Thanks, Gary. Garrison Keillor took a cruise, and so there's no Prairie Home Companion at the Minnesota State Fair this year. Instead there was Minnesota Music Night featuring Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapels, Jeremy Messersmith, Dessa, the Jayhawks and Semisonic.
Semisonic is at its heart a classic power pop trio, notwithstanding the fact that there were often six musicians on the stage. Guitarist-singer-songwriter Dan Wilson leads the way with JohnMunson on bass and Jacob Slichter on drums. A fourth musician, whose name I didn't catch, contributed on percussion and keyboards, and two violins from the Laurel String Quartet joined for several tunes.
The band closed with "Someone Like You," the mega-hit that Wilson cowrote with Adele, and Prince's "Little Red Corvette" with the help of Messersmith and Dessa. But the highlight for me was the long, slow build of "I Wish" at mid-set.
Still Semisonic summarized the whole evening well in that they, like all the other artists, favor mid-tempo rockers. Doesn't anybody know how to rock and roll anymore?
Well, in fairness, Lucy and Michelle and friends were mostly up-tempo in their artsy set prominently featuring an exotic assembly of instruments such as cello, bowed double-bass, accordian, etc. The highlight was Lucy's gabby, stream-of-consciousness vocals. Fun.
Messersmith followed with an earnest set of original tunes in a Brit pop style, featuring his sweet tenor vocals. Nicely done.
The Jayhawks were the token unselfconsciously folksy (as opposed to artsy) band of the evening. The early going was marred by a muddy sound and a series of muffed lead guitar lines by Gary Louris. But the band tightened it up as the show moved along. "Angelyne" stood out with its faster tempo near the end of their show.
Dessa, rapper/singer from Doomtree, should also be credited with bringing some much needed energy to the stage. I suppose I'd be dating myself to ask why she doesn't feature her nice singing voice more often I mean, rap is just talk while her singing, well, that's music.
In summary, the band I'm hoping to see again soon is Lucy and Michelle with their sunny energy.
No comments:
Post a Comment