By: Jen Paulson
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| Josh Aran with Josh Grinolds - Photo by Jesse Olejnicak |
The 331 Club in good old Northeast Minneapolis was much more narrow than I expected. Looking at the stage as the musicians played was like watching a hootenanny in someone’s grandmother’s parlor, complete with dark wood and dark, flowered, old lady wallpaper. But we managed to get great seats at the bar and fantastic service from their bartenders as Margot Wagner was playing her last song, a sweet, delicate cover of “Over The Rainbow.” I’m glad I got there in time because I was simply there to see Sam Keenan and Josh Aran, but for my promptness I was rewarded.
At HowWasTheShow there have been mentions of Sam Keenan, but I had yet to hear him play live. I was glad to end up there for his set, although there was a brief moment of confusion when I swear he referred to himself as Sal Silverman. I worried: please don’t let me review someone else’s set and call it Sam Keenan’s. But luckily, during Josh Aran’s set, he cleared up that tomfoolery for me. Keenan has a smooth, dark tenor and a confident demeanor on stage. The stripped-down style of the evening’s set was different from how his music is typically arranged; it wasn’t as gripping as his stuff with a full band, but it was so nice and low key that it really pleased me, along with the crowd. He ended his set with a whimsical, breezy sing-along that would end up being stuck in my head for quite some time. Our assigned chorus read like this:
Happy, Happy, Happy, Sunshine, Sunshine
Rainbow Fun time, Rainbow Fun time
People reluctantly participated, as Minnesotans and Lutherans often do. And now it’s stuck in my cranium all over again. Maybe that’s what you get for being too shy to sing along.
Josh Aran has the thoughtful singer/songwriter thing down. At times, if you blink, you get this Morrissey-meets-Jeff Buckley tinge to his voice. Open your eyes again, though, and you realize that his vocals are purely original. Josh Grinolds joined him on stage on guitar and percussionist Ananda Bates played the box, which was a neat, organic touch. In the past few weeks I’ve found myself gravitating towards Aran’s last two albums. “Driving Nowhere,” from his second effort Between Us Arose Happiness, translated well to the 331’s enforced acoustic rules, and transported me into a day-dreamy state that would stay with me for the rest of the night. During his hour-long set, he touched on a healthy amount of the old and new, the only exception being his exclusion of his lush, beautiful cover of “Hysteria” by Def Leppard that is actually on his newest album, Water To Wash Water Away. Instead, I got “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys, and the tried and true, obligatory Beatles “Don’t Let Me Down” cover as a final song, with Margot Wagner and Sam Keenan coming up to provide backing vocals and piano, respectively. I can handle this, as it is my usual fate to have my gateway songs forgotten, and I couldn’t complain after a perfect winter evening of local entertainment.
Location Info:
331 Club
Artist Info: Josh Aran, Sam Keenan
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