Northstar Original Revue at Midway Saloon (Saint Paul, August 28, 2025)

First up was Vagadoux, who were a quartet with four vocalists, as well as acoustic guitar, bass, percussion, and fiddle. The highlight here was the blending of those four singers as the first song had a bit of southern classic rock feel. Successive numbers were written by different band members with a different mix of vocalists. And the singing was the calling card for Vagadoux, who finished their set with a cover of an Indigo Girls song, again with all four vocalists chiming in.

Joan of Profile came on as a quartet (guitars/vocals, lead guitar, bass/backing vocals, and drums) and had an indie rock sound behind the strong alto vocals. Intense drumming underneath the guitar riffs made for an excellent second number called Fortune Teller (written a month ago!), and the young band looked pretty comfortable on stage. A dreamier sound showed some range for Joan of Profile. This is a fun band and I’ll be watching to see if they start showing up in some larger venues sooner than later.

Up next were The Tolerables and it was into the land of hard rock. The quintet (vocals, vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, and drums) were super high energy, with one guitarist starting off stage right in the audience. Turned out that was the norm, and the band did what they joked at the start, “we’ll be getting a calisthenics workout in”. The dual vocals were a pretty great ride on top of that busy guitar set. A slightly slower song, “to show off our range”, also demonstrated their very good on-stage humor. This was power rock and I deeply appreciated their commitment to the ethos. 

Side note: It was fun to see several of the bands make introductions to each other between sets. I got the feeling those connections might lead to future work, and in most cases, I certainly hope so.

Fireside Shadow was a duo (vocals, guitar) with this being the singer’s first show with this project and her first time back onstage in several years. A bit of gothic rock, the acoustic guitar was a nice complement to the central focus of the vocals. A slip up on the words to one number was wonderfully handled and NOR really seemed to be a safe space for exactly this kind of re-entrance to performing. As they were setting up the final (unreleased) song, it was noted that the guitarist had learned all of the songs in the last week. Impressively done and a good showing for Fireside Shadow.

Sargasso, a folk rock band, came on as a quintet (vocals/guitar, flute, guitar, percussion, and drums). This is a well established band in the Twin Cities, featuring the songs of composer and lead vocalist Bob Nordquist. A Place That Feels Like Home set the tone, with flute featured around Nordquist’s vocals and an extended instrumental section highlighting the percussionists. Welcome to Dystopia was the band at their best, with the dark lyrics and some good guitar work. They closed with “a political number” of Divided We Fall, which again highlighted the rock guitar alongside the flute and was an appropriate end to their set.

Getting to the end, Agony in the Living Room took over. The quartet (vocals/guitar, guitar, keyboards, and percussion) said they are normally a “very loud rock band”, but were playing an acoustic set on this evening. This played as straight indie alt, and those keyboards were a great base for the first song, Amen. I don’t know how it goes for the fully electrified band, but the vocals were perfectly suited for this acoustic version, building up dynamically over the second song. Playing a brand new song, When It Comes Around, was a quietly entrancing number. With an upcoming show at Green Room next week, here’s a band to catch live soon.

Overall, Northstar Original Revue was an enjoyable way to get introduced or re-acquainted with a variety of local bands. There was clearly day of performance changes, and I get the feeling that’s the norm and NOR is used to shuffling things around as needed. Big props to the sound guy, who was very busy all evening, but really helped the bands to shine. With no cover charge, Northstar Original Revue at Midway Saloon provides bands and audiences an opportunity worth attending.