden variety. The crowd sang along for 3 – 4 minutes and through some complex sequences. The band ended their set with an outro and a group bow.
Set List:
Roll up / Could have been me / Kiss this / She makes me fell like / Let’s make this happen / Put your money on me / Where did she go
AWOLNATION has one or more songs on every alternative or pop radio station’s best of 2015 list. The LA band’s second album “Run” was released last March and did quite well in the charts. The band has gathered a cult like following. AWOLNATION made up of Aaron Bruno, Kenny Carkeet, Zach Irons, Isaac Carpenter, and Marc Walloch.
Their intro was an esoteric musical piece during which keyboard player Kenny Carkeet took the stage, started the live music and was then follow by the others onto a dark stage with dramatic background lights. for their opening song “Run” they kept this mood. For “Hollow Moon” things got much brighter. Despite the sizable pit front man Aaron Bruno managed to reach out to the audience quite a bit. There were tons of smiles, phones and looks of sheer bliss in the audience. After the third song we had to remove our cameras from the venue, but Judging by fan reaction, the crowd had a great time.
Set List:
Run / Hollow Moon / Jailbreak / Soul Wars / Windows / Kooks Everywhere / Knights of Shame / Kill your Heroes / Woman / All I need / People / Plastic / Burn
Encore: I am / Dreamers / Sail
