MinneapolitanMusic

Last night I was invited to help judge the Radio K Battle of the Underage Underground at First Avenue, and the whole experience kind of blew my mind.

When I arrived and first received my ballot, I scanned around the room for a shadow to lurk in and ended up striking up a conversation with Lori Barbero, drummer for the recently-defunct Koalas and the legendary Babes in Toyland. I'd seen Lori play before but had never talked to her in person, and she ended up being of the sweetest and most friendly people I had ever met at a show. We hung together all night and shot the shit between bands, trading notes and jokes and snarky comments over the music.

The first act, Saluting the Rockies, took off like a cannon and blasted their way through their fifteen minutes of fame on the gigantic stage. The songs themselves weren't particularly remarkable and the vocals were a little scary/shaky at times, but they played with such severe intensity that they didn't even stop playing between songs -- one ending would flow into the next opening riff while the four young guys grinned huge, goofy grins and reveled in the energy of the young crowd. Toward the end of their set they surprised me with a no-holds-barred rock out moment that built into a frenetic, thumping crescendo, and I'm fairly certain all four of them were playing harder and better at the moment than they ever had in their life.

Between songs we watched clips from the Puppy Bowl (is it just me or is that constantly playing on the First Ave flat screens?) and Lori and I laughed about the similarities between the young puppies told to run around on the little plastic football field and the young pups on stage playing their first big show for a crowd.

There was an electricity pulsating through the room by the time Angel Darcourt started her set, and judging by the way the the room swelled full and then drained out afterward, Angel brought her own fanatic following. In an introduction by hosts Brother and Sister, Katie Gaughan beamed as she announced that "Angel wanted us to tell you one thing before she starts: her hype man is not a man." A bouncing Angel took the stage accompanied by a slender young woman with an attitude, and proceded to smack us in the face with a smooth-flowing spoken word piece about social justice. Her words flowed naturally and the meaning sunk in deep as she moved on to rap over beats (which I later learned were crafted by locals Benzilla and the St. Paul Kings). The entire floor seemed to be waving and yelling along with the music, and her talent was obvious to everyone in attendance.

Unfortunately, a rumor whipped through the room shortly after Angel's set that the rising star already had a management team in place to help her out, which I think was what ended up throwing her out of the first place spot in the judge's minds, since the first place spot was a recording contract with Say Rah Records and it was meant for amateur musicians. Like I said, unfortunate.

Milk Automat played a sort of meandering, electronic, vocal-less set that featured a lanky guy on synthesizers and a pretty blond girl on bass guitar. The band had the potential to do some really interesting live electronica, but their young age and inexperience playing live made it a little awkward to watch.

Just when the show started to drag a bit The Soviet Machines came out and stirred things up with a nice set of Britpop-style anthemic rock. Lead singer Jack Swagger channeled a bit of Bowie and a lot of Billy Idol as he hopped around the stage in a black long-sleeved shirt and white belt, and the band really kicked it into high gear by throwing a huge blow-up turtle into the audience for the kids to toss around while they danced.

Nap Nap played a set of electronic spaz-attack music that was a bit hard to follow, but entertaining nonetheless. The four boys in the band switched instruments between each song, and at one point two of them both ended up on drums and created this great jungle booming echo throughout the club. I have a feeling Nap Nap might be a lot better on record than they were live, simply because they would be forced to find a direction once they sat down in a studio.

A quiet set by Little Boxes made for another lull in the night, though I found Emma Turnquist's vocals to be captivating. With just a piano and drums, Little Boxes plays songs that are painfully simple, similar to the stylings of local chanteuse Haley Bonar, but at times Turnquist's voice gave out and lost pitch a bit, making it hard to hold the audience's attention. Of all of the bands in the contest, I thought Little Boxes had the most potential for success in the future, I just think it may take them a bit to come into their own sound.

As the boys in Rivet started setting up their instruments, Lori and I peeked over the railing from the front of the second level and spotted four boys that looked as if they had been teleported straight out the audience of a Metallica concert in 1993. "That one looks like Matt Dillon!" Lori said, pointing to the drummer, and I had to agree with her that he looked exactly like the long-haired Matt Dillon in Singles. So far, the band looked the most interesting of the night, so we made our way downstairs to stand in front of the stage for their set. For comparison:

Matt Dillon, circa 1992:










Caleb from Rivet:

















Rivet, to put it bluntly, stole the fucking show. From the first chord it was clear that this band was pure musical talent, and though their sound was derivative of plenty of other thrash metal bands, especially the aforementioned Metallica, the boys played with such weight and ferocity that they blew every other band out of the water. Lori and I laughed, jumped up and down and made devil horns, and for a moment I forgot I was even at a battle because Rivet made it feel like a real, full-blown First Avenue show, and they more than deserved their first place win in the contest.

So to recap, the winners of the night were:

1. Rivet, winning a $2,000 recording contract with Say Rah Records and a live performance on Radio K.
2. Angel, who won $500 worth of CDs and packaging materials from Copy Cats Media.
3. Nap Nap, who in my opinion got the best prize of all, a photo shoot with the legendary Daniel Corrigan (who was profiled in this week's Downtown Journal).