Shakey Graves, w/ Those Darlins at First Avenue, Minneapolis (04 November 2015)

Tour Dates

 

Americana Music Association’s “Emerging Artist of the Year” Shakey Graves (aka Alejandro Rose-Garcia) recently stopped by First Avenue in support of his latest album And The War Came (Dualtone Music Group).

 

Opening up the show was Nashville’s Those Darlins… their first show as Shakey Grave’s support band. Those Darlins is a four piece alt-country/garage punk band and were turning heads throughout the packed venue. These guys were fun to watch. Jessi Zazu, the singer, had a way of making everyone in the crowd feel uncomfortable with her wide eyed stare. It was like one of those “magic paintings” where the eyes are always staring at you no matter where you move in a room. Every time I looked at Zazu, I felt like she was staring a hole through my soul and I was oddly okay with that.

The songs switched between the two female singers of the band, Zazu and Nikki Kvarnes. Zazu seemed to have a lot more country twang in her voice whereas Kvarnes seemed to have more of an edge. I definitely enjoyed the songs that Kvarnes sang a bit more but it was fun to watch Zazu’s facial expressions while she was at the microphone.

Looking over their setlist, you can see they previewed some brand new songs (so these are some pending titles), taken from a forthcoming studio album.

Whoever said, “this band will make you feel like you’re leaning on a jukebox, swaying in your leather jacket and greased-back hair, watching your love dance with someone else.”, hit the nail right on the head. Their music really does take you back to a different time.

It seems that there have been a couple of line-up changes for these guys in the past couple of years including the departure of founding member Kelley Anderson and changing bassists. You would never know there was any lineup change. The members of this band mesh so perfectly with both their music and their presence on stage.

Shakey Graves was the headliner, he is listed as a young Americana musician from Texas. I don’t even know if you could call him Americana. His music was such a mix of everything from blues to rock to country. It was fresh and refreshing and the crowd really enjoyed it.

Trampled by Turtles is a big fan of Shakey Graves, having had him opened up for the band on numerous occasions and was a special guest at this year’s Festival Palomino. With over 20 million Spotify streams, top five tracks on radio’s AA format and various TV appearances (Conan, Late Show With David Letterman, and Late Night with Seth Meyers), it’s easy to see why Shakey Graves is one of the hottest Americana acts right now.

Shakey Graves has been releasing music for the past four years and did a great job of playing both new and old songs. The crowd especially loved hearing his breakout single “Dearly Departed” which was released on his newest album And The War Came from 2014. Each song showcased both Rose-Garcia’s amazing voice and his talent at the guitar.

All photos were taken by Jayme Halbritter.