Jeremy Loops at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (15 June 2015)

Kevin Fluegel

Opening up the show, later than advertised, was local Kevin Fluegel, playing some new songs and also tracks off his self-titled EP, including the closing track "Midwest".

Based on the X on his hand, I can speculate that he's under 21.

Matt Jennings

Next was also local Matt Jennings, however on his second show with Jeremy Loops (having opened up for the singer the night before in Lawrence, Kansas).

Jennings sounded a little like Bob Dylan, particularly on tracks such as "The Fire Keeps Burning" from his 'new CD' H.O.P.E..

Like many singer/songwriters, Jennings drew inspirations from his "Crazy Life" (actually based on a friend of his) and told us how he lived in a foreign country and had to deal with the few popular American songs available on "Excursions In Karaoke".

He ended his 40-min set with a Spanish song called "Todavía."

Prior to Cape Town's Jeremy Loops coming on stage, his hype man/filmographer came on stage to film his fans (who happily obliged with loud cheers and waves). I assume that for this tour, they are filming and documenting his journey for a music video and/or documentary for a later date. Based on the extreme singing and dancing, I'm almost certain the Minneapolis footage will be used for that future film.

Loops, like his stagename, utilized several foot pedal looper effects. If you didn't know, a musician would play, or sing, a chord/lyric, which will get picked up and played back in a loop. This way the artist can create backing vocals or backing tracks as they play different melodies.

The first half of his set, Loops is solo, but sometime he is joined on stage by a saxophonist or percussionist or bassist… they come and go as needed.
For "Mission To The Sun (Howling)", we're introduced to the saxophonist (James) who helped play the song… as Loops play audio from a kid's toy!

The second half of Loops' set featured rapper Motheo Moleko, who helped made "Down South" such a hit song. He basically rap on all the songs that he co-wrote from the forthcoming Trading Change album… including "Running Away".

They ended their set with a non-album song called "Only The Good Die Young". As for the encore, two songs, "Skinny Blues" (triggering a massive sing-along from the audience) and "See, I Wrote it for You" were played. For the latter, Loops had requested the audience to help sing that line… which he recorded on his looper and mixed in as the band sang out on the chorus to a very satisfying finale.

Look for Trading Change this August 14, 2015, on Yebo Music. Based on the strong turnout, I believe Loops will be back in Minneapolis again when his album is officially released in America.