Tour Dates

11/12 Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater #
11/13 Denver, CO – The Ogden Theatre #
11/14 Salt Lake City, UT – Commonwealth Room #
11/16 Seattle, WA – The Showbox #
11/17 Seattle, WA – The Showbox #
# with support from Jordan Mackampa

Much like the Amsterdam Bar & Hall was treated to the Post Punk sounds from both sides of the pond on Friday, It was the music of Motown at First Ave on Sunday with a band from Seattle WA and a Congolese singer from England.

Jordan Mackampa opened up the evening and immediately bonded with the audience with a soulful voice blending with subtle African rhythms.

Mackampa was all about love and his voice seemed to radiate through the room. It didn’t hurt that he said Minneapolis was a beautiful city, even sporting a Viking’s uniform halfway through his set.

“Let’s go Chef,” shouted someone from the crowd as Mackampa tuned his guitar.

That got a slight smile and Mackampa said he was happy to be back to the Twin Cities and finally able to play at First Ave. He is supporting his latest album Welcome Home, Kid with songs like “Girls on Film” and “Proud of You” and a biblical ode to Joseph trying to get back into the good graces with “Mary”.

The Dip next took the First Ave stage with Tom Eddy on lead vocals and guitar, Jarred Katz on drums, Mark Hunter on bass guitar, Brennan Carter on trumpet, Levi Gillis on tenor sax and Evan Smith on baritone sax and flute. Some of them met in the Jazz Music Department at the University of Washington and formed a band to give themselves an opportunity to play more mainstream music.

Although fronted by Eddy, this is a band that plays as a group and it’s a wonderful sound, breezy, warm and welcoming. In R&B they use terms like “tight” and “in the pocket”, which basically means a group of musicians play as one. And that is exactly what The Dip did for ninety minutes, moving from Blues in “Slow Sipper”, to R&B in “Sharpen Your Shovel”, then a soulful lullaby in “Atlas”, even breaking out a Flugelhorn solo for a Chuck Magione tinged “What You Won’t Do for Love”, a Bobby Caldwell cover.

Like Mackampa, this was the first time The Dip had played the mainroom at First Ave, and they did not disappoint their fans with favorites like “Sure Miss You” and “Adeline”. They even played an acoustic version of “State Line” and songs from their latest album Love Direction. And for fun they took “Apollonia” on a wild ride in which Smith moved from the baritone sax to flute, as the band fuzzed into a desperado-tinged hallucination before settling into a soft-rock love story movie of the week soundtrack. Why not? They were tight and in the pocket.