The Head Banga Tour, feat. Tank and the Bangas, Big Freedia at First Avenue, Minneapolis (28 Oct 2018)

New Orleans’ Naughty Professor opened the show. The funk/jam band features guitarist “Wild” Bill Daniel, bassist Noah Young, drummer Sam Shahin, alto sax Nick Ellman, tenor sax Ian Bowman, and trumpeter John Culbreth.

Since it’s too hard to transcribe instrumental-only band, I couldn’t tell you any tracks they played, other than “Brain Storm”, which they announced as third song in their set.

Typical of these type of shows, before Big Freedia’s grand entrance, DJ Juane Jordan played a medley of hit songs, some of which included Snoop Doggy Dogg. This served as an introduction to Big Freedia’s band (Naughty Professor) and her three dancers (Skip, Flash, and Tootie).

They started their set with “Karaoke”, which actually originally feature Minnesota’s Lizzo, but unfortunately she may not be in town to guest cameo.

The crowd absolutely loves Big Freedia, many of them have been to a few of her shows before, so they knew what they were in for. For example, during “Azz Everywhere”, there were already fans lining up to demonstrate their twerking ability. As soon as Big Freedia announced, “I need five volunteers from each side,” there were fans ready to go.

She did a couple of covers, Adele’s “Hello” and Dolly Parton, by the way of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”…. Which ended her fun-filled set.

Even though Big Freedia left the stage, her dancers remained on stage… slowly getting played off the stage to K Michelle’s “Get the F*** Off Of My Porch”.

Big Freedia’s latest Third Ward Bounce EP is out now. The EP is special in many ways, as it’s Big Freedia’s first major record deal with Asylum Records.

Tank and the Bangas closed out the night. It’s weird, but in many ways, seeing the band at Minnesota State Fair 2017, it almost like seeing two completely different bands!

Now Tarriona “Tank” Ball, armed with a large live band, including a Norman Spence on bass, THREE keyboard players (Joe Johnson, Merell Burkett, and unknown band member), guitarist Danny Abel, Joshua Johnson on drums, a two-piece horns section (Albert Allenback on alto saxophone and Etienne Stoufflet on tenor saxophone) and two backup singers (Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph and Kayla Buggage), Tank and the Bangas’ new 2018 show is just wild, upbeat, and dance/party focus, with a little slam poetry thrown in.

Their set consists of mostly newer singles, which this large band is excited to play… No one in the audience was complaining, as they helped sing and dance to their songs.

It’s been five years since their debut album Thinktank, but recently the band released a few new singles, including “Smoke.Netflix.Chill” and “Spaceships” … and it feels like they are due to release a second album soon.

Tour dates: