Heiruspecs Summer Classic at James J. Hill House, St Paul (17 Aug 2024)

If you’re not familiar with the area, it’s right next to the St Paul Cathedral, and offers plenty of free street parking along Summit and Selby.

Admission was free, however if you want access to the balcony view, you’ll have to shell out $40 for the VIP access (which also includes a full bar experience and interior restroom).

Entering in the front gates of the Hill house, you can see lawn games from Minnesota Brewery Running Series, hot press event shirts & vintage clothing from Back Pocket Vintage and New Orleans cuisine from Mateo Mackbee from KREWE Restaurant. Beer was served by Barrel Theory Beer Company.

Emily, from The Cutthroat DJs, spun 45s and singles before and between bands taking the stage. Music selection was anything from Motown to R&B to Pop.

First band on the bill, Rabeca just recently came off their first tour, which they called a “Mid-West Jaunt” (playing IA, IL, WI, and MN). Of all the places they played, the Hill house was “certainly the most scenic show we’ve ever played” (as they look down the spacious lawn with trees over downtown St Paul).

The band played smooth jazz songs and threw in an occasional cover song, like Connie Converse’s “Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains).”

Next up was Greg Grease, with DJ Just Nine. He confessed that it’s been a while since he was doing music regularly, but was excited to try out some new material that he’s working on.

Grease’s music has changed a lot since we first saw him as ZULUZULUU (later changed to Astralblak) in July 2016 and wrote, “Zuluzuluu opened up the show. This experimental project is fronted by Greg Grease, and seemed to look like three men standing over electronic switches. They described themselves as African/Astro music, and had more in common with current pop/r&b sound, with heavy dance, funk beats. I understand what they trying to, that is to take African music and take it into the future or modern age… but to me, the heavy reliance on electronic-produced sound kind of defeats why people like Africana music (which has always been traditional organic instruments). Perhaps time will tell if people accept this new sound or not.”

Heiruspecs closed out the show. The band was happy to play their home turf, stating that they are from St Paul Central High. The band all met while taking a studio recording arts program at the school. Most of the vocals were traded between Felix (Chris Wilbourn) and Muad’dib (Jon Harrison), with a full band playing live music. The band includes bassist Twinkie Jiggles (Sean McPherson), keys dVRG (DeVon Gray), drummer Peter Leggett, and guitarist Josh Peterson.

I don’t know if it was intentional, but right as it started to sprinkle with a rainbow, the band started playing “Sky is Falling.” Just the perfect song for the occasion.

This was Heiruspecs Summer Classic’ first time at James J. Hill House, and based on the turnout (including a lot of parents and their children) and strong enthusiasm, they will likely return next Summer.