Noah Vonne and Bluphoria at Turf Club (11-03-23)

It was a tag team maiden tour last night for two groups of musicians on the road to promote their debut albums.

Covalent Blonde opened up the evening at the Turf Club. They are a local band with a subtle R&B vibe consisting of Drew Mabusth on lead vocals, Tanner Montague on drums, Nick Benish on bass, Kevin Gamble on keys and Keston Wright on guitar.

Their name is a play on covalent bond, a term in which electrons are shared between two atoms. The band seemed to identify with this definition for they were always glancing at each other, perhaps scouting ahead as Mabusth sang with a conversational, pillow-talk hush that never was overwhelmed by the members of the band.

Bluphoria next took the stage with a psychedelic rock sound that enlivened the crowd. They met as a band in Eugene, Oregon while attending college and are now based out of Nashville, TN. They consist of Reign LaFreniere on lead guitar and vocals, Dakota Landrum on rhythm guitar, Dani Janae on drums and Rex Wolf on bass.

They share an interesting dynamic based on the fact that they all have different viewpoints when it comes to making music. Just look at their musical influences. LaFreniere cites Jimi Hendrix and Landrum, Pink Floyd. Janae comes from a punk rock tradition and Wolf looks and plays like he could audition for Metallica.

To carry on with the chemistry theme, Bluphoria is what happens when you heat up an element and the atoms speed up and crash into each other. Or as Wolf explained to The Unfiltered Magazine: “We really like to get up in each other’s faces and rock out together and jump around and go crazy.”

And that’s what they did through most of the set, still discovering what is possible as they promote their self-titled album. And since they have yet to build up their catalog, they played a few covers. One of them being Elvis Presley’s “Trouble,” a rendition that careened with a speed-metal-punk beat.

Noah Vonne started off her set by giving the Twin Cities a rave review when it came to being in the “musical know” before playing her latest single “I Call B.S.”

Vonne is from Texas and now lives in West Hollywood. Her musical sound is influenced by her Texas roots with an unabashed rock meeting the sultry, saucy blues made famous by Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Vonne cites musical influences ranging from Janis Joplin to Brandie Carlile, but leaning into some of her songs from her debut album We Weren’t Sober reminded me of the boldness of Grace Potter and Susan Tedeschi.

Speaking of boldness, although Vonne has been recording since age eleven, she took a brave leap and signed a seven-month contract on a cruise ship to confront her stage fright.

Vonne mentioned the anxiety of being on stage, but when she started singing and playing the guitar, you could see the ebbing. Rock should be fun and it looked that even with the weariness of the road, the cold weather and broken instruments, Vonne and Bluphoria were having a great time, especially when they gathered on stage at the end with Mabusth to sing Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”