Never Forget You:
The Noisettes Live at the Varsity Theater

August 7, 2009 at 2:01 am
filed under life, Music, Photos
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I had the best headache ever last night.  It wasn’t a particularly strong one, but enough of one that I knew that it was a headache.  The reason it was so awesome?  The source was the Noisettes concert I had just left.

While my love for the Noisettes has already been mentioned on this blog before (as well as on my old blog), I didn’t think they’d stop in Minneapolis on their US tour, much less decide to do a free show to get the word out.  They were amazing.  I’m still smiling from the thought of the show.  I didn’t bring my camera along (after having to stow it in my date’s car for the KT Tunstall show after being stopped at the door with it), but I used my cameraphone to capture a few (really shoddy) shots from the show.  This venue was more lax on cameras–I should have gone with my instinct and brought it, but such is life.

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We got to the venue around 6, an hour before the doors opened.  I hadn’t realized that I actually know Dinkytown (the college-y area just outside of the U of Mn Twin Cities campus) better than I thought, although I hadn’t been there since a class trip to the U of MN library in 10th grade History class.  We weren’t the first ones there, but we couldn’t have been more than the 15th or 20th in line.  Patiently my dad (who’s a fan of the group as well) and I waited along with everyone else, excited for things to start.  The drummer for the band walked across the street into the venue, which was exciting.  Wristbands were distributed to those over 21 and then we were let in.

While we were near the front of the line, we weren’t fast enough to get some of the nicer seating at the venue (club chairs and couches).  All the remaining available ones were roped off for guests of the band, which sort of sucked, but we found a large table near the edge of the seating area and stood by it for a little bit before sitting on the edge of the seating area’s platform.

The Varsity Theater doesn’t look like much from the outside, but once you get into the building, it’s gorgeous.  My mom knew it as the movie theater closest to campus when she went to college, but it’s since been converted, keeping the red curtains of the old moviehouse as well as an area where a screen used to be where the bands perform.  It’s definately a cool space for performers to play in (the band themselves said it was one of the most beautiful venues they’d played).  People slowly filled in the rest of the large area for standing and waited for the opening act.

The opening act was awful, to say the least.  I’m not even going to give a link to them (Google “Dearling Physique” if you’re brave). Experimental ambient electronica is better left to the studio rather than live performances, I hate to say.  My dad had no idea what to think of the performer.  We had a discussion while checking our respective clocks and waiting for the performance to end:

Him: How are we going to explain this to your mom?

Me: Probably the standard Minnesotan “Well, it was different“

After they were done, we waited for around 45 minutes for the Noisettes to set up and start.  The guitarist apologized for the group being “tardy” and then launched into a slower opening version of “Wild Young Hearts” while the lead singer slowly made her way to the stage.  Here’s a video from an earlier US gig that sort of illustrates it (I’ll try and use some of these wherever possible to supplement my own poor-quality photos)

What follows is a hybrid setlist/notes from the show

  1. Wild Young Hearts
  2. Never Forget You — Shingai said she had a question for us (“What Ya Drinkin, Rum or Whiskey?’” is the first line of the song)
  3. 24 Hours — This song sounded even better live
  4. Saturday Night
  5. Sometimes — This was acoustic with the drummer on a box drum–amazing
  6. Don’t Give Up–The band switched quickly from acoustic to rocking the house with this track from their first album.  I could physically feel this song in the back of the room against my chest
  7. Every Now and Then
  8. Don’t Upset the Rhythm–This one got more than a couple people in the crowd dancing
  9. Atticus — Shingai attempted to reach and perform from the bar for this one, but didn’t quite have enough microphone cord.  She settled instead for the soundboard platform, where she did acrobatics from the metal bars surrounding the area.  This was the second closest I was from one of the band members all night, the first being when she walked backstage before the opening act, brushing by my dad and I; I only recognized it was her when I saw her from the back and realized that the distinctive hairstly could only belong to one person.
  10. Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit) — another rocking wailer to close out the night

Unfortunately, because they were running late, the band had to catch a bus to Chicago immediately, but I still got one of the many free Noisettes posters that were around the room.  This is the best live show I’ve seen.  The group was so full of energy and had the whole room smiling the entire night.  Hopefully I get another chance to see them, even if it’s never as intimately as this time was.

As a final link, the band performed on the local public radio station that plays modern music (we also have an MPR news and an MPR classical) and their conversation/performances are here

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