Rock the Garden 2022 (Main Stage)

After a long two year absent, Rock the Garden returned to the Walker Art Sculpture Garden on a beautiful Saturday, June 11th.

The show is big, featuring seven bands on two stages, so the review will be broken up into two parts, the Main Stage and the Garden Stage.

Gates opened at 1pm, and first band on the main stage was Niger’s internationally acclaimed Tuareg guitarist and singer/songwriter Bombino (Omara Moctar). The hot weather of Minneapolis’ afternoon reminded the band of their home country, Niger.

They played their distinctive guitar-driven songs, driving the audience to stand up and started dancing.

Bombino’s latest is a live album Live In Amsterdam, which came out in 2020 via Partisan.

Next up on the main stage was Filipino-British singer-songwriter, Beabadoobee, stylized as beabadoobee, playing some tunes from her debut album Fake It Flowers. Beabadoobee just played the Governors Ball in New York City, after wrapping up her current run opening for Halsey’s Love and Power U.S. arena tour.

Beabadoobee is the only band W♥M haven’t seen, so we were very excited for their appearance at Rock the Garden. You see, there’s a lot of buzz for Beabadoobee, who won the Radar Award at the 2020 NME Awards, as well nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards, nominated as breakthrough act for 2020 in the annual Sound of 2020.

It’s easy to see why Taylor Swift and Harry Styles have already mentioned how much they like Beabadoobee. They have a very 90s rock ‘n roll sound, and they played it loud and hard. So hard that the drum shield fell over during their performance.

Beabadoobee’s forthcoming album Beatopia, will be out July 15 on Dirty Hit.

Sleater-Kinney was the co-headliner of Rock the Garden. The Olympia group is touring in support of their tenth studio album, Path of Wellness.

 

We’ve been following this Riot Grrrl band since the mid-90s, having enjoying bands such as Bikini Kill, Team Dresch, and Bratmobile. We’ve seen SK since 1998, and was sad to learn that their original drummer Janet Weiss left the band. We recently saw Weiss in Quasi in April 2022 and noted, “Weiss is famous for being founding member of Sleater-Kinney, but have played with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, as well as part of Wild Flag.”

Currently Sleater-Kinney is Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), but for touring, they added Vincent Lirocchi on drums, Fabi Reyna on additional guitar, and Galen Clark on keys.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats closed out Rock the Garden 2022.

 

We are still very proud of covering Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats very first appearance at Bluebird Theater in Denver (Apr 2013): “Nathaniel Rateliff, debuted his new musical endeavor last Thursday at the Bluebird Theater accompanied by soul outfit, The Night Sweats…. The Night Sweats, a seven-piece ensemble (drums, keys, bass, guitar, trumpet, and alto & bass sax), took the stage first decked out in full suits. In classic soul style, they began to play and sway in an introductory number as Rateliff sauntered onto the stage. Hearing Rateliff’s traditionally gentle and alluring vocals morph into that of a bellowing soul god with “Trying so Hard Not to Know” the night immediately shifted from exciting to epic. Channeling the dance moves of James Brown, Rateliff spastically skittered across the stage bringing a soul revival to the Denver theater.”

Who knew that show in 2013 would eventually spawn into one of the most popular band around? Now with their third studio album, The Future, on Stax Records, the band is more popular than ever.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats tour dates: