Black Pistol Fire w/ Cobi at 7th St Entry, Minneapolis (04 Dec 2017)

There are some up-and-coming bands that are knocking on the door of greater success…

…and then there are those that are kicking that door in, blazing fire, and demanding to be heard—the sold-out 7^th St. Entry in Minneapolis featuring sets from singer-songwriter Cobi and Austin by-way-of-Toronto duo Black Pistol Fire, definitely referred to the latter. 

Opening the evening in front of a capacity crowd was Grand Marais, MN native Cobi, in support of his recent EP, Songs from the Ashes Pt. 1 (300 Entertainment) whose soulful voice, intense lyrics, and guitar work fronting his own trio, had already turned plenty of heads when we last saw him over the summer at the Basilica Block Party, and who has gained a loyally growing area following. 

“Minneapolis, turn it up!” Cobi said going into the new ‘Rising Phoenix’ (which echoes a riff from Chicago’s ‘25 or 6 to 4’), “we’ve got a lot of friends here tonight”.  The singer wryly smiled after a sizzling ‘Nobody Opened the Door’ exclaiming, “lots of family here… I don’t mean just blood”, as he surveyed the cheering crowd, dotted with familiar faces and plenty of newfound fans.

Initial single ‘Don’t You Cry for Me’ and 2016 song ‘Cosmopolitan Man’ both came off as mature and realized, played bluesy and precise like The John Mayer Trio, but light enough like the feather hanging from his guitar, to still be fun with a spiritual edge to the lyrics.

The new album may be called Deadbeat Graffiti (on Red Bird Records) but there was nothing lethargic about Black Pistol Fire who exploded like a firecracker from the beginning notes of their seventy-minute headlining set. 

The duo (Kevin McKeown-guitar/lead vocals and Eric Owen- drums) had been getting great word-of-mouth regarding their live performances and proved it again this night, working themselves and the restless, head-bobbing crowd into a near-immediate lather with their blend of dirty garage blues rock starting with their incendiary opener, ‘Lost Cause’.

You probably couldn’t imagine a classic Salt n’ Pepa radio hit turned inside-out as an old school stomping blues number until you’ve heard this duo mash that up with their own ‘Hipster Shakes’; then already blindsided and dazed from that combination, the uppercut of a 1969 Fleetwood Mac cover, Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Lemon Song’ and their own ‘Where You Been Before’ proved to be a true sonic knockout punch.

‘Speak of the Devil’ simmered like a slow cooking stovetop stew then things ramped up quickly again on 2012’s ‘Drop the Needle’ with McKeown flickering beads of sweat in a halo around him, each time he shook his head, as the frantically drumming Owens was lost in a sea of swirling hair.

After a set-closing ‘Bully’, the duo returned for a single-song encore, complete with giant snowball in McKeown’s hand (“It’s f***king snowing!”), to let the crowd know the weather outside had shifted, even though the temperature was still rising inside. 

And seemingly as quickly as it began, their set was over, leaving everyone slightly out of breath as they wrapped themselves up to exit onto newly snow fallen streets. Anyone missing The White Stripes or The Black Keys is advised to check out Black Pistol Fire as their musical graffiti is on the wall, in the form of memorable live performances and undoubtedly, bigger stages to come.