Dean Wareham at Turf Club, St Paul (June 19, 2025)

On a pretty sweltering day in the Twin Cities, veteran rocker Dean Wareham visited the Turf Club in support of his most recent album.

Chris Forsyth started things off. A guitarist and composer, the Philadelphia-based Forsyth has a long set of guitar jam-style albums, such as 2022’s Evolution Here We Come. After a bit of a delay, Forsyth came out on stage. Introducing himself, he mentioned it was the last night of the tour, then stated “I’m going to sing a very little bit, and mostly play guitar”. And play he did. Using a recurring, looped motif, Forsyth proceeded to work his pedal board for different guitar effects for a while before adding vocals to it.

Side note: here’s my “old man yelling from the lawn chair” rant. There isn’t any reason that most shows need to be this loud. Forsyth was routinely above 110 dB, which, why? This could easily have been 20 dB quieter and had no visible effect on the musical experience.

As promised, Forsyth went into straight instrumental songs after that initial number. Before his third number, he mentioned, “this is probably my most accurately descriptive song title” before launching into The First 10 Minutes of C*cksucker Blues. As is the way of many guitar jam songs, it was centered on a repeated musical theme and then building out in multiple directions with the pedaled effects and then transitioned into different sections. It also included some very classic rock sounding moments (with full wah-wah effect included). It certainly was the last stop of the tour when Forsyth noted that he only had four records left at the merch table, “and I would love not to have to take them home tomorrow”. Closing out with his fifth song, off of his recent EP Basic, Forsyth had a head tapper of a song. He closed out his nearly 40 minutes set with a “thanks, Dean’s up next” and quickly exited.

Dean Wareham is a guitarist and singer/songwriter who has been a creative force with multiple bands over the years. He started with the band Galaxie 500 (yes, named after the 1960’s era Ford car) who released three albums over five years, all produced by Mark Kramer (more on that name later). Wareham then formed the dream pop band Luna, which has a number of albums. He’s also half of Dean & Britta, alongside his wife (who he first met in Luna). Lastly, he also performs solo, with several albums including 2025’s That’s the Price of Loving Me, which was produced by Kramer in their first collaboration since Galaxie 500 (over 30 years later!). With all of that history, Wareham has a rich catalogue of songs to choose from when performing live.

The band came out as a quartet (guitar/vocals, bass/back up vocals, guitar, and drums). New World Julie was a pleasant start, with Wareham and Britta Phillips (in a tasseled dress) well paired on vocals and the song building up in volume and complexity. I really liked Wareham’s relaxed vocals and stage presence. A quick “hello, how are you” also got a “me too” in response to the audience cheers. You Were the Ones I Had to Betray was one of my personal favorites off the new album and was great to hear live.

Yesterday’s Hero had a 60’s French rock sound to it. There was some distorted guitar intro on the next number, but it played well. There was definitely a chill vibe in the songs off the most recent album, even when in the middle of a rocking guitar solo. I really liked the seamless feel of the front third of the set and highly recommend the newest album. From there, the band started to work its way back through that deep catalogue, starting with Robin and Richard.

Wareham said it was great to be back on St. Paul, “third time in this room, second time playing here”. Flowers was a Galaxie 500 number and got a strong crowd reaction. A gentle drum intro for Snowstorm had Wareham singing at his highest of the evening, and he did admirably, while Phillips’ bass work was the critical pull through of the song. Skylar Kaplan had an enjoyable guitar solo on Advice and it was an interesting approach that the guitar solos of the evening were shared between her and Wareham.

A duet for Dean & Britta on Last Word had Phillips start with the lead and had some great back and forth before a very funky ending musical section. Blue Thunder got cheers before the first lyrics were sung and had a chorus with Phillips the significantly lower vocals to Wareham’s falsetto. Forsyth joined the band for the final number of the main set, 23 Minutes to Brussels, and that additional guitar added a noticeable new musical layer and an extended guitar solo. A quick break resulted in a two number encore. Ending on Fourth of July, Dean Wareham and company finished their tour strong and left the St. Paul crowd very pleased indeed.