Dead Larry at Turf Club, St Paul (June 12, 2025)

On a very rainy night that postponed or canceled a lot of outdoor music events, I retreated to Turf Club to see a group of local bands, with the news that headliner Dead Larry was turning 21 as a band.

Lost Island Society opened things for the evening. A ska-influenced rock band, this was a quintet comprised of guitar/vocals, bass, sax, trombone and drums. As expected with the ska tag, this was high energy stuff. That trombone was on display for the intro of the third number, Anxiety. There’s something about ska that just engenders a fun vibe, and the band leaned into that. The drummer as back up vocal was a nice change of pace, and both of the brass instrument players got their chance to sing as well. The band circled back to play Villian, as the lead singer noted, “I f’d up!”. That song included great trombone and saxophone solos and the joy on the faces of the band spoke a lot to the energy and excitement of Lost Island Society. A very tight 30 minute set ending with a cover of La Vida Loca was a perfect appetizer to the bands in front of them.

Up next was Sam Licari and the Sweet Tease. A quartet comprised of vocals/guitar, vocals/keyboards, bass and drums, this was a fun blend of rock, blues, reggae, and funk. A little bit of soul sound on the second number, Keep the Pace, was pretty excellent and lee Licari have great range on the vocals. There was a definite upbeat feel to their songs, and there’s a lot to be said for that. Licari has a Greg Norton look going on, with the well-manicured mustache. Our keyboard player suddenly had a saxophone solo and it was then I realized it was the same player from Lost Island Society (the change of primary instrument threw me off). Let Me Be Me was about not letting others tell you what to be, which seems to be a pretty important message these days. A very reggae song, Let Me Be, followed and was excellent for the form. Licari threw down a great harmonica solo, leaning into that blues feel, and showing off some range for the band’s sound.

Next it was Socktopus. Dual rapper vocalists, guitar/vocals, bass/vocals and drums hit hard. All in track suits, it was quite the look. There’s a lot of reasons you could be down on white rappers, but Socktopus was so infectiously fun, you couldn’t help but enjoy what they were doing. As the two rappers knelt for various instrumental solos, they were very willing to shine the spotlight on various band members. This was a silly amount of fun, with the band recognizing that as they asked, “are you ready to get greasy tonight?”. A funkier number allowed the band to play to their strengths, as the lyrics did the classic east side, west side thing. It was fun to have the guitarist singing a chorus and then have the rappers take over on the verses. After a deadpanned, “let’s dance like it’s the 90’s”, Socktopus brought it home with a slightly more serious but still fun rap finale.

Last up was headliner Dead Larry. They came out loud, with keyboard and guitar work taking place of vocals on the first song. A little bit of 80’s synth heavy solo carried a “ooh, aah” set of vocals. The quartet (keys/vocals, bass/vocals, guitar and drums) leaned into an extremely loud and rhythmic song that sounded nearly Eastern European at first. With the lead singer in a loud suit coat, it was hard to know whether to take them seriously, versus tongue in cheek satire. Either way, the music underneath was well played, which allowed them some leeway on other fronts. As they progressed, Dead Larry showed off some excellent musical layering, as keyboards blended with guitars. Here’s a band that was having fun and not worrying too much about how they came off, which I appreciated a lot. Another fun part of Dead Larry was that both the keyboardist and bassist took lead on vocals. For different songs or even within a number. This provided a nice change in sound throughout the set. They seemed to be choosing songs by feel (no set list was obvious), and maybe a bit on audience reaction. As they headed into the latter part of their set, the crowd was very into the vibe, and it felt very much like the birthday party it was. As we prepared to head back into the rain, there was a lot of love back at the merch tables, with the different bands and fans interacting. That really summed up the evening of simply enjoying the music on this very wet St. Paul night.