Smerz Setlist

Dreamtalk
But I Do
Imagine This
What
Big City Life
Win
Feisty
A Thousand Lies
Big Dreams
Easy
Sorry
Its Here
Street Style
Roll the Dice
Dreams
You Got Time and I Got Money

On a cool and drizzly Friday night of the holiday weekend, it was going to be a hopping evening of electronic music over at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis as Norwegian duo Smerz was visiting on their North American tour.

Opening things was Kaitlin Simotics. Currently working through London’s Relaxin Records, Simotics’ 2024 release Kaitlin Music is glitch pop electronica and often rolls into the experimental end. Coming on stage solo and kneeling on the floor with an electronic box and microphone, the modulated electronica and vocals built up from a very pre-programmed first number to a vocal heavy (though also heavily modulated) second song. Kaitlin Simotics had a great sense of timing on their musical sequencing and a computerized “I love you Minneapolis” at distinct points throughout the set was a great connection point. A break in the music got a cheer from the crowd and a blown kiss from Simotics. It quickly became clear that there would be no banter and this was just the flow of the music, which was pretty constant. Kaitlin Simotics seemed genuinely surprised and pleased when the cheering happened at all the breaks and that vulnerability was a neat contrast to the hyper focus during the numbers. All the vocals were heavily obscured through the reverb mic, but Simotics kept the interest level high with varied beats and music. Closing out the thirty minute set, Kaitlin Simotics had set up a great vibe.

Headliner Smerz was up next. The Norwegian duo of Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt has been active for just over a decade. They only have two full length albums, including 2025’s Big City Life, but also have a significant number of EPs, with 2026’s Easy EP the most recent. Their sound ranges within multiple spaces of electronic music, but it is centered in the electropop wonderland. Coming to stage as a quartet (vocals/electronic music, vocals/keyboards/violin, bass, and drums), the band was in full electro pop mode out of the gate, and the second song, But I Can, was a perfect encapsulation of their sound. A quick introduction of the band was also a moment for me to realize the background video was of the band taken from a crew member and added a Lynchian vibe with the off-kilter angle compared to the actual scene on the stage. Big City Life had a great violin solo and this was electronica supported by a bevy of great instrumentation. The drummer headed to keys for a reverb heavy number, but only for the intro as he jumped back on drums as the vocals took over. Smerz was riding the line of indie pop and electronica in the best possible way. And just in case you thought this would revert to straight pop, those heavily distorted vocals came back to the fore. Big Dreams had the vocal hiccups common to the genre, and that chorus “touch me and look me in the eye” had the band crisp in its backing music. Easy was a darker number that had dual vocals playing strong. The set had a strong blues rock feel underneath all of the electronic manipulation and that might have been the revelation of Smerz on stage. Street style was a great, late set number and Smerz was on top of things as they rolled towards the end of their set, having played pretty much the entirety of the new album. Rather than an encore, Smerz let us know there were two songs left, and Dreams was reverb and modulated heavy electropop goodness. Ending on You got time and I got money, Smerz played the longer dreamy song that reinforced all the best of the band, with violin, some fun, manipulated backing lyrics, and was a great vibe to send the crowd back into the night.