A beautiful Friday evening in Saint Paul promised the highest of high energy concerts as Koffin Kats were headlining a pretty great trio at Turf Club.

Up first was The Rumors, a punk rock trio out of Waterloo, Iowa. With the hilariously named 2020 album Suck It, the band (guitar and bass both on vocals, and drums) came out with phasers set to blister. This was a perfect punk: high speed, a f-you attitude, and a controlled scream by both vocalists. Let’s not forget the slammed drums helping hold things together. It was going to be an evening of theatrics, with bassist on the floor, guitarist over her with instrument over her head. And that was literally song number three. This made the term high flying seem tame, as The Rumors simply trucked through like a semi. Song pace? Flying. Attitude? They would absolutely cut you. Musical skill? Very solid. Dear reader, this was a ton of fun. The dual vocals gave the stressed singing a place to bounce off of and was a central part of The Rumors’ charm. There was little banter as they came to kill it, and kill it they did. And while the two front women were rightfully center of attention, the drummer was also crushing it in the background. Assigning an audience member to get the crowd moving sort of worked, and The Rumors kept right at it. And somehow, just like that, the almost perfect forty minute set was complete.

Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy (often going by the acronym CNS) are a quintet (vocals/guitar, accordion, stand up bass, mandolin/trombone, and drums) out of Wichita. They have a self-titled LP from 2010 and a recent EP Logos from 2024, so they’ve been at this for a while. With a band self-described as “dark psychedelic speedfolk”, you would want the vocalist to have the rumble of gravel, and thankfully that was exactly what we got. That accordion and mandolin mix created a bright contrast to the vocals and was a solid point in favor of CNS. And that was before the trombone showed up. We moved onto a bit of a medley transition that let aforementioned trombone go wild and was the lead into the next song. Lead singer James Starling perfectly balanced that gravelly sound with the speed of the lyrical content and it was pretty impressive stuff. With up to four vocalists on different songs CNS completely filled the Turf Club sonically, and each song end brought that short respite before leaping back into it. The band swept across blues, folk and country, but always laying a little punkish rock energy into it. A long outro was given the shortest of breaks before continuing on, and if you get the feeling Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy were keeping the energy of the evening going, you would be correct. A mandolin and accordion heavy instrumental was just what the moment called for (not sure that’s ever been said before), and Starling’s raspy singing was critical to the success of the moment. Those late song instrumental sections were superb and suddenly it was a nearly ska number as Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy finished up a truly raucous set.

Headliner Koffin Kats are a staple of the punk/psychobilly (e.g. amped up rockabilly) scene, and that contrast shows up with the punk haircuts but also one of the main instruments being a stand up bass. The Detroit based trio (Vic Victor on vocals/stand up bass, Tommy Koffin on guitar, and Eric “E-Ball” Williams on drums) has been at it since 2003, with 2024’s Higher Lows their most recent album. These guys are preeminent performers and their live shows are nearly off the charts. And any time a band chooses to lean into the performance side of things, there’s always a chance that the musicianship suffers. Not here, as Koffin Kats had the chops and the music is top of mind. These are tight punk style numbers, and the early set flew by. Witch in the Woods was a perfect summary of their weirdness, leaning into various supernatural/alien themes while driving that punk rockabilly aesthetic forward. The band also played up the act with the bass often above Victor’s head, occasionally over the audience and I thought about needing to duck at several points. (Side note: there’s definitely some understated arm strength at play here.) Chainsaw Massacre was brilliant and when Victor noticed a fan at front of stage with low vision (including cane), he took a moment between songs of physically connecting and giving a quick word was a quiet and powerful moment.

Koffin Katz barely paused, and the sweat pouring off of Victor and Koffin was a testament to how hard they were working. And Williams was no slouch, as he continually kept the beat going, as well as providing back up vocals throughout. A switch of bass and guitar led to the inevitable moment of Victor standing on his own bass, and lest you thought it was just a momentary bit, they played a long musical section on the borrowed instruments. A switch back and you would have barely noticed any change in the skill on bass and guitar. Splatterhouse was the essence of Koffin Kats’ driving pace, and the crowd couldn’t get enough. That expected Hall & Oates cover of Maneater never fails to impress and let Koffin get a fun, if brief, guitar solo. Koffin Kat Rock was perfectly placed after that cover and Victor was sailing on bass and vocals. A fake out of the end of the set had Koffin Kats continue straight on, with Needles and Blades a top notch song to fit the evening’s vibe. Getting to end of the evening, The Bottle Called was a dark and emphatic number, and a meaningful appreciation of the crowd (“you keep showing up, and we’ll keep playing”) was awesome. For Hire probably couldn’t have been any faster paced and was a fabulous close for Koffin Kats and their fantastic performance and ended with a quick appearance of the singers from The Rumors to help put the exclamation point on a wild and fun filled evening.