The Hotline Spring Tour, ft Magic Man, Griswolds, and Panama Wedding at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (26 April 2016)

Panama Wedding

The show started with Panama Wedding, a New York based synthpop band fronted by Peter Kirk. Kirk has a beautiful voice that is matched perfectly by the subtle but upbeat instrumentation of the band. Apparently Peter used to be a solo act which totally makes sense, but the addition of the band just gave their music a little extra something that kept the crowd entertained throughout the half hour set.



The cover of The Killer’s “When You Were Young” that Panama Wedding did was beyond perfect and just another example of how great Peter’s voice is. It’s not easy to hit some of the notes in that song and Peter did it absolutely flawlessly.



Panama Wedding’s latest Into Focus is available now on Glassnote Records.

The Griswolds

The favorite of the show seemed to be co-headliner The Griswolds from Sydney, Australia. This band had the crowd in the palm of their hand and for good reason.



The last time I saw these guys was when they opened up for New Politics last fall and I knew they would be something big. Their music is perfect. It’s grungy when played live but still approachable for the college kid demographic that came out to the show.



There’s a reason why Kevin Ray of Walk the Moon claims to be an honorary member of the Griswolds. It’s quite clear that these guys are on their way to becoming one of the next groups to hit the Walk the Moon level.



Heartthrob singer Christopher Whitehall had the girls in the audience screaming as he took the stage. They played for almost an hour and played majority of the songs off of their debut album Be Impressive (Relativity, Wind-Up Records). They were also able to slip in a few new tunes that proved they are going to stay true to their sound and that they will continue to release poppy songs with a little bit of edge to them.



Magic Man closed out the show, playing selections from their two albums Real Life Color and Before The Waves (both available on Columbia Records). This electronic-pop group from Rhode Island definitely had the energy of a headliner. From the moment the music started to the very bitter end, they kept the energy up and kept the crowd jumping up and down with their poppy sound and upbeat tempos.



Their music is very indie electronic and features a lot of keys and other miscellaneous sounds but Alex Capow’s vocals prevailed over everything else. His voice is a bit smoother than many of the electronic bands out there. He sounded like a straight up pop singer but because of the instrumentation behind him, the overall sound was extremely unique and enjoyable.



The Hotline Spring Tour continues in May.