Twin Cities Invasion At The What’s Up Lounge With Throw the Fight And 3 Pill Morning

Another great show happened recently at The What’s Up Lounge in Mankato, MN.  Throw the Fight and 3 Pill Morning returned on May 17th and if that wasn’t enough rock for you, Mankato locals The Mayberry Riot joined them.  I tried to get there earlier than I normally do, but ended up at the venue around 10 minutes before showtime.  I didn’t get around to talk to all the bands and I should have made more of an effort, but I feel like I’m bothering them in between sets even when it’s not their turn to set up on stage.  Anyway, the place was pretty packed for this show and there was plenty of people that I knew that showed up for this one!

The Mayberry Riot went on first and was probably the main reason everyone was there.  Originally, this was going to be the last show with singer Sierra Day.  After talking with them before the show, I was hopeful that this would be more of a break than a breakup.  Only time will tell on that, but The Mayberry Riot delivered a very fun set.  Sierra sounded as strong as ever on the mic.  In fact, everyone seemed to be more on point for this performance.  Ryan actually had one of his cymbals turn sideways during one song, but he didn’t miss a beat and played it like that until the song was over!  I hope to see The Mayberry Riot very soon in the future and I am going to miss taking photos of them, but you can be sure I’ll be there when they return!

Next up was 3 Pill Morning, the first of the two Twin Cities based bands.  It had been a moment since I had seen these guys, even though they are on a normal rotation for music in my car.  They came out and killed it still though.  The only issue was that The What’s Up seemed to have a new sound guy or someone filling in and the crowd thinned out after about 5 songs.  I was in the back getting wide shots and could overhear many saying it was too loud.  Sure it’s a rock show, but The What’s Up is a tiny venue that doesn’t need a ton of volume to make the bands sound good.  I couldn’t really tell since I’m usually up in front of the speakers, but once I moved out and back I could understand the complaints.  Getting back to the band and their performance, 3 Pill Morning was every bit as good as I had remembered.  Their songs are well planned out and are very catchy and fun to sing along with and that’s exactly what the crowd was doing.  They had a longer set and I was happy to get to hear many of their songs played live.  Let’s hope 3 Pill Morning will return to Mankato soon!

Closing out the night was Throw the Fight.  I’ve been following these guys for quite some time now.  In fact, I have a shirt that I bought at their show when The Afterlife in Algona, IA was a thing.  The crowd was certainly excited to see them and they made sure to get their spots right up at the stage as soon as the band was done setting up.  They came out very strong and fast just like the last time they were here.  The lighting wasn’t as great and I had a little more difficulty getting shots, but the lighting was a little more engaging and in tune with the performance.  The crowd kept getting more and more hyped up as the set went on and as I was getting my wide shots from the back, I could see some of the people starting a mosh pit.  The band makes good use of the small stage though and they still jumped around like it was 3 times that size.  I noticed there was someone with video equipment, so if you were at this show, maybe they are using the footage for a music video!  It’s always good to see Throw the Fight play and I’m sure there will be plenty more chances for me to see and photograph them!

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