By: Pat O'Brien
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| Jeremy Ackerman of Walker Kong - Photo by Stacy Sandstrom (click for full set) |
The Turf was a little more packed than usual in the waning moments before a three-band bill was set to start, and that maybe had to do with the second band. But first the crowd got what was most likely it's first look at Estate, a band that had played only two live shows before this one, though they sure didn't sound like it. Dressed in '80s vintage suits and new-wavy haircuts, their Air-meets-Boards of Canada-at-the-Daft Punk-discotheque sound set the mood right. At once laconic, manic and funky as hell, it was just daring you not to dance (or at least consider it), while animation behind them ran the gamut from old, dusty clips of what looked like ABC After School Specials; weird, shiny renderings of farm animals and sometimes just bits and pieces of the lyrics. “XXX=TRIPLE THE SEX” flashed a few times during “Get U Through,” causing the crowd the laugh a bit, which maybe wasn't intended but certainly didn't take away from the performance.
Dan Kramer (vocals, guitar, keys), Joshua Johnson (vocals, bass) and Vitamin D (drums) knew how to keep it interesting. Though the drums were live throughout the set, the music tended to sound pretty electronic and I was surprised to see Johnson and Kramer haul out instruments and play at least parts of most of the songs live, which added to the show quite a bit. They also churned out some old school hip-hop rhymes to keep everyone on their toes. A lot of times when you go to see an electronic artist it almost seems like they could simply press play on their CD and then head back to the dressing room to devour the meat and cheese tray, but Estate's performance showed you can create music in that electronica/trip-hop/whatever you would like to call it category not simply by pushing buttons, and still hold the crowd's attention.
The crowd became one big mass of thick-framed glasses and overgrown hair toward the front of the club as Vicious Vicious took the stage. The driving, funky bass and hooky guitars reminded me of a more poppy fIREHOSE at times, and I suspect they were responsible for the packed house. Lead singer Erik Appelwick moonlights in Tapes 'n Tapes and it seems wherever you have gone in Minneapolis over the last year, when TNT has been involved, even tangentially, you arrive to (or are in the middle of) a sold-out affair.
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| Erik Appelwick of Vicious Vicious - Photo by Stacy Sandstrom |
Vicious Vicious played a lot of new material and it seemed that they are headed into a different, more interesting direction. One new song wholly lifted the chorus from The Smiths' “Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before,” and did so without seeming derivative, cheesy or outright arrogant. It was treated delicately like Appelwick was almost embarrassed, as if that was how the song formed as they were writing it and there was little he could do now. They aren't TNT and maybe that was a disappointment to some people, but I was glad it was almost nothing like Tapes 'n Tapes. I realize there are three other, different people in Vicious Vicious, but to see Appelwick pouring his heart into VV after the success of his other band really made me have a lot more respect for him.
Walker Kong doesn't play much around here anymore. They have wives and kids and kindergarten classrooms to attend to and that is a shame, but these guys need lives, too. The beginning of their set found lead singer Jeremy Ackerman slugging from a pitcher of beer (which he continued to do throughout the set), then asking, “Did I tell you guys I teach kindergarten?” to much laughter and applause (I'd drink like that, too, if I taught five-year-olds). It was their first show in two and a half years; better start it off with a bang.
Never in my life had I heard a voice as British-sounding whilst not actually being from the UK. I was amazed, but as someone near me noted: “It doesn't sound like he's trying to do that, like [Billie Joe Armstrong] does.” They started with a slower, troubadour-ish number and then asked, “Should we play a faster one?” Though it was in the form of a question, they weren't really asking; they were excited and wanted to play louder, faster.
A lot of what they played sounded like two of the most quintessential British bands of all-time: The Clash and The Smiths. They lost The Smiths' penchant for bookworm lyrics and depressing stories of loneliness and, well, it's just kind of hard to sound quite as British as The Clash, but that punk vibe was there. A lot of the songs seemed like what would happen if you played Combat Rock and Strangeways, Here We Come at the same time and those two albums melded into one album full of new, less political, less self-loathing, more fun and just as catchy (well, as catchy as The Clash, at least) songs. I was impressed.
Mostly, though, what made me happy was to see them so ecstatic on stage and the crowd so happy to have them back. I had never seen Walker Kong before but knew they had quite the following around town, so even though I couldn't say I missed them, by the end of the show I greatly wished I could.
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: Estate, Vicious Vicious, Walker Kong
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