You couldn’t have asked for a better weekend for alternative and indie fans in Minnesota than this past weekend. With Goth Babe in St. Paul Saturday evening to Royel Otis closing out the fun at First Avenue on Sunday night. It was a great lineup of two awesome alternative bands Sunday night with Friko joining Royel Otis on tour for support. Amazing guitar riffs, angsty voices, some fun lyrics and named songs, these two bands felt like a transportation to the 2010s era of alternative.
Friko started off the night, with lead singer Niko taking the stage solo with a guitar and some low lighting. They started it off slow, and eventually the whole band joining in towards the end of the song to hype up the vibes. The energy this crew brought was fantastic, and the crowd was enamored with them right from the start. Playing a lot of their newer songs from their latest album, this band seriously brought the energy to each and every song bounding about the stage. The guitarist was particularly fun to watch, swinging his guitar wildly around and whipping his hair back and forth. Friko is up and coming, and definitely one to watch in the indie scene.
If you have been on TikTok or Instagram within the last year, you more than likely have heard at lease one of this bands songs. Royel Otis, gaining traction after their hit cover of “Murder on the Dancefloor” went viral. The band covered the song due to it’s popularity in the movie Saltburn. After people started to pick up on their music, their song “Oysters in My Pocket” quickly became popular. This band revealed quite the production when they took the stage, with large fluorescent lights at the back of the stage, and a somewhat unsettling giant shrimp. Although the photography rules made for a pretty squished pit, it made sense since guitarist Roy keeps his identity pretty hidden from the public eye. But let me tell you, Otis’s voice was incredible. Being a big fan of this band and knowing they will probably make a top 5 appearance on my Spotify wrapped, I had higher expectations and they blew me away.
Starting off the night with quite a few songs from their newest album “PRATTS & PAIN”, the audience was ecstatic. And let me tell you, it was a packed house. They took a couple of dives into their first album as well, playing “I Wanna Dance With You” and “Sofa King”. What was a pleasant surprise is the band played their two recorded covers, one was mentioned previously and the other is “Linger” by The Cranberries which is also such a fantastic cover choice for Otis’s voice. Their setlist was perfectly curated in my opinion, ending the set with “Going Kokomo”, “Murder on the Dancefloor” and “Oysters in my Pocket”. They came out with “Linger” and “Kool Aid” as their encore which was just *chefs kiss*. Did I also walk out with a cool shirt? Hell yes. I can’t wait for this band to keep producing tunes.
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