By: Pat O'Brien
The 7th Street Entry was bursting at the seams for The Bridge Club, Tapes 'N Tapes and The Future. The Bridge Club has been knocking around this scene for years and have many devoted fans, Tapes 'N Tapes just signed a deal with UK label XL Recordings, and The Future seem to have a bright one ahead of them.
The difference in the visual appearance and audio assault of The Future caught me off guard. They looked like they walked straight out of the Pretty In Pink prom scene with tuxedo shirts and new wave haircuts, but they sounded like The Stooges covering Minor Threat - while slipping in a few off-kilter Radiohead-like key changes to keep everyone on their toes. They played angry and mean music, and the songs were mostly under three minutes, but that didn't stop them from cramming two guitar solos into one song, and having it make perfect sense. Nothing seemed forced, tired or pretentious. Maybe it's the way they didn't smile to acknowledge that the outfits were a joke, the way rhythm guitarist Tony Monochrome looked like he might pass out from playing so hard, Or lead singer/guitarist Steven Evil's feathered 'do (complete with rat tail) - but I believed them. They are serious and should be taken seriously.
As The Future were playing, the place sold out. Some people even tried paying cover in the Mainroom to try and cross over, but to no avail. In the past month since SXSW, Tapes 'N Tapes have gone from being a Minneapolis band only a handful of fans cared about to being international media darlings, and now everyone in town wants to see them before they launch into the stratosphere.
Tapes 'n Tapes play a brand of rock that's easy to listen to but hard to accurately define. They occupy a space somewhere between Pavement and Sonic Youth, minus the former's broken jangle and the latter's tendency to let songs drift aimlessly. TNT tosses in a tuba, Christmas bells and a smattering of samples to further shake things up. It seems like it would be a lot to absorb at first, but they have packaged it into a delicious pill that goes down easy and makes you feel warm inside. Why people weren't clawing each other's eyes out to see this band from the start will remain a mystery, but now that the band is getting the kind of attention they deserve, they appear to have taken it in stride - no ego tripping on stage, and they even seemed a little embarrassed when they mentioned they had gotten signed. The band blasted through most of the songs from their latest album The Loon, and I have never seen The Entry as full as it was - it was shoulder to shoulder all the way back to the ticket booth. Minneapolis hasn't had a breakout band like this in some time, and I'm eager to see what they do next.
There is a garage somewhere in the United Kingdom that is missing its band because The Bridge Club is based in the Twin Cities. The Entry's cramped quarters loosened up a bit before TBC started; this was good as people were getting a bit cranky toward the end of Tapes 'N Tapes. Following TNT, The Bridge Club hit the stage with somewhat of an uphill battle ahead of them at their own CD release party. But they quietly gathered themselves together, (final amp checks, etc.) and exploded, winning the battle in about ten seconds. They seemed fueled by a need to prove how good they were as the City Pages had soundly panned their new album The Scorched Capsule a few days earlier. (They mentioned it more than once)
The Bridge Club have simple, fiery riffs that would make Ray Davies jealous, and singer Joe Werner sounds so much like the Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley at times that I almost had to do a double take. They were dressed simply in jeans and t-shirts, but there was no mistaking who they were; I picked them out of the crowd earlier in the night with ease. People have been saying, "Garage is dead" for years now, but The Bridge Club is knocking loudly from inside the coffin, so it clearly hasn't flat lined just yet.
Location Info:
7th Street Entry
Artist Info: Bridge Club, Tapes 'n Tapes, The Future
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