Artemas at First Avenue, Minneapolis (June 20, 2025)

Rolling into a heatwave in the Twin Cities (nearly 90 degrees at doors), waiting in the long line at doors was uncomfortable, leaning towards miserable. But although it was cool inside First Ave., we had Artemas raising the temperature all on his own.

With a main room floor that was nearly full five minutes to the opener, this was a pretty excited crowd. Further warming things up was DJ Jean Pierre La Croix, and, in my opinion, reviewing a DJ set is difficult. (Side note: Vaping in the venue? Low class.) On the whole though, his point was to entertain and excite the crowd and he nailed the assignment. Low beat, synth EDM, getting the strobe light effect going on the second song, urging the crowd to dance and get excited? He checked all the boxes, stepping off the stage just after 30 minutes. Well done, Pierre.

Artemas (full name Artemas Diamandis) is an English singer & songwriter. The twenty-five-year-old plays in the synth pop / electronic alt genre. He is very much of his generation, releasing singles that have gone completely viral, including 2023’s if u think i’m pretty and 2024’s i like the way you kiss me, which (and I love this) the magazine Variety called the “most ubiquitous song of 2024”. But! He’s also played the traditional game, releasing albums including his 2022 debut I’m Sorry I’m Like This and 2024’s Yustyna. It’s an impressively ambitious approach, and it’s clear that he has worked hard to build a strong fan base. If this show wasn’t sold out, it was absolutely in spitting distance.

Artemas entered leading a quartet (vocals, keyboards, bass and drums). Starting with i always kinda knew you’d be the death of me, Artemas came out to a near adoring crowd, and quickly looked to bring them along for more. There’s a lot of shadow and strobe light effect and it’s used very well, if a little much for my pedestrian tastes, but the vast majority of the audience loved it. Artemas also had a sign language interpreter just off-stage floor with her own light, and I’ve learned to appreciate the skill involved in that role.

how could u love somebody like me? was a perfect encapsulation of the sound; deep bass notes, switching between higher and lower vocals, and a thumping dance beat. The crowd was singing every word of the next song, mess of me, sexually, and Artemas wisely dropped all of the music to give them that sense of belonging and ownership. He’s a very good performer and has a great sense of what works to build his audience up.

Artemas kept moving things along, with minimal banter, though he did mention Minneapolis’ rich musical history. just want u to feel something was almost straight EDM and the crowd had pulled out cameras to record the moment. After the briefest of pauses, we were back into some falsetto for So Stunning. Calling the next song, You Were a Dream, one of his oldest, Artemas nearly begged the audience to sing along, which of course they did. The electronic pop was top notch, with the backing band perfectly providing the foundation for Artemas’ vocals. Given a guitar for slow dance, Artemas showed some musical versatility.

Tattoos was a little more R&B style electronica, with a bit of spoken (not quite rap) that had some more soulful singing. Again, I can’t overstate how quick the pace was here; we had just crossed 45 minutes and were already onto the 15th song of the set. And this worked, because Artemas had brought the audience along and had them feeling fully invested and involved in the set.

We moved into full club dance mode with the song good girl. We also started to get to some of the best-known songs, as if you think i’m pretty was up and the crowd nearly melted. Artemas mentioned this was the end of the American tour and that Minneapolis was proving to be such a great place to end it. Nearing the end, the start of dirty little secret gave Artemas and crowd the chance to slow down for just a moment. The set ended the only way it could, with i like the way you kiss me, and the crowd erupted. It was a pretty brilliant end to a well-executed show, and Artemas rode out his American tour on a high note.