American Scarecrows Setlist

In The Name Of The Best Within Us
Cheshire Cat
Broken Bones & Mountains
Drawing Little Pictures
Abigail from Aberdeen
Dreamers
Devil On My Shoulder
My Way Home
Gods Of The West
Red Lights
Diane
All She Can Say
Stay The Same
Blue Jay
Outskirts (Buried In The Sound)

Sister Species Setlist

Look at the Clouds
Endless Sea
TPT PRTY I
If I Had to Guess
Light Exchanges
Smoke on the Horizon
TPT PRTY II
Take Everything and Scatter It
Turning Times
Cover Me in Maple Leaves
Lena in the Bog
Mississippi
Heat Death (Hold Me Here)

The Teddy Holidays Setlist

Friendly Fire
Penrose Steps
Scavengers
Something Borrowed
Perennials
Failed Stars
Funeral Parlor Funk
Far as the Eye Can See
Capo

Although I had gotten lucky enough to get to the Tom Morello led pop up resistance concert at First Avenue earlier in the day, it didn’t change the fact that there was a much longer planned concert of local Twin Cities artists at Turf Club that evening. So, with no rest for the weary, I was excited to go see a night headlined by American Scarecrows.

Opening things was The Teddy Holidays. The “Twin Cities rock & roll band” has several EPs, including 2022’s Scavengers. The quartet (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, and drums) started with Friendly Fire with a very pleasant tenor voice and it was a lovely opener. The band gave a very positive vibe, and even as they reached for a heavier sound on Penrose Steps, it still carried a bright overtone. With the brothers Viele combining on vocals, those harmonies were sharp and blended really well. That’s not to take anything away from our bass and drums, who were critical to the overall indie rock sound. An unreleased number in Something Borrowed was a good summary of The Teddy Holidays, with that bright indie rock sound, excellent dual vocals, and the pulsating drums and driving bass giving that needed bit of depth. Failed Stars gave us a bit of funk rock in the guitar work, and a solid bass riff. The Teddy Holidays closed out on Capo, with a good guitar intro and triple vocals carrying things to the louder main section and finished out strong.

Up next was Sister Species. A chamber pop band with seven members, they have some really gorgeous albums, including 2024’s Lena in the Bog. The septet has Emily Kastrul on accordion & vocals, as well as guitar, bass, drums, and three, yes three, trumpets. And goodness, dear reader, what you can do with three trumpets in a rock band. Look at the Clouds was brilliant and the dual vocals with triple trumpets was nearly mind blowing. Kastrul has an excellent voice for this kind of sound, combing with, but always above the trumpets. TPT Party served as a palette cleanser at several points in the set and was such a good mechanism. If you haven’t figured it out, dear reader, I think Sister Species is a delightful band and one you should be seeking out right away. Light Exchanges was so very good, with those vivid lyrics (“I want you on my skin like onion and garlic”). The note that although all of the members had played Turf Club, but it was the first time for the band was noteworthy, as several of the brass will be back on the 31st as part of McNasty Brass Band, and I thought I had recognized bassist Maddie Thies from Kiernan. Smoke on the Horizon let trumpets go loose in the best possible way. Though it wasn’t obvious at first glance, that guitar & bass were critical to the overall sound of Sister Species, and this band really works because of the full complement of artists. Turning Times had a quieter start that layered in the rest of the instrumentation at various points. The latter section was full of songs from the Lena in the Bog album, and the title track, about a friend’s dog, gave us some great drums and more of that patented triple trumpet work. Closing with Heat Death (literally about the heat death of the universe) had Sister Species play out as they had throughout: clever lyrics, excellent music and that trumpet sound leveling things up.

Headliner American Scarecrows is a Minneapolis band playing in the Amerciana genre, but also sliding into more rock and blues. Their 2022 album Drawing Little Pictures is the group’s most recent, but they’ve been at it as a band for quite a while, as we saw them back in October 2015. Appearing as a quartet (vocals/guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums), they opened with a heartfelt moment for those lost to political violence (it hasn’t even been seven months since Melissa Hortman was murdered) and they were off to the races. Cheshire Cat played that good mix of Americana and rock. Broken Bones was straight rock and had the audience dancing along. There was a calm professionalism with American Scarecrows and that assurance in a band is always a good thing. A change of guitar (“let’s thank Jason”) and a call out to proceeds helping community groups had the band back into the music. Abigail from Aberdeen had some good keyboard support and the band was in good form. Devil on My Shoulder started a little quieter, but predictably grew into a louder sound. Gods of the West was another number with a good keyboard intro and an Americana feel. Getting late into the set, American Scarecrows were still flying across the stage and having fun. Poking fun at how late it was for a band and audience that is getting older, they started All She Can Say, leaning back into that straight rock & roll sound. Band introductions meant things were wrapping up, and Blue-Jay was a longer number that let the band revel in the long outro instrumental. American Scarecrows closed out with their appreciation to an audience that reciprocated those feelings, as a long music day in the Twin Cities came to a close.