Jake Bugg at First Avenue, Minneapolis (01/17/2014)

Opening up for the British singer were Brooklyn's The Skins and Strokes' guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.

The Skins

You can actually read more about The Skins' show in detail. The Skins consists of three siblings: Bayli, Reef, and Kaya Mckeithan, plus guitarists Daisy Spencer and Russell Chell.

The thing about this band is that they look and sound comfortable on stage, this wasn't amateur hour for them. Pinning down their sound is a little harder than it sounds, because the band mixes in funk, rock, R&B, a little bit of everything.

The band's latest release is a single called "Dead Hands", taken from their forthcoming debut album Show Me Some Skins.

Albert Hammond Jr

When Albert Hammond Jr., took the stage by re-dressing the set with bright red lights and started playing "Holiday", from his solo debut album Yours to Keep,
I was instantly reminded of how much I love The Strokes.

Clearly the real talent in the Strokes is with Hammond.

AHJ's Setlist

While most of his set (see setlist photo), sounds much like a missing Strokes album. This is not a bad thing, if you love The Strokes. Tracks included tracks from Hammond's debut album and Como Te Llama, and rounding out the rest were three tracks from his latest EP AHJ ("St. Justice", "Rude Customer", and "Carnal Cruise").
Interestingly enough, he chose to end his set with a cover of the Misfits' "Last Caress".

As expected with a relatively new musician, Jake Bugg balanced between his two albums, the self-titled and his latest, Shangri La. He rarely talk between his songs, and when he does, it was hard to make out what he was saying.

Bugg's Setlist

Most of his set were on the louder/faster side, except for when he played "Pine Trees" and "Broken" as a solo acoustic set. This was when the talkers in the audience was at their worst.

The biggest cheer of the night came was when "Two Fingers" was played, which tells me that this must be the breakout single for Bugg. The other big cheer came out for "Lightning Bolt" (which I believe is Bugg's highest charted song, at #26 on the UK Single Chart).

The highlight of the show for me was during the three-track encore, Bugg played a cover of Neil Young's "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)".

Although Jake Bugg touts The Beatles and Oasis as influences (he certainly has the haircut), his live performance sounds like southern blues. It's a good direction for this young artist, and I'm curious to see how his sound may develop in future albums.

Jake Bugg continues his North American tour until February 1st, then his tour for Shangri La takes him back to the UK, Australia, and eventually Japan.