This year’s Best New Bands showcase took place this past Saturday at First Avenue. Writer Colleen Cowie and photographer Helen Teague attended to check out each of the seven acts: Green/Blue, Under Violet, Loki's Folly, FruitPunchLoverBoy, Mae Simpson Music, Muun Bato, and Nur-D.

Green/Blue didn’t bother to introduce themselves onstage at First Avenue’s Best New Bands concert. In fact, they didn’t pause once during their set — they just rolled from one song to the next in a furious stream of punk energy.

Even without an introduction, the members of Green/Blue are well-known in the Twin Cities music scene. The band unites guitarist/vocalist Jim Blaha, drummer Danny Henry, guitarist Annie Sparrows, and bassist Hideo Takashi, members of some of Minneapolis’s most beloved punk and rock bands including Blind Shake, the Soviettes, and Birthday Suits. 

The band began many of their songs with chaotic and dissonant noise that snapped together into tight, riff-based rock songs, like their only released single, “Proto Caves.”