Samia at First Ave (02/18/2023)

It was an all-age show at First Ave made by the fact that a young couple brought their new born, strapped into a BabyBjörn with probably the cutest over the earphones yet produced. Luckily the baby and the crowd were not exposed to a sonic assault. In fact, quite the opposite as Samia stopped by for her first appearances at the venue.

WHY NOT opened the evening with a brief set. They are a local band who met at Great River Middle School in St. Paul: Henry Breen on vocals and bass, Isaac Dell on Guitar and Joshua MacGregor on drums. And since it was their first appearance at First Ave, they upped the ante and asked their friend Elijah to join them on keyboards.

They were greeted by a dedicated fan base for the room was packed and the pit was practically a rugby scrum of photographers trying to get a good look.

The highlight of the set was Papa Mbye, local musician and visual artists, joining the band for a song which sent the crowd into momentary frenzy.

Tommy LeFroy took the stage next. They can best be described as a duo collective that met not in middle school, but through social media for such a chance encounter is only possible when one lived in Vancouver (Tessa Mouzourakis) and the other in Northern Michigan (Wynter Bethel). They bonded with their mutual love of music and literature. In fact, the name of their band is a riff on Jane Austen’s ex-boyfriend, Thomas Langlois LeFroy. (I think they were called suitors or gentlemen callers back then.)

Tommy LeFroy highlighted songs from their debut album Flight Risk: “Vampires”, “Knievel” and “The Cause.” They mentioned that although they had never been to Minneapolis, they hold an affinity for the location, which led them into “Northern Towns.”

Two highlights were the brief, yet succinct “Flight Risk” and a cover of Alex G’s “Runner” where their drummer, Joey (and Minnesota native), joined them with a guitar for the sing-along.

Samia took no time engaging the crowd as she led off with “Kill Her Freak Out” from her sophomore album, Honey. The audience responded a standing ovation of screams and howls to other decisions gone wrong like “Triptych.”

But it wasn’t all a downward spiral. There was the lively and danceable “Sea Lions.” There was the required “Minnesota” from her debut album The Baby. Also, the producer of her latest album, Caleb Wright, joined her on the stage to sing along with “Honey,” a song they co-wrote together.

“I’m all out of sorts,” gushed Samia after the song. For a singer known for her sad songs, it was not hard to detect that she was having a good time as she shared the love by inviting Papa Mbye to sing “Mad at Me” then Tommy LeFroy with “Dream Song” and finally “Shaking the Can” with Raffaella.

An enjoyable evening was had by all: Samia, the audience, the guest singers, even one on of her band members got in the act when he took what appeared to be a guitar pick and spiked it like a football at the end of the show.

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