Radio Dept. at Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (03 Mar 2017)

Playing music when the doors opened (and intermission) was DJ Jake Rudh.
His appearance was previously unannounced, so this may have been a last-minute gig for the local DJ. His music choice was what you would find at a typical Transmission show… including plenty of bands from yesteryears, like The Smiths. Oddly, David Bowie-lacking, considering Rudh was on a strong Bowie-kick after his unexpected death.

Germans

First band on the bill was Brooklyn’s Germans (not to be confused with the Canadian indie rock band of the same name). Germans is currently singer / songwriter Julia Kwamya and bass player Chris Urriola (who also provided pre-recorded instrumental backings).

Kwamya hit the nail on the head when she self-described her sound as “moody disco”, particularly when the band started playing ‘Hideway’.

The duo sounded really good on stage, with clear vocals and disco-ish beats, but, as a new-ish band, they kept announcing, “We’re Germans” throughout their brief set. They knew that the audience was still coming in and they wanted to get their name out.

With only a handful of songs written, they played all of the songs they’ve released online, including their set closer ‘Wonderhow’ single from 2013.

We first discovered Sweden’s The Radio Dept. in March 2007 (10 years ago!), although in truth, the band’s been around since 1995. The band is currently Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson, but is joined on stage by an additional guitarist (not introduced) and keyboard player Daniel Tjäder.

This was somewhat of a rare appearance for the band as their first Minneapolis appearance was at the 7th Street Entry on 09 Feb 2011 with Young Prisms. Their second appearance at the Varsity Theater in November 2011 was unfortunately cancelled, “due to family related matters.” Still, despite the six year absent, fans were still all too happy to have the Swedish band back in town.

Setlist

With their sixth album, Running Out of Love out now on our favorite Swedish label, Labrador Records, the band decided to start (‘Sloboda Narodu’, ‘Committed to the Cause’, ‘We Got Game’) and end (‘Swedish Guns’, ‘Teach Me to Forget’, ‘Occupied’) with chunks of the new record. Filling out the middle were some old favorites like ‘David’ and ‘Never Follow Suit’.

They did goof a bit and accidentally skipped over ‚ÄòRunning Out Of Love‚Äô (originally intended to be played after ‚ÄòBus‚Äô, looking at their setlist). Duncanson realized this and announced, ‚ÄúWe kind of skipped one song… We should go back.‚Äù

The Radio Dept.’s sound is a little shoegazey with melancholy, layered vocals, provided by Duncanson. Unfortunately, depending on songs and your location, Duncanson’s vocals is sometime undermixed with the loud music, so you can’t hear what he is singing sometime.

Fans who stuck around for the encore heard two old songs from their debut album Lesser Matters: ‘1995’ and ‘Why Won't You Talk About It?’

The Radio Dept.’s tour ends tonight at Music Hall Of Williamsburg in New York.
The band will make two music festivals in 2017: Sasquatch! Music Festival in Quincy (May 27th) and Sideways Festival in Finland (June 10th).