Chastity Belt at Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (24 June 2015)

The Velveteens photo by Amy

Minneapolis trio The Velveteens were up first, running through a setlist of songs that, like their name suggests, reminded me alot of the Velvet Underground. Lead singer / percussionist Kiera Coonan stood in the middle of the stage providing a barebones beat with a floor tom, snare and cymbal as bandmates Jonny Holupchinski strummed dreamy chords and Jillian Schroeder  dotted nimbly on her bass. Coonan’s voice really struck me; it was strong and soaring, often lingering on notes. Check out the Velveteens’ EP for sale over on Bandcamp.

Whatever Forever photo by Amy

The show really picked up when Whatever Forever took to the stage and unleashed a vibrant punk sound that got people dancing and jumping around. This band is seriously a who’s who of the Twin Cities scene’s best bands: Clara Salyer, who plays guitar and sings, is from the Prissy Clerks, guitarist/vocalist Howard Hamilton hails from the late, great Red Pens, drummer Dave Gatchell played with the Selby Tigers and I just saw bassist Jordan Bleau rock/charm the socks off of folks with Frankie Teardrop at the recent Electric Six gig. Whatever Forever’s garage-y effervescence is something I’ll return for again and again.

The four friends of Chastity Belt (guitarist Lydia Lund, vocalist/guitarist Julia Shapiro, bassist Annie Truscott, drummer Gretchen Grimm) were cool as hell on stage, bowling over fans with their intricate, melodic noise-rock like it was no big deal. The setlist featured cuts from their newest record Time to go Home which was released in March on Hardly Art. Songs like “Drone” and “IDC” showcased some sophisticated guitar work as well as some snarky lyrical commentary. They were also often endearingly introduced by Truscott who would look over at Shapiro and Lund, grinning, and say something like, “This is a song about sluts. Cool sluts.” The band ended the set with “Joke” and Shapiro and Truscott played so intensely at the other that they sort of fell into each other and then on the ground, laughing the whole time. The sole encore was “Seattle Party” (“This is a song about a party. A Seattle party.”) from the band’s 2013 debut No Regerts.



Earlier in the night, Clara Salyer from Whatever Forever declared Chastity Belt her favorite band. “Where the hell were you guys last year?” she asked the crowd, half joking. Consider me educated and on the Chastity Belt bandwagon! I will definitely not miss their next show.