By: Bob Longmore
 |
|
Duplomacy - Photo by Bob Longmore
|
Askeleton started the night at the Turf Club. They played quirky pop songs complete with Knol Tate’s interpretive pantomimes, which made the band a true visual as well as aural experience. Tate’s David Byrne channeling even included the self-inflicted slap to the side of the head.
The Deaths, who still seem to me like they time-warped to the Twin Cities from another era, delivered their spot-on version of 60s rock. They even managed to keep going when drummer Tom Stromsodt broke a snare drum. Singer Karl Qualey, sporting his trademark green army cap, sweated out what sounded like a Black Sabbath riff until the drum was replaced. By halfway through the Deaths set, the Turf Club was a sauna, sending sweaty smokers and non-smokers out on to the sidewalk to catch a breath of cool fresh air.
By the time the headliner began, most of the crowd had trickled their way back in.
Duplomacy found themselves at the receiving end of a lot of positive press in the week leading up to their CD release show. The 89.3 The Current banners draping the stage monitors proved that the doting was not quite over. Not that the band doesn’t deserve the attention – their new CD, All These Long Drives, had been a long time coming and when all is done, I think, it will be considered one of the best albums of the year.
Starting with “Stay up Late,” Andy Flynn, singing through a clenched jaw, was able to recreate the vulnerable vocals found on the record. His voice was strong and clear yet fragile at the same time. The band was tight and on cue throughout the entire night.
 |
|
Adam Egerdahl of Duplomacy - Photo by Longmore
|
The guitar swoons and swells created between Flynn and guitarist Adam Egerdahl echoed the emotion of the songs. Egerdahl, looking like a hipster librarian with reading glasses perched at the end of his nose as he looked down at his guitar, played with effortless precision.
The crowd near the stage stood in rapt attention, hanging on Flynn’s every word, pulsing with every beat and letting each hook pass through them. The band were laying themselves bare, Flynn with his eyes shut, let loose into the ready microphone on “All These Long Drives” to sing:
Upon closer observations
I can’t believe these conversations
All these long drives
Bring out past lives
That never really died
Just found a way to hide
The well-crafted songs sounded deceptively simple, but there were layers and nuances that let them rattle around inside your head long after the song has ended.
While the band members of Duplomacy stood mostly still and mostly blank faced, they were not inaccessible. Every once in a while, Egerdahl would flash a grin that betrayed the cool that the band effused. Instead, it let anyone who noticed in on the fact that playing in front of a big crowd who are digging your band is pretty fun.
Flynn’s vocals were accentuated by Egerdahl’s harmonizing on songs such as “The Stroll” and “Remember This.” The epitome of this happened during the song “Coppertone.” The band paused, leaving a slow loping beat from drummer Judd Hildreth as a single guitar barely shimmered. Flynn sang, “Such a sunny attitude,” and Egerdahl, grinning that grin from three feet behind the microphone, repeated the line as if an echo of Flynn. Then both singers leaned into their microphones and delivered the slow knockout punch, “Without a drop of Coppertone,” just as the entire band jumped back in to punctuate and propel the moment. It gave me chills.
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: Askeleton, Duplomacy, The Deaths
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus