In my ongoing quest to rank the concerts I’ve been to in order from best to least-best, this show rivaled The Wombats 2015 and Catfish and The Bottlemen 2016. I had so so much fun and I’d like to thank my grrrl, Margie, for pretending to be my photographer so she could come dance with me. And a big thank you to Jo of The Florists for inviting us to this show the night before when Marge and I were some of the few people left at The Whole dancing like maniacs during their set.

First in the lineup of the night was Half Tramp, the solo project from Taylor Brea Harrison. The crowd was serenaded by her beautifully enchanting voice set to some simple, but dark electric guitar. Her voice reminded me a bit of Hope Sandoval’s or Mitski’s, but Taylor definitely has her own vibe going with her music; it’s very sad-witch in a really good way.

She had the crowd near silenced until there was some banter about the T.V. show Charmed. “I wish I had something cool to say. I’m just still thinking about Charmed” she said, to which a member of the crowd yelled “you’re the fifth sister!” in reply. Her set was short and sweet to ensure time for the other acts, but I really would have liked to hear more from Half Tramp, I can’t say enough good things!

Up next was Daisy Chains, with their surfy, psychedelic, rock n’roll music that got the crowd moving. The band is made up of locals E.A. Bambery, Walker Neudorff, and Allison Gunderson. Opening their set with the first track off their latest release, “Only, Only”, the audience started grooving and shifting. By the end of the song, there was a different group of people at the front for this set.

Most of their songs were pretty fast paced, and anyone in the crowd could observe the vigorous headbanging of a few members of The Florists. The Daisy Chains closed their set with obvious crowd fave “Bye Baby” off the 2015 Nervous Breakthroughs Split EP which features three other local bands. Their rockabilly energy was a great at warming up the crowd for the next two, considerably louder bands.

Now it was time for The Florists to take the stage. They are some of my recent favorites after seeing them at their own release show in July at 7th St. Entry. The band’s twitter bio reads, “Minneapolis post punks. queer. excitable. we will dance with you.” and they are exactly that. With incredible, incredible, amounts of energy on stage, they began with “Casual Friend” and the crowd was dancing immediately.

They continued with fan-favorites off both their new release Can You Feel The Stasis? and their previous Demos EP. The audience continued to grow, swelling and surging to the front of the stage towards the end of The Florists’ set. Guitarist and lead vocals, Jo Kellen, handed their guitar off to bassist Luke Michaels as they angrily danced and crawled about the stage whilst singing and tending to the synthesizer every now and again during “Sleeper Hit.”

They finished their set with a song called “Circuit”, but second to last was “Joey, You’re a Dream” to which Kellen prefaced, “this is a song for anyone who’s ever been misgendered before!” A mosh pit soon broke out, and in true fashion of The Florists and all their “weirdo glory” that is so obvious on stage, Kellen ended by smearing lipstick across their face, then on Michaels’ before they wrestled each other to the ground as Jared Hemming kept the last fading beats of the song on the drums, and another man from the crowd emerged on the side of the stage, also smearing his own face with lipstick.

All I can really say is thank you to The Florists for being so fun, and also everyone reading this who hasn’t gone to see them, do it, please.

Yay! Now time for Tony Peachka! (I realize this is a long review, thanks to those who have read this far, please continue 🙂 This rad AF band is made up of Melissa Jones (guitar and vocals), Stephanie Jo Murck (guitar), Danielle Cusack (Bass) (also a member of Bruise Violet!), and Haley Briasco (drums) and they absolutely blew me away. I think this was the first time I’ve ever seen a headlining band made up exclusively of girls, and it was honestly so inspiring and kick ass, especially in light of recent discussions such as this.

They came out on stage, did a little group huddle before they jumped right into the first song. Their music sounds very surf-pop, riot grrrl-esque, though they describe it as “clog-wave.” Tony had a lot of fans and friends in the crowd including all the members of the opening acts, the members of The Florists actually started a mosh pit by their fourth song, “Sour Grapes” off their new album. A few of their songs featured choreographed dance moves by Cusack and Murck.

They continued to absolutely kill it throughout the rest of their set, ending with “Knees”. After only about a minute off stage and the entire venue chanting “TONY! TONY!”, the girls excitedly returned to their instruments. Cusack barely says “we’ve been keeping this a secret for so long. I’m nervous! Are we ready?!” into her mic to the rest of the band, while Murck throws gold glitter over the crowd. Tony then broke into the most legendary cover of Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” ever, complete with  backup dancers who ended the song in a fake-brawl turned passionate lip lock. It was incredible.

To all who played last night, thank you so much. To all who danced last night, thank you so much. I love you all. I love everything :’) more photos below, enjoy!