By: David Rachac
Little Man's Chris Perricelli was kidnapped by aliens in 1978 while he was driving his Camaro listening to T. Rex on his 8-track player, and was recently returned to Earth, but no one told him he was gone for nearly 30 years—and that is why we love him so much.
Chris Perricelli of Little Man - Photo by Stacy Sandstrom (click for full set)
I wrote these words about a year ago, after taking a copy of Little Man’s 2004 release Big Rock on a cross-country trip and marveling how much the songs reminded me of listening to the radio when I was a kid. Their latest release, Soulful Automatic, continues that ‘70s vibe, melding Britpop, garage rock and California cool in a sweet package that absolutely rocked live at the CD release party at the 7th Street Entry.
Kruddler started the night off with a bang, bringing high doses of energy and humor with their metallic, melodic power-pop. I’m embarrassed to admit that I had never seen them before—I know they have been around for years, but I had them pegged as a garage-punk band that I would see eventually but wasn’t going out of my way to do. The price that I paid for my arrogance was missing out on one of the Twin Cities’ hidden gems. I was blown away by how catchy and tuneful their songs were. Singer/guitarist Shane Gallivan and bassist Tony Zaccardi take the heart-on-the-sleeve emotion of Soul Asylum and meld it with the punky sheen of Blink 182 (with only half the dick jokes), while drummer Tim Baumgart flails away mightily to propel the music forward. Kruddler was an inspired choice to set the mood right.
It had been a few years since I had seen The Beatifics play live, but it only took a couple of chords into “Those Kids” until it was 1996 all over again. Has it really been 11 years since How I Learned to Stop Worrying was released? It was hard to believe—singer/guitarist Chris Dorn and guitarist Andy Schultz sounded just as good as they did back then. Even the new songs they played had the Beatles-meet-Big Star familiarity to them, which got me excited about the prospects of a new CD. Sadly, Dorn announced that a previously planned EP with The Deaths was not going to happen, so it sounds like it will be a little while before some new music will be released.
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Kruddler - Photo by Stacy Sandstrom
(click for full set) |
After the song was finished, they were joined onstage by guitarists Eric Kassel (The Magnolias) and Ted Held (Big Ditch Road) and keyboardist/percussionist Carol Cunnington, giving the band more flexibility in covering the dense textures of Soulful Automatic in a live setting. Kassel was onstage for most of the songs, playing rhythm guitar mostly, but took lead when Perricelli concentrated more on singing. Held played on fewer songs, mostly when there was slide work to be done, but he and Kassel’s twin-slide-guitar attack on “Out For Miles” was one of the more memorable songs of the night. Cunnington was also a valuable addition, adding keys in a few spots, percussion in others, but also adding a high harmony vocal that wrapped nicely around Perricelli’s lead.
The main part of the show was a nice mixture of uptempo and acoustic songs, all from Soulful Automatic but just in a different order. I especially liked “Soulful Automatic,” partly because it is such an honest, positive song, and partly because Perricelli accidentally went back to the chorus too early and needed to be bailed out by the rest of the band, which brought smiles all around. The garage-rock “Shag If You Want To” sounded great in all of its Neanderthal glory, as did the anthemic “Ride,” complete with the Beatlesque outro that segued into a cover of the Beatles’ “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide” to end the set.
For their encore, the three full-time members of Little Man came back for four songs, including “Touching Wonder” from Big Rock and three new songs that continued with the ‘70s rock vibe that we have all come to love about Little Man. It was fun to watch them play with such supreme confidence, connected to their muse and giving it back to the audience. It will be interesting to watch where the next year takes them—Little Man has a momentum that you cannot deny.
Little Man performs at SXSW on March 16 at the 115 Club and at the Eclectone Showcase at the Varsity Theater on March 31.
Location Info:
7th Street Entry
Artist Info: Kruddler, Little Man, The Beatifics
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