Setlist

Tour Dates

May 20 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
May 21 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
May 22 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
May 23 Los Angeles, CA El Rey
May 24 Los Angeles, CA El Rey
May 25 George, WA Sasquatch Festival

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Shout Out Louds

Stockholm-based Shout Out Louds produced themselves for the first time (assisted by Johannes Berglund) on their fifth and latest release, 'Optica' (Merge Records), and begin touring this May (including a 5/17 date in Minneapolis) .â€¦

Sweden's Shout Out Louds is back at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis last night, May 17, as part of their North American tour in support of Optica, out now on Merge Records.

HAERTS

Opening up for Shout Out Louds was Haerts, a band from New York (by the way of Germany, England, and U.S.). Singer Nini Fabi sometime sounded like Mazzy Star, but the band sounded more pop/dance than typical shoegazing music. You can draw your own conclusion by listening to their debut single "Wings" below:

The last time I saw Shout Out Louds at the Fine Line in 2007, I said the lead singer, Adam Olenius, sounded like Robert Smith (The Cure), and he still have that vocal style. I don't think you would notice, until you bring it up, and then, that's all you can hear.

Anyway, I was expecting the band to play more tracks from the new album, Optica, but they only played about half the album (including tracks like "Sugar", "Walking in Your Footsteps", "Chasing the Sinking Sun", "Illusions", "14th of July", "Blue Ice", etc.) The latter song, "Blue Ice", is currently available for free on amazon.

Surprisingly three songs from their debut album Howl Howl Gaff Gaff made it onto their setlist. The album was originally released in 2003 throughout Scandinavia, but finally made its way to America in 2005. I have in my notes that "The Comeback", "Please Please Please" and "Very Loud" had the best reaction from the audience.

Encore songs were: "Destroy", "Walls", and "Tonight I Have To Leave It", so throwing in a new song with one from their previous 2010 Work album ("Walls") and one from 2007's Our Ill Wills.

SHOUT OUT LOUDS

As for performance, I felt with the years of touring experience, that this is Shout Out Louds at their best. They kept tuning/guitar changing down to a minimum, they have their own set of lighting and massive backdrop, and all the band members all had their little moments on stage. Near the end of their set, Olenius jumped into the crowd and spent a few minutes standing on the drum kit, while the rest of the band members do their rock-thing. They certainly didn't do any of those things the last time I saw them, and I love the new changes.

If you've never seen Shout Out Louds before, you definitely owe it to yourself to check them out on this tour. They do it right: mixing in some fan favorite old songs, but mixing in some newer songs from Optica. They seem to understand that not everyone is going to rush out to get the latest album, so they didn't try and overwhelm us with new materials. Having said that, songs from Optica played live sounded great! Optica was released February 26, 2013, on Merge Records.