The Strike at First Avenue, Minneapolis (30 July 2024)

A couple of twists and turns for the The Strike’s show at First Avenue, in Minneapolis, on July 30, 2024.



First of all, the show was originally booked at the much smaller 7th St Entry (officially lists of 250 capacity) and it sold out. So the band upgraded to the larger mainroom at First Avenue, making for a more comfortable concert attending experience.



Second, previously unannounced, but they added local group Solid Gold to the lineup. What a treat.

Solid Gold at Varsity Theater (19 Nov 2013)

The last time we saw Solid Gold was in 2013, when they were active and promoting Eat Your Young : “Solid Gold’s music has gone more instrumental, it would seem. Since I last saw them, I noted that they’ve been concentrating on playing tracks from Eat Your Young (“Six Days”, “The Pendulum”, “Laugh It Up”, etc), however they did end on an oldie, “Bible Thumper”.”



It would seem that Solid Gold have new songs, including the new single, “Don’t React”, which just came out in May 2024.



Singer Zack Coulter had little to say, other than “It’s Tuesday, that’s weird” after they played “Get Over It.”



Alt Bloom opened the show. Despite what the venue lists (8pm), he actually started his set 10 minutes earlier… playing a full 40-min set. He’s joined on stage with the Strike’s guitarist Alex Palazzo, who was doing double duty that night.



It was Alt Bloom’s final show with the Strike, so he felt a little bittersweet about the whole thing, but still wanted to give it his best.



He said he lived in a school bus and that he writes two types of songs: songs about love and songs about the chaos and struggle of his life. Most of his songs that he played was about love…. Like “Jeans and a T-Shirt” (dedicated to some dude in the audience in jeans and T-Shirt).



He ended his set with “Afternoons” and “You Got My Best”.



Los Angeles alt-pop band The Strike said that they started their journey, originally, in Minneapolis, saying that they first came to the city to record their new album, Until the Lights Go Out (set for release on September 27th). A little research, they were indeed in town in the summer of 2023 to record their album with producer John Fields (Jonas Bros, Miley Cyrus, Switchfoot) at his Minneapolis studio.



Guitarist/keys David Maemone said that it was their first “proper studio with a proper producer” and that really elevated their music to the next level.



Singer Chris Crabb was especially excited, often pointing to the crowd, as they danced and clapped to their music. Based on the strong support for the band, they’ll probably come back sooner rather than later.