Elle King at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (10 June 2015)

Singer-songwriter Elle King just played a raucous, no-holds-barred, barn-burning 79 min. set at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis that had feet stomping, heads nodding, and even some “ear muffs” up (to reference a scene from Vince Vaughn in Old School).

Gene Jr. and the Family

Joshua Tree, CA band Gene Jr. and the Family opened with a generous 45 min. set of deep-groove, neo-hippie blues rock that went over well with the crowd mostly there to see the headliner.  Frontman Gene Avaro Jr.’s laid back but excited approach connected with many on songs like ‘Slippin Away’ and ‘Deeper’ and the band won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, late last year.




Most songs were from their album, Soul (How I Keep Movin’ On) with new album, Worlds Inside Us, due out soon.  Musically, they reside in the same wheelhouse as Xavier Rudd and Allen Stone, blending groove with elements of folk, soul, blues, and funk, in a jam band approach that is undoubtedly creatively inspired by their desert surroundings.

Elle King

Comedian and SNL veteran Rob Schneider is somewhat surprisingly (to me anyway) the father of Tanner Elle Schneider… aka Elle King. Her parents would divorce and she would move to Ohio where her stepfather would introduce her to listening to The Donnas, Blondie, and The Runaways, and from that, her path was set.



King is out in promotion of her debut full-length, Love Stuff (RCA Records), and opened with the stomping ‘Jackson’, which was produced by super producer Jacknife Lee (U2, Depeche Mode).  “Look at this f**king crowd!” she exclaimed afterwards, “thank you for coming to my god**m show!” as the crowd adjusted to her unbridled (and unedited) enthusiasm.



The torchy ‘Can’t Be Loved’ was prefaced by a quick story of a relationship gone wrong and ‘It’s Good to be a Man’ from her initial EP, referenced the time she was unceremoniously dumped for the first and last time.  “This show is 18 and up, so I can say whatever the f**k I want”, she shouted with glee, feeling more than free to say what was on her mind, and teasing that wearing an all-white dress implied something she wasn’t.



King’s raspy, somewhat drawled vocals are mesmerizing and her tales of loves lost and tossed, are somewhat reminiscent of the late Amy Winehouse.  Coupled with a tell-all honesty like Adele, it makes for a performance that’s hard to ignore- “I grew up a real good Christian, I just ended up real bad”, she would remark.

Setlist

Banjo would come out for the backwoods ‘Song of Sorrow’, while the ballad ‘See You Again’ was played just with acoustic guitar bringing a tear or two to her eyes, then a bluesy cover of The Beatles’ ‘Oh Darling’, rebounded things back up again.



Applause was highest for single ‘Ex’s and Oh’s’, with King commenting after that the “song sounded so much better with 700+ people singing it”.  The two-song encore consisted of the anthemic ‘America’s Sweetheart’ with its vengeful refrain, “Well they say I’m too loud for this town,  So I lit a match and burned it down”, and a lewd but effective cover of Khia’s 2002 hip-hop hit, ‘My Neck, My Back (Lick It)’.



It’s all good, Deuce—we’ll let you off the hook for The Hot Chick and The Animal too.  Elle King more than made up for it.