Aby Wolf

Aby Wolf’s CD release show Saturday night at the Cedar was a concert that showed the dexterity of the local music scene and managed, over the course of three female fronted bands, to show the ample amount of talent and diversity that is simmering in our Twin Cities scene. Joining Wolf to celebrate the release of Sweet Prudence were two other bands who are gaining widespread recognition in the local scene, Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles and Black Blondie.

Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles

Openers Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles are no strangers to anyone who has frequented shows in Minneapolis in the past year. The band, who never seem to lose their enthusiasm despite playing what seems like every other night, played another excellent show to warm up the nearly full Cedar crowd. The gyspy-folk group, playing sans their bass player (who is touring with Caroline Smith and the Goodnight Sleeps), played a lively set that ranged from piano ballads to rollicking, nearly punk, jaunts with Lucy Michelle leading the way with her quirky, almost childlike voice. I had heard they have recently covered the song “In an Aeroplane Over the Sea”, which is the title track to one of my favorite albums of all time, but I was not lucky enough to hear it Saturday night. Instead, they faired well with an amusing, but still musically enjoyable cover of a song from the animated Robin Hood movie (they went to great lengths to make sure the crowd knew it was not from the Kevin Costner version, provoking a funny back and forth about current and former movie stars and their often misguided music endeavors).

Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles

Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles

Black Blondie

Next up were local genre defying four piece Black Blondie. The band played keyboard and bass led art pop that reminded me at times of a more soulful, less guitar centric female fronted TV on the Radio. On a bill that featured three bands that worked hard to not fit into any one particular genre, I think Black Blondie takes the cake for mixing the most sounds into their music. I could try to describe all of the different sounds and influences that I heard over their 40 minute set, but it is more fun to just say that whatever they were doing worked very well. On a night where there was a magnitude of musical style and talent on display, Black Blondie stole the show and showed why they are one of the most exciting up and coming bands in the Twin Cities.

Black Blondie

Aby Wolf

Aby Wolf

After two amazing openers, Aby Wolf had some big shoes to fill when she hit the stage. After receiving an abundance of praise in the days leading up to the show, Wolf seemed visibly nervous but was still able show why she had received so much attention. The first portion of her set featured Wolf on acoustic guitar backed by her band and featured her beautiful voice harmonizing with two excellent backup singers. The middle part of her set involved Aby using more electronic devices to do vocal sampling, where she layered her voice into warm patches of sound. The set ended with the full band again (plus some samples) and had Aby joined by local rapper Omaur Bliss, who she used to sing back up with. Her set, which ran close to an hour, showed her stunning voice and wide ranging talents that have brought her such wide spread attention.

Aby Wolf

Omaur Bliss

Overall, the excellent sound system and aesthetic of the Cedar Cultural Center proved to be a great setting for the wide ranging and entertaining set of music from these three up and coming bands. All three bands play at various times around the city and are well worth checking out.

Aby Wolf

[review by Josh Keller, photos by Jon Behm]

Aby Wolf: MySpace
Black Blondie: MySpace
Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles: MySpace

Also: (Aby Wolf, Black Blondie & Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles Backstage @ the Cedar)