Flashback: Eleni Mandell at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (27 Mar 2009)

The Eleni Mandell show at the Cedar Cultural Center on March 27, 2009, was the first post-SXSW show… so we were still trying to recover from the massive music festival. It didn’t help that Minneapolis was very cold and expecting a bad blizzard… it’s a very different environment from perfect weather Austin, Texas.

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It’s a chilly night. Come on Minnesota, it’s very late March, why am I still wearing a jacket? Even Eleni Mandell admitted that she hoped to survive her travel through the midwest due to a possible upcoming blizzard (tomorrow).

We’ll get to Mandell later, first up was folkster Daniel Martin Moore with his acoustic guitar and collection of friends (including the world’s quietest drums). Highlight from his set is his cover of “Smile” – originally composed by Charlie “The Tramp” Chaplin song, but made famous by Nat King Cole in the mid-50s. Moore’s version features a piano, played by his brother, who apparently lives in Minnesota.

The other highlight was a secret appearance by Haley Bonar who showed up to sing backup. People may remember that I personally chose Bonar’s song, “The Queen Of Everything”, to represent a bunch of wonderful Minnesota bands and singers.

The thing about the Cedar Culture Center is that every time I go here, it seems the audience are all NPR members. Sometime there are young people, but not tonight. This is not a knock against the Cedar, it’s just a warning for you to expect a pretty low-key, sit-down night. The benefit is that instead of a noisy bar atmosphere, the venue is perfect for actually listening to the band as they play. And every noise and note can be heard… So yeah, a wonderful place to hear the band.

 

Eleni Mandell took the stage with her guitar and played two songs solo (which are actually not listed on the official set list), before being joined on stage by the rest of the band.

Half way into “Artificial Fire”, Nigel had problems with his bass… which lead to about 10 minutes of awkwardness as the Cedar sound guy ran backstage to get another bass guitar. This led to Mandell talking about how they’ve been on the road since 7am from Chicago, Illinois.

Mandell remained talkative at certain songs, explaining how she tried to kiss this man, who pulled back and had no idea she was in love with him. She called the song “Tiny Waist”, after something he had said to her.

They mostly stuck to new songs (because she loved them so much), with a few exceptions. I thought “Pauline” (from her 2000 album Thrill) sounded amazing towards the end.

It should also be noted that Jeremy Drake is a very excellent guitarist, with his wonderful guitar-playing and foot pedals and warped/spacey sounds.