Fog and electro pop descended on the Fine Line Saturday night. Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells had come to town and recruited Minneapolis’ Tiny Deaths to open for them.
Electro dream pop duo tiny deaths seems destined to be the next breakout band from the Twin Cities. Consisting of singer-songwriter Claire De Lune and producer Grant Cutler, they released their debut EP “Night Flowers” earlier this year. Their set stared in dark lights on a smoke filled stage. The Fine Line is my favorite Twin Cities venue for smoke, the mix between smoke and light work just out quite well for images. tiny deaths mixed songs from from “Night Flowers” with newly written ones that will be on their first full album – name and release date unknown. I really enjoyed their set, great songs with De Luna’s vocal floating above them.
Sleigh Bells’ set was quite the change of pace and lights. The duo of vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist Derek Edward Miller started on a dark stage with strobes against a wall of speakers that set the tone for things to come. Krauss stormed the stage and as she put it “Got Shit DONE!”. I was not very familiar with the band before the show. I had heard a couple of their tracks, seen a vid or two but I was not ready so experience them live (and neither was my poor camera). The vibe on stage is a lot more metal than one would expect. The energy is unreall. Krauss bounced all over the stage before slowing down for a couple of breaths for the first 4 songs. The guitar riffs sound like they would come from a burly, hairy metal guy (turns out Miller was in Poison the Well). Combining the guitars with Krauss’ voice that can go from a hoarse whisper to a scream in seconds and the lights and you got yourself one heck of a show.
Photographers rant: This was the most challenging show I have photographed in recent memory. It was also one of the coolest. Backlights, lights from below and a ton of strobes basically have you guess your best setting, hang on for dear life and hope the lights, action and stage and your settings meet up a few times. At the same time Krauss’ interaction with the crowd make it impossible not to shoot as many pictures as possible. So forgive any blurry, dark or noisy images – I had a blast and screw perfection!
Set List: Tell Em / Just Us / Bitter / Riot / Kids / Minnie / Sing Like a Wire / Born to Lose / Comeback / Infinity / Demons / You don’t get me Twice / Crown Encore: Rule #1 / A/B Machines
