Minnesota Yacht Club Festival (20 July 2024)
The second day of the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival had even more attendees. We were also better prepared, bringing an extra battery pack for the iPhone (my phone died on Friday with heavy use throughout the day) and an empty bottle to take advantage of the hydrostations. Free parking was at the usually spot, and it was a nice day for walking to Harriet Island. Crossed over the bridge and entered the gates at 1pm, expecting to hear music already.
Red Hot Chili Peppers Setlist
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| Offspring Setlist
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Hold Steady Setlist
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| Hippo Campus Setlist
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Soul Asylum Setlist
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Attendance
Unfortunately, being first band on the bill (and first date of their national tour), it was a rough start for Nico Vega. There were technical difficulties that prevented the band from playing. Singer Aja Volkman said she could not hear anything on her monitor.
About 15 minutes later, they started playing and by the time the third song, their latest single “Crazy Things We Do For Love” was played, their time was over. So overall, only three songs were played on their set.
This is really a shame, because we’re actually big fans of the band. The band had a long six-year hiatus, but they’re back with a new album Make It Out Alive. Even Michael Peña is back (he had to step out when his acting career took off – you might have seen him in Ant-Man and Narcos: Mexico), as you can see from MN Yacht Club photo. What is funny is that Nico Vega is actually the brainchild of Pena and Rich Koehler. They were really impressed with Aja’s singing and stage presence that they asked her to join their band, named after Pena’s mother.
If you’ve ever seen the band (we’ve seen them five times now), it’s really hard to take your eyes off Aja. Her dance moves are unbelievable, and she can really hold a note. And that outfit! Perfect for yachting around.
Although it was a bust for their MN Yacht Club, we still love the band and hope to catch them again with a full set.
Over at the Skipper stage, local indie group Bugsy is playing their biggest stage yet. They were clearly excited to be there and was so grateful for the opportunity. Emily Schoonover said that they weren’t included originally, but with some effort and connection and good luck, they’re on stage to entertain us!
We like the band, having accidentally seen Emily in Oct 2022 (stepping in to help Dad Bod), and then seeing them play a set in June 2023: “Bugsy (Emily Schoonover, Shannon Maroney, Alex Norman and Griffen Desai) seemed to drew in the local crowd, which isn’t a surprise, considering how much love they get on TikTok. The band is fairly new, starting with their debut EP Teratoma in 2020 (during the pandemic).”
To take advantage of their biggest audience yet at the MN Yacht Club, Emily asked the audience to say “Yipee” at the same time so she can tape it on her phone (just to see what that’s like).
They covered The Nerves song “Hanging on the Telephone” on their set. They joked that their version is based on “whoever you think it is”, it’s clearly Blondie’s version. No one would have known the song until Blondie’s cover was a hit.
Bugsy’s new single “Cat Versus Rabbit” just came out this week.
Back to the Crow’s Nest stage, Tulsa’s Wilderado seemed really laid back. Singer Max Rainer didn’t move too much and was just taking it easy. They didn’t have to work hard to win over the audience, because everyone at their stage were already fans.
The band have been building up a massive fanbase via streaming (200+ million streamers and over 3+ million monthly listeners), their song “Head Right” and “Surefire” (their biggest hit song) were well-received.
The seasoned band have played all across the nation, and have been around since 2016, when they first came to our attention. We played one of their songs on our podcast, and it was love at first listen.
Currently the band is signed to Bright Antenna Records with a new album Talker, due out September 20th. The new LP was recorded in Norman, Oklahoma, and produced by James McAlister (Gracie Abrams, The National) and Chad Copelin (Sufjan Stevens, SYML).
I was surprised to see Soul Asylum so early on the bill. To me, and based on unscientific analytics from setlist.fm, the band should be ranked much higher.
Singer and only original band member Dave Pirner is a goofball (as usual!), and was just having a good time. “Hello fellow yachters. I know I took my yacht to the gig.”
When Dave asked guitarist Ryan Smith what his yacht was called, he said, it’s called “Hall and Notes”.
Similar to the last time we saw the band in Jun 2015 the band played all their hits. Love hearing “Somebody to Shove”, “Without a Trace” and “Black Gold”… and, of course, their signature song “Runaway Train”… which, personally speaking, should be the set finale – but it wasn’t!
Trombone Shorty was a whole lot of fun. He really has a great stage personality, and although he does sing on some songs, he let his trombone do most of the talking. Being from New Orleans, he definitely had to play “When the Saints Go Marching In”. Of course, being in Minnesota, he had to play Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”… trombone style!
We haven’t seen him before, only through the television show Treme, but seeing him in person, we’ll definitely have to check him out again when he comes back to the area.
Local group Hippo Campus drew in a large crowd, despite what setlist.fm say. We shouldn’t be surprised about their big fan base, as they’ve sold out their appearance at the Armory in April 2022: “Quite a spot to land, The Armory, a venue that can hold close to 8,000. A pretty big jump from the concert We Heart Music covered at First Ave in 2017. But this band of schoolmates (Jake Luppen (lead vocals/guitar), Nathan Stocker (lead guitar/vocals), Zach Sutton (bass/keyboard), and Whistler Isaiah Allen (drums/vocals) has been on a steady ascent since graduating from the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Arts and releasing a self-assured single/music video Little Grace in 2014.”
I can hear an older woman, puzzled at the big turnout, asks her friend, “What’s the big deal with these guys? They look like they’re in high school.” I had to laugh a little.
Hippo Campus’ new single “Tooth Fair” is out now.
The Hold Steady is always a crowd favorite. The band’s frontman, Craig Finn grew up and worked in Minneapolis, so he always loves coming here.
We’ve seen them several times, with the last one we saw him solo in June 2015 and wrote, “At other cities, he, “normally has to introduce himself in other cities on this tour … for Minneapolis, he felt, “I think it’s safe to assume we can skip that part.” Clearly seeing that his fans (all proudly wearing their Hold Steady T-Shirts) were present and in front for this show. Helping Finn on this low-key acoustic tour was Arun Bali (Saves the Day), however throughout his set, he borrowed Heartless Bastards’ drummer Dave Colvin and bassist Jesse Ebaugh … and for this Minneapolis show, Lifter Puller’s Steve Barone joined Finn on stage to play “Mission Viejo”. Finn talked about all his songs on his 40-min set, explaining that he’s never been to Modesto, California (“Modesto Is Not That Sweet”) or that “Extras” was a “touring song” (even though he specifically hated tour songs) or that “Western Pier” was his answer to “Knights In Satan Service” (KISS).”
The Hold Steady started their Yacht show with “Constructive Summer” and a dedication to former Twins star Joe Mauer’s induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Finn also changed the original lyrics of “Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer, I think he might’ve been our only decent teacher” to “Raise a toast to St. Joe Mauer, I think he might’ve been the greatest ever catcher.” What a dedication.
Finn also joked about his outfit. He said he bought the suit, thinking he would wear it on fancy occasion, like a real Kentucky gentlemen. Of course, he’s never invited to those social events… so he’s very thankful that the Yacht Club asked the band to play – so he is proudly wearing the yachtiest suit.
We haven’t seen The Offspring since 1999, so it’s been a long time coming to finally see these aging punk rock stars again. Right out of the gate, these guys hit us hard with “Come Out and Play” quickly followed by “All I Want”.
These jokesters banter on about world-breaking attendance, saying that they just got word that there were two and a half million (and three people) in the audience… and a couple of women just gave birth. They’re not all wrong, there definitely was a large turnout for their stage when they came on.
People love songs from their breakout hit album Smash and were all singing along. Sometime singer Dexter Holland would just let the audience finish his lyrics.
If you were wondering why there are long hiatus period of the Offspring going on tour or making public appearance, I can’t speak for everyone in the band, but it would seem Dexter has many other interests, including holding a PdD in molecular biology, owning and promoting his hot sauce company Gringo Bandito, and a certified aircraft pilot. Plus, he collects stamps.
The Offspring is really excited to announce that they have a forthcoming album called Supercharged, coming out October 11, 2024, via Concord Records. Hopefully that would mean that the band is back together again for a promotional tour in 2025 or winter 2024 tour.
Gary Clark Jr closed out the Crow’s Nest stage. Since signing to Warner Bros Records, the guitarist have been gaining popularity with his fusion of blues, rock and soul. He is also famous for doing long touring, some of it was documented in Gary Clark Jr. Live and Gary Clark Jr Live/North America. All that touring paid off and he won the Grammy’s “Best Rock Song” for his song “This Land”.
Clark recently toured with legendary The Rolling Stones in Apr 2024 and we noted, “We’ve got boots on the ground for the opening night of their North American Tour at the huge NRG Stadium in Houston, TX, where they were joined by Texas native Gary Clark Jr as opening support.”
Clark played a few from his recent album JPEG Raw, including the title track.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, John Frusciante) was the clear favorite and rightly the headliner. The biggest controversy on their set is that they did not play “Under the Bridge”, undoubtably their best-known song. It would have been a perfect set closer, as we were basically underneath the Wabasha Street Bridge. Someone joked, “Maybe they finally got over the bridge.”
The truth is that “Under the Bridge” is a set alternative/rotation. For our show, they played “I Could Have Lied” in its place.
We’re very impressed with the first annual Minnesota Yacht Club Festival. It’s incredibly well organized. They kept the music going between the two stages, as soon as one ends, the other begins. It’s an all-day event, and the best part is you can leave and come back as much as you like (before 7pm).
I think based on hearing everyone making fun of the Yacht name, including the musicians, I’m not sure if it’s such a good name as a music festival. It sounds yuppy. It’s not Yacht Rock (the Current radio station was playing yacht rock songs in honor of the festival – even though the music genre has nothing to do with the event). It’s not a boating club. It’s just a confusing name. But who knows, if it’s successful enough, over time, people will just accept it and will forget about the name. After all, remember when the iPod was first announced. People made fun of that, but soon it was synonymous as a digital music player.
