Review: First Avenue’s Best New Bands spotlights wide array of Minnesota music
by Macie Rasmussen and Darin Kamnetz
January 16, 2024
On Friday night, First Avenue hosted the 16th Best New Bands showcase, a significant annual event celebrating musicians who have caught the eyes and ears of First Avenue’s influential curatorial team.
Each year, office staff sit down to select local musicians who have impressed them over the past year. “I wish we could put 50 [bands] on stage,” talent booker Dylan Hilliker says. His team doesn’t intend to fit artists into a box, but during the process of identifying their picks, they do aim to select a genre-diverse lineup.
During their half-hour sets, everyone expressed gratitude to be on stage. Clare Doyle and she’s green’s Teddy Nordvold said it was “a dream come true,” Barlow’s Nathan Barlow called it “a blessing,” for ber’s Berit Dybing it was “an honor.” Each act made the most of their time onstage during a rollercoaster night of Minnesota music beginning with country flair, journeying through ethereal fuzz, dance numbers, heartfelt social commentary, cathartic pop, and a mosh pit before a captivating jazz fusion instrumental.
Clare Doyle
In an Instagram reel, Doyle had mysteriously told First Avenue her hidden talent is starting fires. The soulful country artist from St. Paul expanded on stage with the new song, “Playing With Fire,” singing, “Boy you make me feel like I’m the one / Even if I know that ain’t true.” In the chorus, her voice broke into beautifully raw notes, and throughout the set, she delivered perhaps the best vocal performance of the evening. It’s a bit difficult now to picture this highly polished band playing in bars much longer.
Doyle’s band — bass, electric guitar, drums, and pedal steel — showed up dressed for the occasion with Western-style hats. Their twang came through on her first single, “Devices,” which she calls her “first born.” Other songs, like the unreleased “On My Own,” included intricate guitar chords in wistful folk fashion. Doyle has three released singles to her name, but she told the crowd she has been in the studio since last fall and will release new music this year.
she’s green
Every few years, music publications claim shoegaze is having “a revival.” Recent Pitchfork and Stereogum pieces credit TikTok for introducing gen-Z to My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Lush, along with many others. In 2017, a new Slowdive album prompted the New York Times to examine the genre’s remaining relevance.
One of the Twin Cities buzziest shoegaze bands is she’s green. Playing on bills with acts like Friko, Hotline TNT, Milly, and Jesse Jo Stark, the Minneapolis band is a notable Midwest act within the new wave of American shoegaze. Talking about feedback on the lineup, Hilliker emphasized the overwhelming support for the band, saying, “I think everyone’s glad that she’s green made it.”
Dressed in cream-colored outfits — like “angel babies” according to someone behind me — the group’s expansive sound filled the mainroom with low-end noise and longer, more polished, dense, and shimmering wavelengths. Guitarists Liam Armstrong and Raines Lucas as well as bassist Teddy Nordvold created layers of distorted noise from their pedalboards that at times resembled a shop vacuum collecting debris from a garage floor — in the best way possible.
Vocalist Zofia Smith stood front and center with a tambourine in hand. Most of her words were unintelligible, but they set the scene for a sonically dreamy aesthetic. An exception was the lyrics that cut through on their cover of the Sundays’ “Here’s Where The Story Ends.” The group ended on a high note on “Bleed” when Armstrong and Lucas crouched to the ground to scratch their strings around Kevin Seebeck’s shuffling drum beats. Nordvold’s foot tapped a pedalboard, the noise immediately ended, and the curtain descended again.
Barlow
The soul, funk, and R&B artist Nathan Barlow hopped on stage alongside bandmates Bionik (guitar, vocals) and Eric Mayson (keyboard, vocals) to be met with cheers from the audience upon his first vocal notes.
His tracksuit was fitting for what he calls “music to dance to.” On two occasions, the artist invited two dancers on stage to groove alongside him, striking poses in sync. When on stage solo, Barlow’s facial expressions communicated a carefree attitude with a bit of silliness as he flipped his hair and stiffly danced in place at the mic stand.
Barlow’s music shifts composition from song to song. Tracks like “Face the Sky” from with his 2023 debut self-titled EP felt passionately spiritual, while others, like one about trying to “make my granny happy” were lighthearted and amusing. One song transitioned from rap to gospel as smoothly as the dancers slid across the stage.
Laamar
The first thing Geoffrey Lamar Wilson, who goes by Laamar, did when he walked on stage was snap a few pictures of the audience. He didn't say much between songs blended with folk and Americana, but the musician’s warm and conforming persona could be sensed in the way his facial expressions jibed with the music’s emotional undertones.
The most emotionally moving song of the whole evening was undoubtedly “Home To My Baby,” a soothing folk melody narrating feelings of anxiety when getting pulled over by a cop. "I'm so tired of being Black and looking over my shoulder," he sang. "I'm just trying to get home in one piece to my baby / Isn't it strange how a minute might change your whole life? / One wrong move and a man might turn out the lights." Saxophone notes dug the song’s message deeper.
The band dressed in pink button-ups included drummer James Taylor, who is usually backstage as the venue’s talent booker. His calculated percussion held together Wilson’s memorable hooks.
Ber
Berit Dybing, the indie-pop act known as ber, opened her set by transporting us back to high school with “Boys Who Kiss You in Their Cars,” from her 2023 EP, Halfway. Jumping around, Dybing sang, “It's always the boys with the beanies / It's always the ones with the broken hearts / It's a type, it doesn't matter who they really are / They're just the boys that kiss you in their car.” With flailing arms and puffed out chest, drummer Erik Bear played like a full-fledged pop-punk drummer. Other support came from guitarist Brian Jost and bassist Landon Conrath.
The artist from Bemidji touched on topics like bad Hinge dates, the realization you don’t have to marry everybody you date, and wishing terrible internet speed on a man who plays Fortnight. It was sometimes unclear whether her words were sarcastic or sincere.
Dybing toned down the energy to play a string of melancholic tracks. She introduced the recently released single, “Room For You,” by announcing she had never played piano in front of an audience. She didn’t miss a note on the keys. The singer picked up an acoustic guitar for “Superspreader” — a song on which Bear’s grandiose clashing drums were especially unnecessary.
Closing with “Your Internet Sucks,” the set ended how it began — Dybing jumping around to anthemic pop with simple lyrics: “And when you order take out I hope that it's cold when it shows up / And if you're drinking coffee I hope you burn your lips on the cup / And when you're playing Fortnite? I hope that your internet sucks.”
Reiki
Reiki Michael Hall’s slogan, “punk, rage + R&B,” was printed on T-shirts at the merch table. The artist constructed his set in two parts, the first firmly R&B, and the second a complete 180 into burst of hardcore.
Reiki recently told Carbon Sound that he begins his live performance, which he calls “the Reiki experience,” with more mellow material to reflect how his musical experience began by singing in churches. He opened with a calm, patient energy and smooth vocals on songs like “chaos.” With closed eyes, he hit high notes on “drowning.”
The final half of “the Reiki experience” was completely aggressive, rap-infused, unreleased tracks. Some may call Reiki’s music “rap-rock,” but like how Death Grips are persistently tagged with “rap rock,” the term isn’t a comprehensive description.
When Reiki yelled, “Open it up!” the floor opened for anyone who wanted to be pushed around, and it was difficult to keep eyes on the stage as people ran across the room. “Moshing isn’t just moshing. It’s releasing the stress on your life,” Reiki said. The artist belted rapid fire lines as he stomped heavily across the stage, threw arms in the air, and jumped in sync with smoke erupting from the stage’s floor.
Each member of Reiki’s band holds their own place in the Twin Cities scene: Guitarists Lars Oslund (12 Rods, Pop Star, Services, Kid Dakota, New Primals) and Jake Beitel (Miloe, Prize Horse), bassist Henry Breen (WHY NOT), and drummer Jon Lindquist (Raffaela, Brunette, Denim Matriarch).
L.A. Buckner & BiG HOMiE
By L.A. Buckner & BiG HOMiE’s 11:30 p.m. start time, a large majority of the crowd had exited the building. Those who stayed were treated to a fiery blend of gospel, funk, and jazz. Arthur Buckner is a seasoned drummer in the Twin Cities scene, so his appearance on the bill might have been surprising to some. BiG HOMiE refers to the five other musicians: Ethan Yeshaya (bass), David Feily (guitar), Jovon Williams (saxophone), David Smith (keys), and percussionist Jamani Buckner on bongos and chimes.
The set was instrumental, except for with a guest joining to sing in the style of Jeff Buckley’s cover of the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah,” and seemed to include improv jamming. Buckner appeared unfazed while hitting detailed loops. Drum and bass beats were untamed while chimes floated gracefully. Williams swapped alto and soprano saxophones to keep everyone on their toes as tempos escalated and dropped. Not all songs were catchy, but the band wasn’t trying to make them that way. BiG HOMiE was pure fun, and the art-jazz set felt like a celebration to close out the community gathering.
