Grandaddy at First Avenue, Minneapolis (October 8, 2025)
Twenty-one years after their last Minnesota show, Grandaddy returned to First Avenue to perform The Sophtware Slump in full. Note-perfect and emotionally heavy, the set traced millennial dread and fragile hope before loosening into celebratory encores—including birthday cake for guitarist Jim Fairchild. Vermont’s Greg Freeman opened with a beautifully restrained set.
- He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot
- Hewlett’s Daughter
- Jed the Humanoid
- The Crystal Lake
- Chartsengrafs
- Underneath the Weeping Willow
- Broken Household Appliance National Forest
- Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)
- E. Knievel Interlude (The Perils of Keeping It Real)
- Miner at the Dial-a-View
- So You’ll Aim Toward the Sky
- Now It’s On
- Lost on Yer Merry Way
- Saddest Vacant Lot in All the World
- Watercooler
- Laughing Stock
- Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake
- El Caminos in the West
- My Small Love
- Levitz
- I’m on Standby
- A.M. 180
Twenty-one years since their last tour (and last Minnesota appearance), Grandaddy returned to First Avenue to perform 2000’s The Sophtware Slump in its entirety. The performance was note-perfect, the album played in order, followed by a second set of deep cuts. I half-expected the acoustics to struggle with Jason Lytle’s hushed vocals and the band’s famously overdriven analog synths, but First Avenue’s sound system faithfully met the moment with clarity and warmth.
“Faithful” also described the crowd that had waited two decades to hear these songs live. The Sophtware Slump’s arc – from boisterous rock to quiet longing to disillusionment – felt even more resonant in 2025 than it might have in 2000. The homemade robot who drinks himself to death, the man who leaves Earth only to find it unrecognizable – these stories no longer feel speculative.
That millennial dread was recreated in high fidelity, for better or worse. Between sets, Lytle joked that the next run of tunes (“Now It’s On,” “El Caminos in the West,” “Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake”) would be less “serious,” giving the evening its own emotional arc. By the time encore closer “A.M. 180” arrived – after a spontaneous “Happy Birthday” and cake for guitarist Jim Fairchild, who turned 52 on stage – the mood had lifted considerably.
Vermont’s Greg Freeman opened the night, and joins the rest of the tour (Detroit, into Canada, through New England, wrapping October 18). His quiet-to-cathartic set – anchored by slide guitar and the occasional saxophone – was a fitting prelude for Grandaddy’s graceful collapse-and-rebuild.
