Bishop Briggs packs the Fine Line for a GO Show

Friday night, the Fine Line Music Café is packed for what will be an awesome first tour for a pigtailed feisty singer. And despite having two major hits and a sold out show in a music savvy Minneapolis, almost none of my own friends knew Bishop Briggs by name. One response even saying “wait, that’s the new country guy isn’t it?”, no children it isn’t. Now is the time to get acquainted with Bishop because she is on a mission and has the energy to get where she wants. Unlike my friends listeners of radio station GO96MN do have a clue and her popularity with that station led to GO96 sponsoring the show and tagging it one of their GO Shows.

Opener numero uno at Fine Line Was a guy who, as often happens to openers, I had no idea about and so seeing a DJ like setup on the stage made me skeptical. Here we go yet again, some guy who’s parents got him garage band in high school and he’s got a couple catchy beats. I was cynical, until a couple tracks in when he broke out a violin and mixed it seamlessly in with a laid back electronic beat comprised of a couple simple loops. The easiest way to give you the reader an idea of what Manatee Commune is all about is think Pretty Lights, but chill rainy day type vibes instead of a Matrix soundtrack feel. I am not usually into the Indie Pop/Chill Electronic music I come across and remain on the fence about Manatee but I did really enjoy the sort of rising energy he brought to open the evening up. I’ll be curious to see when I see him next and what his sound is then.

Following up Manatee Commune’s set was SHAED. I was able to do a little bit of recon on SHAED the day of the show and enjoyed listening to some of their tracks as I worked. The only real question I had was how will the vocals translate in a live setting?. Luckily the answer to that turned out to be extremely well!. SHAED singer Chelsea came out to introduce the group and my immediate impression was this group seems genuine. Now, some of you may think “listen guy, nobody cares, how do they sound?” Well, this guy cares because it tends to be indicative of how long a group survives in my experience. And I like intimate concerts not stadium filling “entertainers”.  Back to the point though, how did they sound? Great!. SHAED’s set was a nice mix of happy feels pop sound and to my surprise a little bit of fierceness. Chelsea managed to go from sweet sounding “lets dance in the rain” to “get out of my way I am singing here!” vibes and I LOVED it. Anytime a singer can shift gears and handle them both equally well, tip of the hat. I don’t know the track names well enough off hand to know the full set for SHAED but the one I did end up adding to my daily playlist was Thunder. A nice show of Chelsea’s voice and great beats backing the entire way. I’ll be happy to see this trio when they’re back in town.

So the reason you are here finally, to hear how that Bishop girl’s show was. A worthy sidenote, ThatBishopGirl is her Instagram tag and not as a means of promoting her here but that is an awesome tag. Moving on though! Bishop Briggs, where to start. I will admit outright when I was given coverage to the show I had worries this would be a Tove Lo type situation. Love the music but come show time I find myself in the corner trying to figure out where it all went wrong because THIS isn’t what the artist sounded like on the album. Thankfully that was not the case and Bishop backs her studio recordings just as well live. Opening the show appropriately was the track Darkside, and I LOVE this song after seeing her perform it live. I couldn’t tell you what the words are fully even now, but the song makes you wanna jump up with her and sing along. For this song I really got an idea of how fierce of a look Bishop can make, I wouldn’t want to be on hard bad side much less her dark.

I was a bit distracted working my way through a sea of cell phones in a sold out venue, but once I was done shooting for the most part, Bishop got to one of my personal favorites, The Fire. On that topic I should say for you all reading if you don’t know Bishop or you only know her hits (River and Wild Horses) you need to listen to The Fire, Pray, and Be Your Love. The Fire, why this song has so few hits on Spotify and YouTube is beyond me. The song has the potential to make for a great crowd sing along I think and definitely a great car karaoke choice.

Bishop closed the show with the crowd favorites Wild Horses and River with an added newer song, Hi-Lo. I don’t know why but it seemed interesting to me that these two songs came so late in the set. No complaints from me though, I sort of dig the “you’ll get what you want but you’re gonna have to wait” strategy. Wild Horses and River do NOT disappoint live. My worries had been put to rest long before this point in the show but keep in mind Bishop spends a LOT of time jumping up and down in her songs. Despite all the jumping, River and Wild Horses came on with a ton of energy and she brought the show through the home stretch solidly. If you don’t know anything about That Bishop Girl but this review, I advise you get familiar. She’s got a powerful voice and an attitude that is all at once intimidating and sexy. And as I read through the lyrics to some of her songs post concert I am digging the music even more. I expect if the music continues to evolve in the same vein that Bishop’s success will only grow. Loved the show and will absolutely be waiting for her to come back to Minneapolis.