Badflower at Fillmore, Minneapolis (20 Sep 2024)

 

 

 

 

Platinum-selling rockers Badflower headlined the Fillmore, in Minneapolis, on Friday, September 20, 2024, as part of the “No Place Like Home” tour.

The Los Angeles-bred and Nashville-based quartet (singer/guitarist Josh Katz, guitarist Joey Morrow, bassist Alex Espiritu, and drummer Anthony Sonetti) put together this 2024 with Missio and Slothrust… but unfortunately, perhaps due to prior commitments or logistics, Slothrust couldn’t make it to the Minneapolis show.

 

We actually like Slothrust a lot, so we’re bummed to not see them on the Fillmore bill. Fortunately, we did catch the group earlier in April 2024 and noted, “It was a sold-out show for Slothrust at the Turf Club, on a Wednesday night. The band is celebrating the ten-year anniversary of Of Course You Do, so of course they did “play the entire album, from start to finish, one song at a time.” This was a great show, no matter how to slice it. Leah Wellbaum is at her goofiest, if not quirky, self, and seemed quite pleased that the show has sold out. Fans of Of Course You Do were extremely happy to hear some of the more obscure songs played live and remembering the record when they first heard it a decade ago.”

Replacing Slothrust was local independent rock group Divide The Fall, who was more than excited to play the Fillmore, and especially a nice gift to singer Ethan who celebrated a birthday this month.

The band handled themselves like seasoned pros, probably because they’ve just recently headlined their own “Death of Me” national tour, playing 23 cities. It’s a shame that the band wrote that this Fillmore appearance is likely “our last Twin Cities show of the year.”

Texas duo Missio (Matthew Brue and David Butler) was next. The band recently teamed up with Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland on their single “Good Vibrations”, which was used as the set finale. They love the song, and even “freaked out”, when they learned that Borland wanted to work with them. Frontman Matthew Brue adds, “He’s been a huge influence for us both growing up. After hearing his additions to the song, we sat back, and it felt surreal realizing that we got the opportunity to collaborate with someone as legendary as him. He took the song to a slightly darker place, and we instantly resonated.”

The single-person band officially formed in 2014, but Matthew Brue didn’t adopt the Missio (the Latin word for “mission”) name until 2016 when he played at SXSW, with the help of David Butler. Since then, Brue asked Butler to join Missio.

 

We caught Missio a year later, in May 2017, opening up for K.Flay, and wrote, “Opening up the show was Austin duo Missio, featuring singer Matthew Brue and producer David Butler. For their live shows, they’re joined on stage by a live percussionist…. The band played tracks from their then-forthcoming Loner album, such as ‘I Don’t Give a…’ (the recording of the record featured Zeale). As always the duo was very thankful that fans knew and help promote their breakthrough single ‘Middle Fingers’ (the single peaked at #9 on the Alternative charts), which ended their brief 35-min set.”

American rock band Badflower closed out the night. The band, featuring singer/guitarist Josh Katz, lead guitarist Joey Morrow, bass guitarist Alex Espiritu and drummer Anthony Sonetti, had several big hit singles (“Ghost” and “Promise Me”) from their debut OK, I’m Sick album, and have been going strong since.

They also seem to have a new hit on their hands, with the lead song on the setlist, “Teach Has a Gun”. You can always tell when a song does well when you hear the audience sing back the chorus.

Their other new single, “Detroit”, which they played on the encore, recently came out on Big Machine Rock. The song was written before their
2022 show at The Fillmore, in Detroit. According to the band, the song is a love letter to their fans.

Remaining tour dates: