How Was The Show - St. Dominic's Trio, The Belfast Cowboys, The Tisdales at First Avenue

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The Belfast Cowboys, St. Dominics Trio and The Tisdales at First Avenue on 12/3/08

Terry Walsh, Joe Baumgart and Simon Sheehan of St. Dominic's Trio - Photo by Jenn Barnett

I love spending time at First Avenue around the holiday season. I fondly recall shows at the venue from Decembers past by bands like The Jayhawks and Soul Asylum that felt like gatherings of the Minnesota musical family. The colder it gets in Minnesota, the warmer it seems in the Main Room when the music is local and the drinks are flowing.

Wednesday night was the dual CD release show for the All Van Morrison All the Time cover band The Belfast Cowboys and its smaller all originals offshoot St. Dominic’s Trio. Openers The Tisdales (one of Rich Mattson’s new projects since he retired Ol’ Yeller) also recently released an album, A Bakers Dozen in late November. Tying it all together was the fact that Mattson produced the St. Dominic’s Trio album, Switch, as well as contributing guitar and backing vocals on a few songs. (The Belfast Cowboys self-titled album was produced by Dave Russ, who thought not playing tonight, was on hand to show his support.)

The Tisdales are Rich Mattson (vocals/guitars), Tony Derrick (vocals/guitars), Jason Kokal (bass) who was stationed front and center at this show, and Derek Rolando (drums), who sits low behind his kit, and appeared to sit even lower due to the Belfast Cowboys kit being set up on a riser behind him.

If I were to say The Tisdales “tore it up,” would you hold that tired musical phrase against me and revoke my music writer’s license? I hope not, because that’s what they did, and those in attendance will assure you it’s the proper terminology to use here. The Duluth-based band channeled the rock gods, their music sometimes heavy, guitar solos inspired by something on the other side of the veil. In short, it was what a rock show should be and included plenty of material from their new disc, songs varying in style from the shimmery pop of Big Star to the punk of The Ramones to songs that could almost be Cookie Monster rock infused with the down home Minnesota friendliness of the Iron Range.

Highlights of the set included the call and response style “Two Armies,” the ‘60s jangle rock “Faces,” the hefty “Like a Horse” that inspired leg kicks by some audience members (videos of those 3 songs are available in the blog), “Manifold Eyes” (which had its Cookie Monster moments) and “Universal Mother.” All songs except “Manifold Eyes” appear on their new album. “I guess you could say we’re from west St. Louis County,” Mattson said introducing the band mid-set. Full of passion, power and killer hooks, this was one of the finest opening sets by any band I have seen in some time.

Rich Mattson of the Tisdales - Photo by Barnett

Fittingly, recorded music by Neil Young played before and after the set. I’ve kind of always though of Mattson as Minnesota’s own version Neil Young in terms of appearance (classic sideburns), the longevity of his creative contributions (well over 20 years now), and musical diversity.

Up next was St. Dominic’s Trio who barreled right into it with the “4^th Day of May,” the country rock song ala Hank Williams or Wreckless Eric that’s the second track off their new album. Front man and songwriter, Terry Walsh joked, “Just trying to keep up with The Tisdales,” as he blasted into the band’s second song, “Outta Bullets,” which rocked live with its powerful stop and start drums that mirror the gunfire referred to by the song’s lyrics.

In addition to Walsh, St. Dominic’s Trio is comprised of Simon Sheehan (lead guitar), Joe Baumgart (bass) and Dave Haugen (drums), but members of the Belfast Cowboys band also lend a hand live and on the album. By the third song they were joined by the headlining band’s horn section for a slow blues number called “Cold Dice.” (I noted via Twitter that sax player Paul Gronert looked a lot like John Barrowman from Torchwood and received more than one Twitter reply asking if he made house calls).

The horns stayed onstage for the album’s opening track, “Free and Alive,” a song I would nominate as an alternative title for the CD as the whole album seems to be a celebration of both states. "It don’t mean a damn thing if you ain’t free and alive,” Walsh sings at the end of the bridge leading into the chorus.

“Home of the Range” is slow ballad ala Springteen’s “I’m on Fire,” and another song that grew on me after a few listens. Adding to the feel of a Christmas show was “Christmas with Judy Jetson” (Yes, that Judy Jetson) where they were joined by Mattson. “I Thought We Were Friends” is one of the songs on the album that most shows the influence of Van Morrison. After another slow blues number, “Freeze” (which Walsh said was a bit of a murder mystery), the set closed with Rich Mattson joining again for another key song on the disc and the show, “Bike Ride on 35W.” The song takes me back to my earlier “free and alive” point and helps to support a long-running belief of mine that (to make a long story short) there are things in life far more important than safety. As the song ends, Walsh repeats, “I wanna live before I die.” A good plan, to say the least.

Walsh was back after a short break and wardrobe change with his Belfast Cowboys, and shortly after they took the stage a dance party broke out at First Avenue even though it was getting close to midnight on a school night. By the time the band blasted into “Real, Real Gone” people were literally jumping around. Perhaps it’s part of the band’s attraction to some that they play the Van Morrison songs the way they were done on the original records as opposed to how Van Morrison himself plays them these days. Though Walsh admitted, “We play the fast ones faster and the slow ones slower.” (See last year’s review of the band performing all of Van Morrison’s Moondance.) The dance floor was full by the time they got to “Domino” and Walsh injected bits of Jonathan Richman’s Roadrunner and the room was indeed infused with a “Youth of 1000 Summers” on this cold winter’s night. Many reports filtered in the next morning via various social media networks about people being up way, way too late because of this show. We couldn’t stay till the very end, but I’m sure “Brown Eyed Girl” ended up in there somewhere.