Nada Surf at Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis (13 May 2016)

Good Old War

Opening up the show was Good Old War – named after its founding members: Keith Goodwin, Tim Arnold and Dan Schwartz… unfortunately, as we’ve previously mentioned, their drummer Arnold hasn’t been with the band for a while.



Their set was similar to their previously appearance with Kodaline in Oct 2015, like teasing us with a snippet of Montell Jordan’s ‘This Is How We Do It’ after ‘Window’ (they did that tease on ‘Better Weather’ previously).



The Friday night show was somewhat special, as it was Dan Schwartz’s birthday, which Keith Goodwin was more than happy to sing the traditional birthday song to him right after playing ‘Coney Island’… later in their set, someone in the audience called out ‘Jon Snow’, referring to Schwartz’s raven black hair and good looks. Schwartz responded, “I’ll take it!” while Goodwin jokingly said, “Chill out, don’t spoil that stuff for people!”



The band will go on tour with Detroit trio Empty Houses this June 2016. Check your local calendar and listing.

Nada Surf

Nada Surf, on their second night of their comeback You Know Who You Are tour was determined to give us their best performance of their lives. They wanted to that in Chicago, the previous night, but due to the venue’s restrictive curfew, their set was cut short. Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Café did not have any curfew, so the band played for about two hours – doing the obligated ‘new album’ music and saving all their ‘popular’ songs (including ‘Popular’) for the encore.



You have to remember that the band hasn’t done a major tour since The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy in 2012, which we saw at First Avenue. It was a large turnout then, and it was a large turnout on Friday night.



If you’re wondering why the band took so long to get back in the saddle, I know some of the band members had personal side project, including singer Matthew Caws, who had to take out a few years to devote to his side project Minor Alps with Juliana Hatfield (who we saw in 2013).

Setlist

The show started off with ‘Cold To See Clear’, which is also the first song on the new You Know Who You Are album. Throughout their set, as seasoned professionals, they put in new songs between old favorites. This is how to ease fans to the new material.



For ‘Inside of Love’, Caws asked the entire audience to do a two-step dance, because it’s cool to see everyone doing it at the same time. It’s the feeling of awe when he first saw George Carlin asking the crowd to do whatever he wanted… as the comic once joked, “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”



Of course, the real treat was the encore… or rather encores! Starting with ‘Hyperspace’, followed by their big hit ‘Popular’ and ‘Always Love’ (which had the whole audience singing along), and ‘Blankest Year’ (from 2005’s The Weight Is a Gift).



The lights turned on, the house music came on, indicating that the show was over… People started leaving the venue. After a few minutes, fans who were still around got another treat: the entire band came back on and played ‘Blizzard of ‘77’ with a pair of acoustic guitars. It was unforgettable, the way the crowd was also singing back the lyrics, ever so quietly, as to not upstage the band on stage (who were singing off mic).



Nada Surf’s You Know Who You Are is available now on Barsuk Records. Their world tour continues: