Sick of Sarah at Turf Club, St Paul (30 April 2015)

Strange Relations

Warming up the show was local trio Strange Relations (drummer and singer Casey Sowa, bassist Maro, and guitarist Nate Hart-Andersen), who started their 30-min set with “Very White Teeth”. The single came out in 2014, but recently released in March 2015 on their latest cassette -CENTRISM.



In-between “Underage” and “Panther’s Conquest”, Sowa told us that she grew up in Maryland and discovered Sick of Sarah in high school, so the band felt honored to play with the Minneapolis band.

George Morris

Detroit’s George Morris (also known as George Morris & The Gypsy Chorus) had been on tour with SoS for a few weeks now. They had family in the Twin Cities, and one of them, “cousin Rachel” was also celebrating her birthday.



The band’s latest We Will Go to Hell for This just came out April 14, 2015, but I didn’t think they played too many tracks from this album. Instead, from what I’ve heard, they focused on their 2013 Organ Solos record with tracks like “Call Girl” (the “head is a cannonball” song) and “Old Friends” (the “slow dance” song).

Sick of Sarah

Despite operating on two hours of sleep and only recently recovering from laryngitis, Sick of Sarah‘s singer Abisha Uhl had more energy than the typical musician. It’s hard to imagine what they’d likely do when they are in top form.



Since the last time I saw SoS in 2011, as evident by the live photo, bassist Jamie Holm is no longer in the band. Instead, she’s replaced by Austin’s Alexa Wolfe, who is joining the band for this “Place Your Bets” tour.



As you can see from their setlist, they pretty much played all the tracks from their upcoming Anthem EP. The record actually is not out until June 2015, but fans can get a hold of the EP on this tour. From what I’ve heard, including the lead single “Rooftops”, it sounded very good. Powerpunk/pop chords and catchy lyrics you can sing along to.



I thought it was pretty funny when Uhl, performing “Stereo” got really annoyed by a fan in the front who was busy texting on the phone and not paying attention to the show. She tried to take the phone from the fan, exclaiming, “Get off your phone! It’s embarrassing!”



Near the end of their set, Uhl, joked about covering NSync’s “Bye Bye Bye”, leading Uhl to briefly sing “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You”… only I heard her say “a little less time on you”.



Highlight of their set was a Poe cover of “Angry Johnny”, which took me back to alternative rock in the mid-90s.



As soon as the band started to leave the stage after “Kick Back”, the audience started chanting the inevitable, “One more song! One more song!”
Not entirely off the stage, the band quickly went back to their stations and played out to “Not Listening”.



Sick of Sarah’s Anthem EP will be out June 30, 2015. You can preview the EP and pick up the limited CD pressing on this 2015 tour.