Circa Waves and Friday Pilots Club at First Ave (04-29-2025)

Tour Dates

• May 1 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre
• May 3 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
• May 5 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
• May 6 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
• May 8 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
• May 9 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre

Tuesday night, a rather subdued night in downtown Minneapolis except for one place. First Ave played host to three bands, who as the lead singer of the opening act stated, “We are here to play songs to get you to dance.”

Local band bugsy opened the evening with a rousing set. We last caught them at a much larger venue when they played at the inaugural Minnesota Yacht Club Music Festival July, 2024 in St. Paul. As reported: “To take advantage of their biggest audience yet at the MN Yacht Club, Emily asked the audience to say “Yipee” at the same time so she can tape it on her phone (just to see what that’s like).”

Emily was joined on stage by Shannon Maroney on bass, Griffen Desai on guitar and Alex Norman on drums. They started off with “Tiger Beetle” and ripped through their set with an assured vigor that kept the crowd moving. Only briefly was there a glitch, which Emily filled with a call and response with the crowd that highlighted the punk spirit of the night: ROCK! ROLL! HIGH! SCHOOL!

After citing the Ramones, Emily said, “I love the enthusiasm!”

“On a Tuesday,” added Shannon.

Friday Pilots Club kicked off their set with “Hot Mess”. It was quickly apparent that there was a dedicated fan base in the audience for they started singing along with their own call and response with lead singer, Caleb Hiltunen.

Caleb was joined on stage with Drew Polivick on bass, Sean Burke on guitar, James Kourafas on guitar and Eric Doar on drums. They are from Chicago and are supporting their debut LP Nowhere, a reference to cabin in the woods of Georgia where they met to whittle down 60 incomplete songs into a finished project.

“We were here last year,” said Drew, which drew a roar. Drew laughed. “I guess that answers my next question as to who was there.”

The set was fast and fun and energetic as Caleb’s voice swooned over the heavy bass and guitars. There were forays into pop like “Pushing Daisies (Oh My My)” and even a little soulful blues with “Would You Mind”, but most of the evening was meant to keep the audience jumping up and down, which by the end of “Gold and Bones” a woman took the extreme and lost the contents of her purse, her worldly possessions spewing all over the beer-stained floor. (That’s rock and roll!)

The English band Circa Waves next took the stage and seemed a little subdued, which made perfect sense when the previous act sent the crowd into a frenetic tizzy. But something happened. The crowd didn’t let up and kept the call and response with lead singer, Kieran Shudall, on “Do You Wanna Talk?”

Kieran was joined on stage by Joe Falconer on guitar, Sam Rourke on bass and Colin Jones on drums. They are from Liverpool and supporting their sixth LP Death & Love Pt. 1, an album shaped by a near death experience that Kieran had when he required an emergency procedure to open a clog in the main artery in his heart.

Kieran and his bandmates kept the dance party going with “Movies” and a brand new song “Let’s Leave together.”

“Loving this dance circle,” Kieran said before adding, “This is a rib shaker.”

They launched into “Sad Happy” a song that got the whole crowd dancing around the circle.

There were a couple of new songs like “That’s All” and “We Made It” along with a bouncy anthem “Jacqueline”. Then after “Be Your Drug”, they finished with “T-Shirt Weather”.

As I left First Ave, I checked the weather on my phone. 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Not quite t-shirt weather, but if you were dancing all night, maybe it was.