The Ballroom Thieves at Bryant-Lake Bowl, Minneapolis (13 May 15)

The band did a lot of songs from The Arrowhead EP, including “Jake – Mexico”, “Serenity”, and set closer “Cowboy Song” (which got a loud yip from a fan in the audience).

The Ballroom Thieves, on their second appearance in Minneapolis (previously also billed at Byrant-Lake Bowl), was pleased to see that the room was full this time around. Drummer Devin Mauch, who is celebrating his birthday today (May 14th), said that they originally didn’t have Minneapolis on their tour itinerary, but they made the extra effort to put the city back on their schedule. Thanks to word of mouth, there was a really good turn out for the show… especially on a Wednesday.

If you’ve never been to Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, it is a small room inside a bowling alley. The unfortunate thing is if you sit near the entrance, you will often hear the pins crashing whenever someone enters or leaves the room. The bowling aspect actually inspired Mauch to advertise for the venue, trying to sell us this $30 deal of a bowling game, a bottle of wine and two entrees. The 6’4″ drummer said, “If I lived here, I’d date anyone every night to take advantage of the deal!”

The majority of the songs were sung by guitarist Martin Earley, except “Bury Me Smiling”, which was sung by cellist Calin Peters. According to the band, they only met her two years ago, and she said she only sang in the showers or driving or whenever she’s drinking. “Those days are done!” Earley said, and so they convinced Peters to do more vocals.

Other highlight of their set included a cover of “Game of Thrones Main Theme”, medley into their “Vampires” song. As a big fan of the HBO series (as are The Ballroom Thieves), I recognized the first few notes right away.

As you can see from their setlist, the majority of songs were taken from their latest album A Wolf in the Doorway. They basically played almost the entire album, leaving just two or three songs off. When they came back for the encore, which was a very brief pretend walking down the stairs that went nowhere behind the stage, they played a brand new song called “Anybody Else”.

The Ballroom Thieves’ A Wolf in the Doorway is out now via Blue Corn Music.

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