BabyJake at Turf Club (April 27, 2025)

It’s been a crazy weekend in the Twin Cities. Multiple playoff teams (with the Timberwolves taking games 3 & 4 from the heavily favored Lakers), Twins baseball, Loons soccer, and the start of the UPSL soccer season, all with pretty gorgeous spring weather. Even as the weekend headed to a close, it didn’t feel that way at Turf Club, as we had a full show headlined by BabyJake.

The Dalmatian Club at First Avenue (31 Jan 2025)

The first opener was The Dalmatian Club, who we last saw at First Avenue’s Best New Bands in January. We noted they were a straight rock & roll band, and nothing has changed since then. It was high energy from the quintet (dual guitars, lead singer on bass, keys, and drums). We also got a “T-wolves in 5” from the band, as we headed into the second song. We got back up vocals from the keyboardist, which provided a nice alto harmony to the lead vocals. We had a mix of older songs and brand new, yet unreleased material. We switched to Kyle taking lead vocals after a long instrumental intro. A switch of bass and guitar led to the next number, which had just been released in the last month. This one rocked and showed where the band will grow. As the band finished their set, it was fun to see them continue to grow as a band. Ending on Stay For a While, The Dalmatian Club nailed their opening set and continue to build their fan base.

I spoke with lead singer Griffin from The Dalmatian Club about how the creative process works for the band. He said they approach it with a total freedom and each band member helps flesh the songs out. As to where the band is headed musically, he feels the indie rock and pop sound is where they are and want to be. Griffin also mentioned that an EP would be out fairly soon, so keep your eyes out for that.

Up next was tacklebox. The band has members from multiple existing bands, including Remo Drive. The opening song, Satellite Farmer, showed off the quartet’s prowess as a lyrical and guitar heavy indie band. It was mentioned that this was the band’s first performance in over a year, but you would be excused for not being able to tell. There’s a good level of comfort across the team that makes it feel like they’ve been at this together a lot longer than they have actually been. There’s a good camaraderie with the band, as they instinctively knew how to move forward across songs.

tacklebox kept a good pace in their set, as vocalist Joe Graves kept pushing things forward with a yelling singing style that really worked. Stretching across genres from indie rock to a heavier metal rock sound, this was a fun set for the band to let loose. An unreleased song followed, with a slightly more mellow vibe. They finished their relatively short set at just over 30 minutes and the turn over for the headliner began.

BabyJake (Jacob Herring) came on with full energy. A cover of The Romantics’ What I Like About Youwas an inspired opener. Head in the Clouds was a great example of BabyJake’s style, as he was all over the stage and the remainder of the quartet (guitar, bass, and drums) was grooving along in support and with back up vocals, with all three members getting their opportunities to provide back up vocals across the performance. Ariane was clearly a crowd favorite and included the speeding up of the tempo and with a wailing scream during the last chorus.

BabyJake is an aggressive performer, not only dancing around stage, but getting right up to the front at multiple points. Interestingly, he also alternated between focusing solely on vocals versus playing one of several guitars (acoustic and electric), and even switching guitars with both of his band mates for different songs.

Bottom of a Dirty Shoe was a brilliant play of the fan favorite, and the transition to Beast of Burden had the crowd singing along and had Jake out in the crowd, which the Turf Club set up makes very easy for performers to do. In the heels of that, Confidant, which had a bit of a reggae sound to it, and it had the crowd going absolutely nuts. This stretch of numbers was perfectly sequenced by BabyJake to maximize crowd reaction, and it was fun to see the audience around me totally into the moment.

There was no letting his foot off the gas, as BabyJake moved from one song to the next without any real pause. Rolling into Don’t Hurt Me So Bad, the band showed off their ability to modify a song and make it sound exactly right. In its released version, this one has piano as a main feature, but it wasn’t missed in this live performance at all. We Got To Get Together To Be Free followed with a great guitar intro and BabyJake was back to dancing around the entire stage.

Don’t Let Me Down had a full throated audience singing the chorus. It was another great moment of band and crowd connection. Cigarettes on Patios was a slightly slower paced number and allowed BabyJake the chance to be a little more soulful in his vocal styling. The set ended with a brilliant cover of I Will Survive and BabyJake finished with the punch and energy that they started with as the ended the evening.

I got to speak briefly with BabyJake afterwards. Considering they are just at the halfway point of the tour, I asked him how he keeps that energy up with so many dates left. He talked about how the opportunity to be in the stage each night always keeps it exciting and fun. But he also talked about how critical it is for him to take care of himself; little to no drinking, getting to sleep as early as possible, good nutrition and taking care of his voice. He said this tour was going well on that front and he is the farthest into a tour without losing his voice at all. We’ll hope that continues so that future audiences get the same spectacle from a talented band.