Trashcan Sinatras at Amsterdam Bar & Hall, St Paul (28 May 2016)

Sophie Auster

New York’s Sophie Auster opened up the show. Although the singer/songwriter recorded her first album when she was 16 years old, using her father’s (Paul Auster) French poems and Sophie’s original lyrics… she actually may be known for being an actress in several films (such as Grand Street) and television shows (such as Mozart in the Jungle).



Auster’s 30-min set featured mostly songs from her 2015 album Dogs and Men, including ‘AKA’, ‘Bad Manners’, and ‘Little Bird’ (for which she won the grand prize in the 2016 John Lennon Songwriting Contest).

Trashcan Sinatras

Fans of Trashcan Sinatras have been patiently waiting for the band to return to the touring stage since their last Minneapolis appearance in 2011 (and prior to that, at the now-defunct 400 Bar in 2005)… so it is not often that the Scottish band (currently with singer/acoustic Francis Reader, rhythm guitarist John Douglas, guitarist Paul Livingston, keys Stevie Mulhearn, bassist Frank DiVanna, and drummer Stephen Douglas) make their way to the States. I’m told that John Douglas, who was diagnose with autoimmune disease in 2013, has been undergoing treatments and surgeries, so that may complicate matters when it comes to the harsh touring life.



Anyway, when they do make it to our corner of the world, it is always a great celebration and fun get-together with the bands and their fans.



TCS’ current tour is for their album Wild Pendulum, which came out as a result of a successful PledgeMusic campaign. The band started their Wild Pendulum tour in Boston, then NYC Pop Fest, and eventually to St Paul’s Amsterdam Bar and Hall on Saturday night. Originally the band wanted to book the Cedar Cultural Center (where they previously played in 2011), but the nonprofit venue was booked that night.



Of course, the fans are in the 30-40 age range, many of them have seen TCS numerous times. Everyone at the show wanted to be there, all respectful and quiet and ready to enjoy the show. Some even sacrificing going out of town for the long Memorial Day Weekend, just to be there for TCS.



Walking on stage exactly at 9pm, TCS’ singer Francis Reader nervously asked, “You guys ready?” (to the audience), and the audience overwhelmingly responded “YES!” Thus started their 80-min set with ‘Best Days on Earth’.

Setlist

A lot of old favorites, such as ‘How Can I Apply…?’ and ‘Hayfever’ (which Reader promised, “the hits are coming!”) were played throughout their set, while newer songs from Wild Pendulum were hardly heard… including the intro song, ‘Let Me Inside (Or Let Me Out)’, ‘I See The Moon’ and ‘What’s Inside the Box?’. The latter song featured opener Sophie Auster to “sing the girl parts”.



For ‘I’ve Seen Everything’, which was another fan favorite (you can tell that they knew when to do the sequence of claps), Reader dedicted the song to “all the teachers in the room”.



Interestingly enough, Reader mentioned that they originally wrote ‘I See The Moon’ for Britain’s Got Talent Susan Boyle, but apparently her people ultimately rejected the song… so TCS decided to keep the song and recorded it on their new Wild Pendulum album.



Trashcan Sinatras’ Wild Pendulum is out now on Red River / BFD.