Poliça w/ Night Moves and Ronia – First Avenue, Minneapolis – 04/24/13

Tour Dates

   “I’m so glad to be home”, Poliça’s Channy Leaneagh exclaimed in a rare outpouring of on-stage banter, the band fresh from its Coachella weekends and at the end of a long year-plus tour that took them around the country and Europe (including impressively selling out London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire). After playing some venues on the West Coast to less than 100 people, the sold-out First Avenue Mainroom seemed an appropriate homecoming for a band now fully developed for national attention, honing their own sound from their beginnings as a studio band and that first gig at the small, now-closed Nick and Eddie’s restaurant in late 2011.

   After a somber electronic-based opening from Ronia (Dark Dark Dark’s Nona Marie with Mark McGee), local favorites Night Moves took the stage for a solid set promoting their debut, Colored Emotions (Domino Records), their sound clearly evoking of 70’s FM/AOR radio.   Their harmony/keyboard rock sound with a laid back groove is reminiscent of bands like 10CC, with dashes of both country and cosmic influence that all somehow come together and work.  

   John Pelant (Guitars/vocals), Micky Alfano (bass) and Mark Ritsema (multi-instruments) had the crowd embraced on well-received tracks like “Country Queen” and “Headlights”, and proved a more than appropriate opener for the headliners.

   Poliça, still promoting 2011’s Give Up the Ghost (Totally Gross National Product / Mom + Pop) then took the stage to a warm reception- their unique mix of dual drummers, bass, synth loops, and Helicon/Auto-Tuned vocals was an instant favorite with local music fans. 

   Their sound has always been a delicate explosion of beauty meeting beat– wispy, manipulated exquisite vocals from lead Channy Leaneagh melded with a heavy, R&B-influenced bottom end comprised of bassist Chris Bierden and drummers Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson.  With red pixie haircut, Leaneagh danced about the stage dreamily, like a musical Peter Pan, guiding us through the wilderness of beats and rhythms, beginning with their opening song, ‘Leading to Death’.  

   ‘Dark Star’ performed early in the set, got a rise out of the crowd and the hometown was treated to four new songs, including the upbeat ‘Tiff’, which features Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon on background vocals for the studio version.  The newer songs lyrically seemed to continue exploring the delicate line of melancholy and epiphany, Leaneagh’s Auto-Tuned tender vocals tweaked  lightly less to fine effect. 

   The encore began with an unintentionally deep-throated Leaneagh thanking the crowd, before button-pushing in embarrassment, to undo the distortion and return to her ‘normal’ voice.  We were then treated to Poliça’s version of the Keith Sweat R&B hit, ‘Nobody’, an odd but very effective choice of cover song, which pushed up the heavy bass-line and sent an ebbing vibration everywhere, from the building’s walls to up through the shoes of everyone on the floor.  

   ‘Amongster’ closed out the satisfying 66 min. set, Poliça triumphant in a homecoming show, returning to the city where it all started and with new tracks that hold definite promise for their sophomore release, coming as early as this fall.