The Family Crest at Turf Club, St Paul (June 18, 2025)

After what had seemed a little bit of a lull due to scheduling and weather impacting outdoor events, the number of concerts available this week was a little overwhelming. Making my way to the Turf Club, I was excited to hear the powerful sounds of The Family Crest.

The opener was Babes in Canyon. I kind of love when bands self-describe their sound. In the case of this Seattle band, it’s “synth folk, moody pop, and soaring vocal harmonies”. The duo, made up of Nathan Hamer (vocals/ukelele/mandolin) and Amanda Ebert (keyboards/vocals)has a couple of EPs, including 2023’s Year To Live. I’m not sure how easy it is to explain how cool electric ukelele can be, but this band has it down. Those underlying keyboards (with percussion) provide a solid bass, and Hamer’s higher tenor vocals create a pretty intense sound. Hamer’s switch to mandolin for part of the second song (Western Front) was outstanding; it is astonishing instrument. The banter about how they now had vinyl ended with the statement that the next song was one of the “dancier” ones (Call Me Over) “so if you’re so inclined…” (Side note: the Minnesota audience mostly failed to go for it.)

There was an intensity to Babes in Canyon that seems difficult to obtain, considering there are just the two of them. But as they played The Wolf, “the first song we ever wrote”, it was very much an example of what this band was doing, with a powerful rhythmic beat and all of the layers of sound on top. I think Hamer’s vocal style, which is a particular higher toned, strongly intonated one, is surprisingly complex and a key part of their draw. The band moved onto a “brand new song”, (One Day, One Night) with a great intro build up from keyboards and mandolin prior to the vocals. Hamer’s constant switching between mandolin and uke was impressive to watch, though with that frequency, I suppose it becomes second nature. Second Cities was a solid song and then they were onto their last number. Babes in Canyon ended with High Tide and finished an excellent 45-minute set to conclude their first time in Minnesota. I expect we’ll see a headlining tour the next time around.

I got to chat with Babes in Canyon between sets, asking them about their creative process and noting their pretty mature sound for the short time they have been a band. They mentioned that there is a lot of pruning at both the front and back ends of creating songs. At the front end, trying to make sure that they are only bringing the strongest ideas to the table in the first place. But they also have a high bar on what they release, mentioning that they have instances of fully recording a song, only to cut it and not release it.

The Family Crest took over the stage and with the number of members they have (seven!), they really took over the stage. Co-founded by Liam McCormick (vocals/guitar) and John Seeterlin (bass), the San Francisco based band describes themselves as an “orchestral indie band”. And considering the classical strings instrumentation they have (cello, flute, and violin), this is an extremely apt description. They are a busy touring band, having been to the Twin Cities at least 8 times over the last decade. They also have four albums, with the last three having themed titles (2017’s Prelude to War, 2018’s The War: Act I, and 2022’s The War: Act II).

Here’s a band that knows exactly what it wanted to accomplish. I tend to categorize this kind of band as “the professional band”, where they have worked with each other long enough they intuitively know what is going on, how to react to each other, and generally, give a pretty flawless performance. They came out on fire, bringing the audience up to their level very quickly. Unlike our opener, it’s obvious why this is a layered sound. Those classical instruments paired with a rock tendency are a lot of fun, and with McCormick’s fundamental vocals, the rest of the band builds around that. This sound soars and it comes from different places at different times. A saxophone intro (Lawrence Pi) that built throughout a number mid-set was a tremendous example, but there were lots of bits like that. Laura Bergman’s work between keyboards and flute was especially impressive and made for very different sounds across songs. Maybe nothing was more steady than Jerry Liu’s cello work. Whether as a startling introduction to a song or the key underpinning to others, his contributions were clear and outstanding.

As The Family Crest continued their set, McCormick was central to all of the other instrumentation. We got an unreleased song that was about “thinking for yourself”, and was an absolute banger from the start. This is a band very much in charge of what they are doing, and they brought the audience along in the best possible way. Some banter about some of the lung power of the various members revealed that the keyboardist had been told she had “the lungs of a linebacker”, to which lead singer McCormick quickly responded, “I do not”. That amusing moment aside, The Family Crest continued to show off their strengths as a band, with that strong and layered sound.

You know a band has the audience in its hands when they can sing a chorus, point at the audience and have it repeated instantly. Though the crowd might not have been large, it was absolutely into the moment of the set. A quick “everyone look at Lawrence” (wow, was he embarrassed), led into the next song and The Family Crest was riding on all cylinders as they crossed the one-hour mark. The band had hit full throttle and had most of the audience in photo or video mode, and a nearly screaming McCormick continued to level up the songs as they moved towards the end of the set. The final song of the set had most of the band singing along to the intro before McCormick took over on vocals. The brief encore was a joyous one for band and audience alike, and The Family Crest closed the evening out with a promise to return.