Chastity Belt, with Monica LaPlante and Darren Hanlon, at 7th St Entry, Minneapolis (01 July 2017)

Monica LaPlante photo: Amy

If you haven’t heard of Monica LaPlante, get out from under that boulder of shame and experience the awesome sonic crunch of: Christopher White on guitar! Rory Donovan on bass!



Austin Cecil smashing the drums! And LaPlante thrashing on guitar and vocals! The punchy set drew largely from LaPlante’s recent release NOIR including “Can’t Stop” and crowd favorite “Hope You’re Alone.” The band also played a song that, LaPlante explained, some found offensive. The title? “She’s a Loser.”

Darren Hanlon (with fan dueting) photo: Amy

In a club crowded with folks looking to rock, Darren Hanlon seemed like the odd man out with his set of gentle folk songs. But Hanlon’s earnestness and charm won the Entry over and even those not keen on the music found enjoyment in his wonderful stories and easy-going presence. Those things paired with an electric guitar and I immediately thought of Billy Bragg (the legendary English singer/songwriter and noted Chatty Cathy). Hanlon had such a great time telling stories, he had to remind everyone, “This isn’t a spoken word show!”  The highlight of the show, however, was definitely when Hanlon invited a young fan on stage to sing a duet with him. The girl and her family followed him from Iowa City (where he had played the previous night) where she was lovingly dubbed “my only American fan.”



Chastity Belt’s newest album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone has been racking up accolades all over the internets and rightfully so: it’s a gorgeous, dark surprisingly intimate record that sounds like it was recorded on the beach on a cloudy day.



Live, the band effortlessly reconstructs that: lead singer/guitarist Julia Shapiro’s low Nico-esque voice coasts inside an exhilarating fog of jangly reverb created by second guitarist Lydia Lund, bassist Annie Truscott, and drummer Gretchen Grimm. Despite the blissed-out nature of the music, Chastity Belt kept their absurdist sense of humor intact in between tunes.



Mid-way through a set that already tackled Alone songs like opener “Complain,” “Caught in a Lie” (my favorite) and “Time to Go Home” (from the 2015 album of the same name), lead singer/guitarist Julia Shapiro told the crowd that the band got their caricatures done at a Jazz Fest that was happening in Iowa City and that they would be willing to part with them to the highest bidder.



Truscott later asked about Minneapolis’ “above ground tunnels” and if they all connect and where exactly you enter before falling into giggles from the unique and varied audience responses. Fantastic music aside, what I love most about Chastity Belt is the real sense of camaraderie. They like playing music not necessarily for other people but for each other.



Chastity Belt kick off their west coast leg at the end of the month in Olympia, WA and then head to Europe in this fall. Check out I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone out now on Hardly Art (post-punk fans will be tickled to see that it was produced by current Wire guitarist Matthew Simms).