Loki’s Folly at 7th St Entry, Minneapolis (26 Feb 2023)

Minneapolis sibling band Loki’s Folly held their debut Sisu album release show at the 7th Street Entry on Sunday, February 26, 2023.

The band features three siblings: Annie Kuchenmeister (age 21) as guitarist and singer; Nissa (age 16) as drummer and singer; and Oskar (age 12) as bassist.

Opening the show was trio, Tragic Hands. Band leader Rich Horton (from Marcus Noise), who started the band on a pandemic songwriting binge, brought together drummer Laura Benett (from Red Pens) on guitarist Darren Harff (from American Paint) on guitar.

Tragic Hands’ influences are based on Minneapolis post-punk sound (everything from Soul Asylum, The Replacements, to Hüsker Dü) and late seventies/early eighties rock.

It was the trio’s first time at the 7th Street Entry, and they mentioned that they were only playing new songs with the exception of one song (“How and Why”) from their debut album Pillow on the Sofa. These new songs are supposed to be out in April 2023.

Highlight of their set was a cover of Royal Blood’s “Figure It Out”, which Darren announced twice by mistake. On the second announcement, he acknowledged his mistake when an audience member, er, “figured it out.”

 

Red Pens at Sauce (20 Mar 2010)

There were also plenty of support for drummer Laura, as some fans or friends were shouting out her name during their set. We can understand why, as we are big fan of Red Pens, having seen them five times. The last time we saw them, they opened for Shonen Knife and we wrote, “Opening up for them was Red Pens, who I previously saw (and loved) with Those Darlins. Laura Bennett is in shorts with ringed tube socks (it’s funny but I don’t think they make socks with those rings anymore), Howard Hamilton is still a rock god in his blue button shirt. Their setlist was about the same from the last time I saw them, except they did “Cave Something” early on, like the second song.”

Porcupine a Minnesota, by the way of Wisconsin, band, led by singer/guitarist Casey Virock (from Space Bike), with drummer Keith Larson, guitarist/vocalist Nick Roesler and bassist Chad Haugejorden.

Sporting a Loki’s Folly T-Shirt, Casey expressed his gratitude for being part of this CD release show.

The band typically will play headliner sets (60-min), so as you can see from the photo of their setlist, they had to cross off three songs (although I believe they drop a song near the end when they were running out of time for the allocated 30-min set.)

 

Porcupine (26 June 2018)

We previously caught Porcupine opening for The Posies in June 2018 and The Flesh Eaters in March 2019, so they are playing in good company. We described their last appearance as, “Evolving forward from a late ‘80s/‘90s indie-rock sound of Swervedriver meets QOTSA, the trio is out in support of latest six-song record, What You’ve Heard Isn’t Real (on Dead Broke Rekerds/DC-Jam) and recent lead single, ‘Lifetime’. The teenage alienation of their version of Hüsker Dü’s ‘Standing by the Sea’ from the new record was originally penned by Norton’s ex-band mate, the late Grant Hart, and is a fitting tribute to his musical legacy. Even songs like 2011’s ‘Rooftops’ resonate further, with Norton providing an extra bump from his restless stage presence and formidable bass skills.”

Loki’s Folly closed out the show, as expected, playing basically their entire debut album Sisu, even keeping the track order (with the exception of moving “Trickster” earlier in the set).

Singer/guitarist Annie is like a firecracker, bouncing and jumping around on stage. Near the end of their set, when they started to run out of their original songs, they were joined on stage by their record producer, Ryan Smith. He would help play some cover songs. The first was Hüsker Dü’s “Books About UFO”, followed by Soul Asylum’s “Just Like Anyone.”

After playing everything on the album, the band exited the stage, clocking in a 40-min set. Just when people were starting to leave, the band came back for the encore: a fun version of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation”, which had the entire trio singing along.

Loki’s Folly’s debut album Sisu is now available on all platforms via Kitten Robot Records.