Sofi Tukker Serves Bread at Packed Armory

Sofi Tukker’s show at The Armory has been highlighted in my calendar ever since it got announced earlier this year, with potentially with more attention drawn to it than my biggest race of my running career. This show was amongst my most anticipated of 2024, with BREAD being the album that got me through my first ultramarathon training block and across the finish line in my 50 mile race. To say I was excited was a complete understatement; I was ecstatic to catch a night of the BREAD Tour at one of my favorite venues in the Twin Cities.

Carola, the opening DJ for the night, was on stage right at 6:30 to start welcoming the crowd as they filtered into The Armory.  While I am still new to the electronic genre as a whole and I am still learning the nuances of this branch of music, I can say that rising artist/music producer Carola kept steady waves of beats flowing throw the venue to get the crowd vibing and moving along. As more and more people began to make their way into the venue and got settled in, Carola kept the vibrant beats flowing, getting the crowd into her set by visibly grooving with her own music. My personal experience with DJ’s opening sets have been hit or miss, however, I was completely into Carola’s set, even getting excited to get her music on my running playlist.

The penultimate act of the night was one that I personally was super interested to see live: Shermanology. The duo took the stage almost immediately after Carola departed, which was a bit of a shock to me, as I’m used to the 15-30 minute set changes of rock shows. The brother-sister duo of Shermanology blends a perfect mix of house electronic funk with a hint of vocals that evoke the airwaves of the 90’s. By the time the duo was starting their set, The Armory was starting to get packed, with more and more people starting to groove along to the eclectic beats. What I appreciate about Shermanology’s set was their unique sound and how perfectly it fit with the crowd, setting the perfect tone for the headliners of the evening.

Last but certainly not least was the one and only Sofi Tukker. My personal hype for this set was through the roof, and from the first notes of “Bread” I was completely entranced by the duo and their troupe on stage.  The stage setup was a reimagining of their BREAD album cover art, with the band even bringing out what I can only describe as baguette dumbbells during “Bread.” There’s really no way for me to say how incredible this show was, I can only say it resembles the feeling of cafuné (the title of one of their tracks off of BREAD that they sadly did not play). From the how-to instruction to get the crown throwing it back for “Throw Some Ass” to bringing up a couple of fans on stage during “Goddess In Disguise” to show off their dance moves, Sofi Tukker truly embodied their album cycle mantra of be really energetic and dance in every shape and form. There wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t completely locked in to their set, dancing along to song after song. To be completely honest I was absolutely blown away with their performance and wish I could experience the Bread Tour again for the first time. The last song of the evening was actually the first Sofi Tukker song I ever heard (and the first one the duo wrote together), and it felt fitting that the night would end with an incredible live rendition of “Drinkee.”  While I haven’t been to as many shows as I normally would have at this point in the year, it’s safe to say that Sofi Tukker will be taking the crown for best live show of the year for me, and will be amongst the best shows I have ever been to.