Nelson Devereaux and The RT’s at Turf Club, St Paul (2021-08-21)

The RT’s Setlist

Opening the show was local The Symptones, playing their first show since “retirement”. From what was said on stage, it appears the band haven’t played live in one and a half years (540 days?). Some fans in the audience is in similar situation, where they haven’t gone to a live show in over a year, no thanks to the pandemic, of course.

The Symptones is just happy to be back on stage, playing such songs as “Rosetta” and singing about Buster’s dog song. They ended their 50-min set with “Never”.

I feel like this is actually The RT’s headlining show, but for whatever reasons, they didn’t want to close out the show. This is the first tour and album released and billed officially as The RT’s. They were previously known as The Rad Trads… which a quick search will tell you that is a term used by the Catholics for “radical traditionalists”. I originally thought that’s where they stole the term, but apparently the band doesn’t want any association with that term.

Patrick Sargent previously mentioned about the name change, “This name change is an update, and one that may be long overdue or may just be right on time. A shift, a maturing, a removal of preconceived notions. Quite simply, the name and the music no longer make sense together, but the music and the people who make it have never made more.”

The RT’s played a full 55-min set, going over time and pushing Nelson Devereaux’s setup 15 minutes past their original start time.
Speaking of overtime, the band asked if the audience prefers the Twins (Minnesota Twins) or the Saints (St. Paul Saints)… right before playing “Overtime”, a song about Baseball.

The RT’s played their biggest hit “Thumbtack” early in their set, before playing something new, such as “See You Again”, which is the lead single, the album, and the tour was named after.

They ended their set with two epic songs, “Spanish Radio”, a song about driving and listening to a Spanish radio station and being scared and lost… and “Never Let Me Down” a seemingly extended version.

Nelson Devereaux closed out the show. Devereaux’s music feels more jazz-like, like the melodies can shift in any direction, based on how he’s feeling. His musical instrument is an alto saxophone, which he’s been playing since the age of 8.

Devereaux seemed really comfortable on stage, starting with some instrumental songs from his album Bad Water.

He’s toured with Bon Iver and Craig Finn … so any bands that needs wind instruments, Devereaux is your guy.