City and Colour at First Avenue, Minneapolis (06 May 2023)

City and Colour Setlist

Meant to Be Living in Lightning Thirst The Love Still Held Me Near Two Coins We Found Each Other in the Dark Weightless Underground Strangers Little Hell F****d it Up Hard, Hard Time Hello, I’m in Delaware Bow Down to Love — Encore — The Girl Comin’ Home / This Could Be Anywhere in the World Lover Come Back Sleeping Sickness

Acclaimed singer, songwriter and performer Dallas Green, aka City and Colour, just headlined First Avenue in Minneapolis on Saturday night, May 6th, 2023.

Opening the show was singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews with a 40-min set. It was only the third night of the tour, so she and guitarist/pianist Jerry were still working out the setlist… playing songs that she normally would never play together, as she admitted on stage.

Andrews was originally from Phoenix, Arizona, and started her career as an auxiliary member of Jimmy Eat World (as their keyboardist and backing singer) and later joined Damien Jurado’s touring band. Her debut album, Honest Life, came out in 2016, and which toured with Fruit Bats (she played the 7th Street Entry on 26 Oct 2016).

Prior to playing “It Must Be Someone Else’s Fault”, she thanked City and Colour for offering the support slot to her. She also dedicated “Burlap String” to someone who showed her the ropes for concert touring seven years ago. She didn’t mention their name, but it sounded like it was someone who had died.

Before City and Colour came on stage, there was a cloud of smoke from the fog machine. It’s there to build some mood, and, perhaps help with lighting, as the entire show was programmed with specific images shown on the background with stage lights to help with the visuals. In short, it was both an audio and visual delight to enjoy the concert.

 

We previously saw City and Colour in Nov 2015 and said, “Dallas Green is City and Colour. He got the name because his first name is a city and last name is a color… get it? When touring, Dallas will play with a full band to beef up the sound a bit but there are some times where it seems like he doesn’t even need it. Green has an extremely powerful and distinctive voice. It’s beautiful and high and emits more emotion than you could handle. It was hard to keep in mind that Dallas Green was the singer of Alexisonfire, the metalcore band from back in the day. He had an amazing voice while fronting that band but it seemed to get lost in the loud instrumentation. City and Colour is a great way for Green to showcase that amazing voice of his.”

With the 2023 show, it really looks like Dallas Green is really happy to be back on tour. This is basically the make-up date for his cancelled 2021 show that got cancelled due to COVID restrictions. His thoughts, at the time, “We can’t wait to get back out on the road – the place where most of us have spent the majority of our adult lives, a place we all miss dearly. Everyone is working incredibly hard to bring live music back…”

As you can see from the setlist, plenty of songs from the 7th studio album The Love Still Held Me Near (Still Records, an imprint of Dine Alone Records), including the title track “The Love Still Held Me Near.”

The album was written during a difficult time in Green’s life, from the loss of his best friend and longtime engineer Karl Bareham to the COVID lock-down. As a result, the new album is sadder and more intimate … but also a hit of hope and inspiration as Green explores new music textures and arrangements, not previously seen in other City and Colour albums.

City and Colour’s new album The Love Still Held Me Near is out now on Still Records.

Remaining tour dates: