The Luyas at the Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (04/04/11)
Tour Dates
04/09/11 Brooklyn, NY- The Bell House*
04/11/11 Cambridge, MA- T.T. The Bear’s*
04/13/11 Washington DC- Red Palace*
04/14/11 Philadelphia, PA- World Cafe*
04/23/11 Groningen, Netherlands- Vera
04/24/11 Utrecht, Netherlands- Ekko
04/26/11 Paris, France- Mains d’Oevre
04/27/11 Bordeaux, France- Heretic
04/28/11 Naples, France- Pannonica
04/30/11 Cherbourg, France- Terra Trema
05/02/11 Grenoble, France- Le Ciel^
05/06/11 Aarau, Switzerland- Kiff
05/07/11 Munchen, Germany- 59 to 1^
05/08/11 Offenbach, Germany- Hafen 2^
05/09/11 Berlin, Germany- Magnet^
05/10/11 Hamburg, Germany- Prinzenbar^
05/11/11 Cologne, Germany- Blue Shell^
05/12/11 Nijmegen, Germany- Doornroosje^
05/13/11 Amsterdam, Netherlands- Melkweg^
05/14/11 Brussels, Belgium- Botanique^
05/15/11 Middleburg, Netherlands- De Spot
05/16/11 Blois, France- Chato’do, Vendome^
05/17/11 Strassbourg, France- La Laiterie^
05/18/11 Paris, France- Point Ephemere^
05/19/11 London, England- Scala^
w/ Liam Finn
^ with the Dodos
Brute Heart is interesting, they’re three young women: bass, drums and violin. I can only describe them as mystical and mythical. Combined with chanty singing and violin string-plucking and strange women-ness (if that’s a word), it all feels very medieval to me. Anyway, I didn’t know any of their songs, but I’m assuming most of their songs played live were from their album, Brass Beads.
I’ve previously mentioned that The Luyas are fairly new (born into this world in 2006), but the truth of it, it seems singer/songwriter Jesse Stein was really producing music since 2004, in another Canadian band, SS Cardiacs. She seems quite comfortable on stage, and even more comfortable handling this super-weird instrument called the Moodswinger. This 12-string electric guitar-like instrument was originally created by Yuri Landman for the band, The Liars* in the 2000s.
If you look at the setlist, they pretty much stuck closely to it – including the encore, “Cold Canada”. If you were wondering what “A.A.” stood for, it’s for “Atheist Alex”, which, I believe is a new song (it’s not listed on their album).
“Spherical Mattress” was a song dedicated to Brute Heart’s violinist Jackie Beckey because it was her birthday the next day. Stein confessed that the song really has nothing to do with spheres, mattresses, or birthdays.
Most memorable song of the night was “Worth Mentioning (Bell Song)”, which the band requested the entire lights turned off and toy bells were given to children to ring.
