Late Friday night downtown Minneapolis was packed for two reasons – the Timberwolves vs. Bucks game and Skizzy Mars. Maneuvering through the traffic was worth it for this show. I will admit that I did need to get an extra caffeine boost, since this was a later start time of 9 pm. When I arrived at the venue, it wasn’t as packed as I had expected with the “low ticket warning”. After releasing some singles, Skizzy Mars is back with his “Bad as We Wanna Be” tour. First to take the stage was Moonlander.
Moonlander
I really didn’t know what to expect from the openers since I hadn’t heard of either of them. I also did not look them up before the show to keep it a surprise. Moonlander had a flutist come out to open his set. This flutist was wearing formal attire, and started jamming out as much as you can on a flute. Moonlander then took stage, with a similar sound to Bryce Vine. He had a light, and comedic vibe to his stage presence, and was very interactive with the crowd. While performing, he told lots of stories and explained the meanings behind some of his songs.
Moonlander also premiered a song that was released that day, and stated that he is releasing a song every Friday until he is famous. He was not alone in his performance either. Moonlander claimed his regular DJ was out, and called upon a local Minneapolis artist to DJ for him that night.
Brake
The first opener made sense to me, but the second came out of left field. Brake, who gained a large TikTok following and uses the platform for their music, combines a punk rock voice with all sorts of styles. At one point they were playing ukulele, then acoustic guitar, then no instrument. It was hard to keep track of what they were going to do next. Like the previous, Brake kept up a comedic and light hearted performance throughout most of the set. This is the first time Brake has ever been on tour, and seemed very excited to perform Friday night in Minneapolis.
Skizzy Mars
The crowd was chanting “Skizzy Mars” in excitement waiting for him to come on stage. At this point, Fine Line was packed to the brim. He came on stage with his song “Do You There”. Listening to Skizzy Mars when I was in high school, I was pleasantly surprised that he played a lot of his older music such as “Do You There” and “Alcoholics”. He was bounding all over the stage, and hyping the crowd up. He explained that he had to start his tour in Minneapolis, because he loves coming here and every show is “like a movie”. Rightfully so, the crowd was hyped the entire time he was on stage. Skizzy ended the set with “Girl on a Train” and his remix of “Tired of Talking” by G-Eazy and Léon “Changes”.
Check out other concerts in the Twin Cities HERE.
