Royal Bliss Warms Up Red Rocks in Mankato for Blissmas!

Sure the temperature was about the lowest it’s been this winter, but there was a good number of people that still headed out into the winter weather to catch a show that they knew was going to be amazing!  Royal Bliss made a stop at Red Rocks in Mankato, MN on Saturday, December 17th and warmed up the venue for their fans!  Joining them on this show was Minneapolis band City of the Weak and Mankato based Jeremy Poland.  This show was presented by 95.7 The Rock Station.

When I arrived at the venue, it was almost as cold inside as it was outside!  I was a little worried about that, but found out they were working on the heat to get it working again.  Once that kicked in the place finally started to warm up.  It was just in time too because people were starting to show up and it was a pretty decent turnout.  I kind of got away from talking about the lighting at shows, so I thought I would start that up again.  The lighting was pretty decent, but there was heavy blues and purples which made for a little more difficult edit.  There were also red lights everywhere in the venue, (it is Red Rocks after all!), and that showed on a few of the photos as well.  It was still a pretty good setup with plenty of light.

Jeremy Poland started out the show instead of Angry Waters.  One of the band members had a recent addition to their family and they were unable to make the show.  Jeremy played a lot of his original tunes from both his newest album and his last one.  There were also a few covers thrown in there as well.  I liked his personal touch on the cover songs as he sang them slower and it changed the way the songs sounded.  Toward the end of the set, he had everyone singing “Don’t Stop Believing”, which was cool to see.  Jeremy Poland was a great last minute addition to the show!

Next up was City of the Weak.  After catching them performing an acoustic set in the 95.7 studio, I was really ready to hear the complete set.  As they had in the previous times I was able to catch them, they completely rocked the stage at Red Rocks!  Playing a great mix of songs both old and new, they had the crowd jumping and dancing around on the floor.  Stef with an F, (lead vocals), had a ton of energy on stage as usual as she moved back and forth, jumped around, and took breaks in different songs to headbang!  The other band members followed suit and they all kept it up right through to the end!  If you haven’t had a chance to see City of the Weak live, I really suggest following them and going to a show if they stop near you!

It was finally time for Royal Bliss and the crowd couldn’t have been more worked up!  Spence from 95.7 made another announcement introducing the band and the show started much to the delight of everyone there.  The band kicked up the energy level in the venue and played just as hard as they have in the past, (if you listened to their live radio spot, they like it hard!).  Each time I see Royal Bliss, they have a ton of new songs, so each show is different from the last.  This was no exception.  Mixing in newer songs with their older material, there was something from almost every style of music.  Like Neal said on stage, they have opened up for rock and country acts and Royal Bliss can’t be held to a specific genre of music.  It’s like they have their own genre; Royal Bliss music!  It’s hard to explain if you haven’t been to a show, but they have a way of pulling you in and holding you in that moment throughout their entire set.  It’s really something you need to experience for yourself, so make sure you catch Royal Bliss if they are close to you!

Half a month to go in 2016 and I’m still going strong!  There are only a handful of shows left for the year and even the last day of 2016 I’ll be covering a show!  Look for the preview on that one soon!

As always, get out and support live music and I’ll see you out there!