Regular readers of my Substack may have noticed I’ve stolen more lines from Nada Surf to illustrate ideas than lines from any other band in recent years, most recently, my essay called “All Flavors All the Time,” a line from “So Much Love,” a song from Never Not Together (2020).
The world is all flavors all the time.
The Dark Ages had the same sunny skies.
For lovers of lyrical content as inspiration for poetry and philosophical musings, one needs to look no further than Nada Surf. They bring contemplation-inducing verbal elegance to their perfectly crafted power pop songs and ballads.
The house was packed at the Tavastia Club in Helsinki on Thursday night for a concert that was more than just another tour stop for Nada Surf on the European tour for their 2024 album Moon Mirror. It marked the first-ever performance in Finland for the band founded in New York in 1992.
As a Minnesota expat who has been absent from the US for over a dozen years, seeing the band in Finland helped connect some dots for me.
I was likely one of the few in the audience at the Finnish venue who had seen the band perform multiple times before, the first being at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis in 2005 and then at First Avenue in 2008.
Remarkably, I’ve been writing about live shows for so long that I was able to retrieve those old reviews from a dormant HowWasTheShow database last week and put them back online after an absence of over a decade. In the process, I noticed a forgotten piece of information: Slim Dunlap of the Replacements attended the Nada Surf show in 2005.
Twenty years ago! A great deal has changed in my life and the world since then. Sadly, Slim has since passed away, and those of us still around are all older. However, Nada Surf is going with as much gusto as ever.
The Perfect Prelude: The Cle Elum
We arrived at the venue a few minutes late, missing the first couple of songs by the openers, The Cle Elum, a husband–and–wife indie rock duo from Chattanooga, Tennessee, made up of Ian Lee (vocals and guitar) and Sarah Sergeant (drums).
Their debut album, It’s OK If It Falls Apart (2024), is a power pop powerhouse sure to be enjoyed by fans of Nada Surf. Check out “Handclaps and Tambourines,” “Old Folks,” or “I Am a Robot.” They’re a band that’s immediately easy to like.
During the break before Nada Surf’s set, I had a chance to chat with Ian Lee. He was a gregarious guy, and we quickly found common ground discussing the Minneapolis music scene, discovering an overlap in people we knew, including drummer JT Bates and guitarist Jeremy Ylvsaker.
This brief interaction was a microcosm of the evening’s spirit. From the stage, the band’s graciousness was clear as Lee expressed his love for Finland’s culture, establishing a theme of appreciation that would resonate through the rest of the night.
The silver lining to my running late was that I ran into Matthew Caws of Nada Surf as he was stepping out of the tour bus, and I was able to catch up with him about meeting in Minneapolis in 2008 at a couple of events.
Sidebar: I have a knack for running into rock stars by accident and ending up in casual conversations. Over the years, those chance encounters have included Dave Grohl, Wayne Coyne, Glen Hansard, and others.
Caws and the bands had come over on a ferry from Stockholm, much like the ferry on which I met my now wife in 2010. While chatting with Caws, I failed to mention that “Always Love”, the name of a song from The Weight is a Gift, was used during our birth announcement for our first daughter. The band has been significant for me in many ways, and it was special to see them perform with my wife by my side.
The biggest takeaway from seeing them twenty years after the first time is that they still pack a punch (other reviews echo this), and their albums continue to meet the high standards of intelligent, power-pop they set with their very first album, High/Low, in 1996. The core lineup of Caws, Daniel Lorca, and Ira Elliot achieved early fame with their song “Popular” from High/Low, then avoided becoming one-hit wonders through relentless touring and by building an arsenal of dozens of great songs across eight studio albums. Louie Lino is now on keyboards.
The show was filled with sing-alongs, and a large part of the audience was clearly superfans like me. Though not a politically charged show by any means, I believe most American bands of conscience are somewhat apologetic for the current state of our country. Early on, in response to someone shouting, “Fuck Trump,” Caws responded politely, “Yes, Sir.” This band shows a high level of sensibility, understanding, and perspective when it comes to politics. In fact, it struck me that the song “New Propeller” from Moon Mirror might be seen as a reassurance to the MAGA right (or other Populists), whose fear of immigration leading to them being replaced or erased has caused hatred, instead of embracing the dream of America as a melting pot where cultural diversity is the result.
The chorus of New Propeller perhaps attempts to soothe:
Don’t be afraid,
You won’t be replaced.
Don’t be afraid,
You won’t be erased.
They didn’t play “Popular” at either of the shows I attended in the 2000s, and I understand there was a long period during which they didn’t play it at all. Some fans liked it, while others may have even hated it. (I don’t hate it, but it’s not on the list of my favorite songs by the band, “See These Bones” from 2008’s Lucky probably topping that list.) Lately, “Popular” has been added back into the set in the encore.
The set was pretty much what they’d been playing all through the European tour, heavy on songs from their latest Moon Mirror, but the Helsinki audience got two bonus songs (“80 Windows” and “The Plan”) sandwiched in between the normal end of their set and the first of their 3-song encore.
Full setlist here.
Caws said that, because it took them so long to get to Finland, he discussed it with the band, and they felt they owed us a few extra songs.
To relieve our babysitter at home, my wife and I had to leave during the finale, an acoustic and unamplified rendition of “The Blizzard of 77,” bringing things full circle, as that was the first song they played when I saw them in 2005 at the 400 Bar.
We walked away with some tangible memories as well: a signed copy of a blue vinyl Moon Mirror, a gorgeous pinkish vinyl from the opening act, The Cle Elum, and a cool burgundy Nada Surf tour shirt with the European tour dates on the back.
The tour wraps up on September 28th in Göteborg, Sweden.