Bass Drum of Death at Turf Club (Sep 23, 2025)

Bass Drum of Death Setlist

Nerve Jamming
Bad Reputation
Do Nothing
Phantom Drip
I Wanna Be Forgotten
Just Business
Left for Dead
Find It
Way Out
Velvet Itch
Never Gonna Drink About You
Leaves
Pick ’Em Up and Put ’Em Down
Lose My Mind
Shattered Me
Get Found
— Encore —
No Demons
Crawling After You

Farmer’s Wife Setlist

Dirty Shirley
Swarm
Bleeder
Greg Abbott’s Maxi Pad
Seethe
Mildew
Shoe Goo
Discount Roses

Tour Dates

9/20 St. Louis, MO Off Broadway
9/21 Des Moines, IA xBk Live
9/23 Minneapolis, MN Turf Club
9/24 Chicago, IL Beat Kitchen
9/25 Indianapolis, IN Turntable
9/26 Detroit, MI El Club
9/28 Lakewood, OH Mahalls
9/29 Pittsburgh, PA Crafthouse
9/30 Buffalo, NY Rec Room
10/3 Boston, MA Sonia
10/4 Brooklyn, NY Baby’s All Right
10/5 Philadelphia, PA Foundry
10/8 Washington, D.C. DC9
10/9 Richmond, VA Richmond Music Hall
10/10 Durham, NC Motorco Music Hall
10/11 Greenville, SC Radio Room
10/12 Orlando, FL The Social
10/13 Atlanta, GA The Earl
10/30 Houston, TX White Oak Music Hall
11/1 Dallas, TX Ferris Wheelers
11/2 Austin, TX Empire Control Room
11/5 Phoenix, AZ Valley Bar
11/6 Los Angeles, CA Roxy
11/7 San Diego, CA Brick By Brick
11/8 San Francisco, CA Brick And Mortar
11/10 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s
11/12 Seattle, WA Madame Lou’s
11/14 Portland, OR Dante’s
11/15 Boise, ID Shrine Social Club
11/17 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
11/19 Denver, CO Marquis
11/20 Fort Collins, CO Sound Bar
11/21 Lawrence, KS The Bottleneck
11/22 Columbia, MO Rose Music Hall

There’s a magic in the autumn air in Minnesota, and this week may be the most perfect one of the year. (There’s a reason we live up here, and this may be one of the prime examples.) Over in St. Paul, garage rock band Bass Drum of Death was ready to get things going at Turf Club.

Farmer’s Wife was first up. The Austin based band is part of the new wave of shoegaze and adjacent rock. They released a new EP, Faint Illusions, earlier in 2025. The quintet (vocals/guitars, two more guitars, bass, and drums) started out fiercely with Dirty Shirley and was all fuzz and distortion but riding on the clear singing of Molly Masson. A lot of pedal work kept that modern shoegaze sound flying. The second song, Swarm, had some surprisingly complex time signature changes throughout and I was impressed by drummer Jaylen Valero’s tight work to lead them through it.

Bleeder had some strong effects on the lead guitar solo. We had an amusing crowd interaction moment with the bassist late in the set while driving that song forward. Seethe, off the recent EP, had a very noisy and dark entrance that nearly overwhelmed the vocals, but settled a little to let Masson pierce through before the drums heralded the next wave of guitars. Closing on Discount Roses had Masson on tambourine, and was a slightly slower number that inevitably led to the jangly finish. An excellent set from a joyous band was a great start to the evening.

I spoke with most of the band between sets and I absolutely loved their excited energy. They were on the third show of a 12 stop tour, and having been in Minnesota last Thanksgiving, they were much happier with the weather this time around. They spoke so highly of the headliner, and that response only comes from some real camaraderie between bands. We’ll be watching for them to come through town again.

Up next was Bass Drum of Death. The Mississippi band was orginally the band incarnation for John Barrett, but has since become a steady trio, alongside guitarist (and younger brother) Jim Barrett, and drummer Ian Kirkpatrick. They have six full length albums, including 2023’s Say I Won’t and the newest, appropriately titled Six released here in September 2025. The band (vocals/guitar; guitar/backing vocals, and drums) had the reverb on the vocals from the start. Bad Reputation (not a cover) had Barrett going full out, while his brother was the mover on stage. It was a pretty good vibe and the crowd continued to filter towards the stage edge. Playing multiple new songs from the album, Phantom Drip had a fun dual guitar section.

A longer guitar intro let both Barretts rock around the stage and showed their charisma in spades. Left for Dead was a banger and again, let both guitarists go off in some constrained chaos. This was a pretty big sound for three members, and they easily kept it going across their set. After saying how happy they were with the weather this time, “Last time, we were here in December and that sucked! You’re way tougher than us”, they then launched into Velvet Itch, which also coincided with the start of a mosh pit, which I thankfully was far away from. Pick Em Up & Put Em Down got a call out to the crowd to rock hard and the front of the audience gladly obliged. Ending the set on Get Found, Bass Drum of Death led in with a long jangle of guitar work before crushing the closer. The encore started with No Demons which may have been their loudest song of the evening. Ending on Crawling After You, the band had a full mosh pit and raucous cheers to close out.