Hælos at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (09 April 2016)

Kicking off the show, a little later than advertised, was local band Perfume Monster. The ended their 25-minute dance and R&B set, with a song repeating these lyrics “Stay up all Night.”

As far as I know, they only have an EP called A Slow Drip, available now on Sporktone Records.

Next was Mankato’s Good Night Gold Dust, a group best remembered by its two singers (Laura Schultz and Colin Scharf). Although I will confess that it would seem Schultz sang on the majority of their songs. We’ve seen the band a few times, but since we last saw them – they released a 2015 self-titled EP… which they were more than happy to play some songs on their 30-min set, including “Four Letter” midway in their set, and finales “Broken Wing” and “Headlights.”

Hælos’ first time in Minneapolis… and it was incredibly well-received. Earlier in the day, they stopped by local radio The Current 83.9 with Mac Wilson, which helped boost the band’s popularity with local fans. You can check out their three songs “Separate Live”, “Dust” and “Oracle” at thecurrent.org.

Just to give you a little background on the trio – they are Arthur Delaney (vocals), Dom Goldsmith (vocals, keys) and Lotti Benardout (vocals), but for their tour, they’re joined on stage with an additional drummer, guitarist, and keys. The band also brought along their own sound equipment and sound guy! They really wanted to control their sound, from the looks of it. Fans and critics compared their music to Massive Attack and Portishead, but, personally speaking, hearing them live, I did not really detect that ‘glitchy’/warpy sound that I’ve associated with those bands… Instead, I feel they sound more like London Grammar (but a little darker).

Based on hearing the band talk about their first US tour, I thought I heard Goldsmith announced that Minneapolis was “the coldest place on earth.” You have to laugh; they’ve not seen anything yet. I think by next year, or so, the band will be back headlining a much bigger venue. The 7th Street Entry seemed too small for this band.

As you can see from their setlist, they practically played their entire Full Circle album… and throwing in a The Beloved cover (“The Sun Rising”) to fill up some time in their 45-min set. Typically, for bands with only one album, we didn’t expect an encore, but the band saved “Oracle” as their encore song.

Hælos’ Full Circle album is out now on Matador Records.

Remaining tour dates: