Cut/Copy at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN (25 June 2014) concert review

In terms of sound, there’s good loud and then there’s bad loud.



I had just come from the bad loud- an advance screening of Transformers: Age of Extinction, which was 165 min. of everything blowing up at full volume; so much so, that the audience had to have been numbed by it all, by the halfway point.

Cut/Copy

The good loud was then stepping into the Mainroom at First Avenue in Minneapolis for a pounding, electro throb beat to a packed house of jumping and smiling fans – Cut/Copy was bringing the house down.



The Australian synth-pop/indietronica four-piece is back on the road in support of their latest, Free Your Mind (Modular Recordings), which was co-helmed by Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) and the joy they brought to their 85 min. performance, was immediately infectious to a crowd more than willing to free their mind… and everything else.

Dan Whitford

Singer / keyboardist Dan Whitford, guitarist Tim Hoey, bassist Ben Browning, and drummer Mitchell Scott took to the stage amid blue lighting and a screened backdrop, which would show the album’s title, kaleidoscopic color patterns, and random images, as the show progressed.



The new ‘We Are Explorers’ had singer Whitford raising his hands to the already converted crowd, who nodded and jumped in unison as the first breakbeat of the night dropped.  ‘Take Me Over’ from previous album, Zonoscope, then had the crowd ooh-ing as one, which melded into the tribally danceable title track of the new album.  ‘Hearts on Fire’ from 2008’s In Ghost Colours got one of the strongest responses of night, with Whitford mirroring the lyrics with his arms outstretched to “reach out to you tonight”.



“One of the very first records that my parents used to play all the time was this live record in Minneapolis from this jazz artist (note- it was Ben Sidran’s On the Live Side)…so I’ve always been slightly intrigued with Minneapolis”, Whitford mentioned in a story that brought a local tie-in, before going into the shaking, pulsing beat of 2004’s ‘Saturdays’.



“You guys ready to dance tonight? I sure hope so!” Whitford screamed at the song’s break, giving the crowd the unneeded permission to morph into a joyous melee of bodies on the venue floor.


‘Out There on the Ice’ mixed light and heavy, its dark lyrics countered by the bubbly keyboards that anchor the track, that then both unite for a shaking EDM crescendo. The “love duo” 1-2 punch of songs ‘Let Me Show You Love’ with its lumbering electro beat (a la NIN’s ‘Closer’) and the Erasure-like ‘Meet Me in a House of Love’ led strongly into the set closer of 2008 breakthrough hit, ‘Lights and Music’, with the highest of energy.

“Prince and the Revolution” Setlist

As if the band thought we needed to catch a breath after all of that, the downshifted two-song encore was composed of the mid-tempo’d ‘Nobody Lost, Nobody Found’ and heavily percussive ‘Need You Now’, as pastoral ocean scenes covered the band and backdrop.



“Outstanding, Minneapolis, you make us feel like home, every time we come here”, Whitford remarked after the final song, embracing the crowd’s warm welcome.  When all the chatter around me after the show, was about the other songs they wish the band had also played, it was obvious that the loyal reception was an honest one.



This was the good loud.

john
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