7th St Entry – Got Any Tunes?

SALES @ 7th St Entry 09/05/18

SALES and I go way back, not in a one-on-one, friendly sort of way, but in the way that their music has been the soundtrack to so much of my conscious, music-seeking/listening part of life. I remember hearing “Chinese New Year” way back during my junior year of high school and thinking, “wow, this sounds like summer.” Still today, it’s one of my favorite songs to play when the weather starts getting warm.

“Renee” and “Getting It On” is the beach in Florida, “Jamz” is community college, “For You” is a summer romance, “Thurs 6-25” is starting at the U, “Off and On” is last winter, and “You Look Well” is finishing finals last spring.

I’ve waited ages to see this band it seems and I was a bit nervous that they wouldn’t hold up live just because of the pedestal they’re on inside my head, but boy did they. What a good night. Wow.

Last Import @ 7th St Entry 1/25/18

I’ve written this about these ladies before, but Last Import are badass. The coolgirl trio just released their EP, Songs for Adam, and here are some photos from the release party a couple nights ago at the Entry!

Sløtface @ 7th St 1/18/18

Howdy, kids! Got Any Tunes is back from break! Last night, after a series of unfortunate and then later fortunate events, I saw Sløtface (pronounced “Slutface”). It was the Norwegian punk band’s first time in the Minnesota, and although the crowd was small, the fans, like myself, were happy they finally stopped here.

After immediately clearing up confusion about the pronunciation of their name by request of a woman in the crowd, Sløtface jumped right into tracks off their 2017 LP, Try Not To Freak Out, the audience singing “Patti Smith would never put up with this shit!” right along with front-woman Haley Shea. They continued through a shuffled version of Try Not To Freak Out, adding a couple older songs here and there, along with a spoken word intermission clip from Nina Simone midway through the set.

You can make your own decisions based on the photos below, but I think the drummer, Halvard Skeie Wiencke, looks kind of like Ansel Elgort and he kept either making faces at me or really intense eye contact – hard one to read. Haley made jokes about the Superbowl saying, “this is all new to us, we don’t do this in Norway.” Their bassist, Lasse Lokøy, jumped into the crowd during “Sponge State,” a song that name drops Bon Iver.

Sløtface graciously closed the night without an encore, which I appreciated – bands should just play their set all the way through, its an old trope leaving the stage only to come back and play a couple more songs. I would like to make it a point that the first song that came over the house speakers when their set was over was Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag,” but the best part was that it was a part of their written set list. They picked it.

Set list

*intro
Magazine
Pools
Bright Lights
Pitted
Galaxies
*Nina Simone
Night Guilt
Sun Bleached
Sponge State
Try
Slumber
Nancy Drew
Backyard
*Teenage Dirtbag

Sløtface

Beach Fossils with Snail Mail @ The 7th St Entry 10/18/17

Here are some photos from the other night with Beach Fossils and Snail Mail! This was truly the best show I’ve been to alone since Adult Mom back in the spring. During Beach Fossils’ set, I just kept thinking about summer in Florida and everything was good. Also @SnailMailBand I’m the Maia you said hey to on stage :’)

Alex G, Japanese Breakfast, and CENDE @ 7th St Entry 6/27

Working in a kindergarten classroom is exhausting and that’s all I’m going to say in defense of me posting these photos so late! I hadn’t seen or heard CENDE (pronounced like “send” I was confused too lol) before and I really enjoyed their set. Japanese Breakfast crushed it as always, playing a lot of newer songs as well as old favorites. And (SANDY) Alex G, I really have no words. I wasn’t ever a huge fan, just didn’t get into his grungier, bedroom-pop, sad-boy tunes as much, but the twangier Rocket that just came out this year, and now having seen him live, I’ve changed my mind. Weird and expressive is really the only words that I come to mind as I watched Alex G’s set and I liked that a lot of the songs were performed a lot louder and rowdier than the recorded versions. But anyways there’s some photos below, enjoy!

Queer Pop Night! @ 7th St Entry 6/26

I went by myself, I enjoyed every second by myself, and I felt so much love for myself. I want to relive this show every night of my lives.

The Pride celebrations continued to Monday night for Queer Pop Night at The Entry with a stacked lineup featuring touring bands Adult Mom and Free Cake For Every Creature and local loves 4th Curtis and Strange Relations. I was so excited to see one of my top three favorite local bands, 4th Curtis, play with Adult Mom, a band who has come to mean so much to me within this past year. I went by myself, I enjoyed every second by myself, and I felt so much love for myself. I want to relive this show every night of my lives.

The 4th Curtis babes took the stage and immediately gained full interest from the half-filled Entry with their indie pop tunes. Lex started my favorite of theirs, “Anjali,” with a “1,2,3, fuck you!” Maddie told the audience that “Come Out” was about Father’s Day, and Ty lead the band in their cover of “Pillow Talk.” Much love for ya’ll.

Strange Relations were up next, and while I recognized having seen them play before, I had no idea they were label mates with Adult Mom (or that Casey and Maro were in a band in college with Michelle from Japanese Breakfast)! With just bass, drums, and vocals to kill, they blew me away like never before. We were told that they’ve never played a set like this before and it kind of reminded me of like a weird mix of Skating Polly, Mazzy Star, and PJ Harvey. My favorite song was mid-set with the lyrics “death to the golden boy.”

I so wish I had gotten way more into Free Cake For Every Creature before seeing them because they were so good and beautiful and now I can’t stop listening to them. Free Cake began quietly and humbly, drawing the audience in for a little more intimate feel. This was the Philadelphia-based band’s first time in Minnesota and they chatted a bit between songs about having visited the MOA and the crowd sent mixed reviews of approval and disapproval. Mega Mall supporters or not, Free Cake won over my heart by the second song they played, “For You,” and they’ll have it forever.

ADULT MOM. I have been looking forward to seeing them for so so long. Stephanie might be the funniest person on twitter (I’m sorry for favoriting so often lol) and she’s just as funny in person with banter about famous folks from MPLS and Keiran the owl who is the “silliest looking thing!” It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so much love and appreciation for a performing band, and that peaked as Stephanie dedicated “Told Ya So” to “all the queer and trans people, we love you. Happy Pride!” The last song, “What’s Another Lipstick Mark” was introduced with “okay, this is like the dance portion of the show,” as shoes were kicked off and the mic came out of the stand.

I didn’t stop smiling the entire show and my cheeks hurt afterwards and then I wept on my way home because it all meant so much. Love some good, wholesome bands. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Early Eyes EP Release show with Sass and The Happy Children @ 7th St Entry 5/25/17

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it forever; I love Early Eyes. I’m so proud of these boys, and am honored to have watched them grow so much in just the past year. From basement shows, to selling out a Current sponsored, 7th St Entry show, They’ve definitely come into their own.

First on the bill was the grungy, 90s alt-inspired babes Sass, who I also love. I saw them a few months ago and fell in love with Stephanie Murk’s (also of Tony Peachka) energy and vocals. I remember going home and looking them up only to find that they just had one song online, “Ragged Strawberry”. It was really cool to see two sides of the music scene, bands that normally don’t play together, join up for this show.

Next up was The Happy Children of Normal Parents, another local fav who also seem to be growing exponentially in popularity. Folks last night might have recognized their new drummer as Jon Lindquist of the local, progressive rock band, Denim Matriarch – he’s probably the happiest drummer I’ve ever seen, like ever. Despite a little mishap where Caleb broke two strings at once, The Happy Children put on a great show as always. It was nice to see ya’ll around again, we’ve missed you guys!

And of course, headlining was the beloved Early Eyes. Celebrating the release of their debut EP, Minutes, you could just tell how excited they all were to be there. Starting with a first with a few unreleased tracks, they then jumped into the EP, playing it straight through. With help from their friend Sophia Cruz on vocals (she’s also featured in the EP!) there was absolutely no lack of smiles or dancing. Early Eyes played a new song titled “Coffee” later in the set, followed by a whole list of shout outs starting with Wyatt’s mom who came from NJ, the openers and The Current, to Des’s best friend from high school, Steven.

The boys came back out for a two song encore that started with their beautiful cover of The Cure’s “Close To Me” – I didn’t scream louder the entire night (see the poorly shot snippet above). They closed the evening with the famed “Vape Juice” complete with the nearly entire audience rowdily screaming along. When I asked Jake if he had anything he wanted to say about the night, he went back and forth on what to say, joking about how he wanted to stage dive and nobody caught him, and finally settled on “thank you so much for coming tonight, Maia!” When I thanked him for playing The Cure cover, he said he knew it was my favorite, and my love for Early Eyes only grew. Here’s to you, boys. Stay humble, for you are so loved.