The line to the venue was already extensive by the time I rolled up, with a huge set of young fans for this all ages show. And what was the crowd (many of them in various costumes) so excited for? It was set to be a night of pop bubble gum goodness, as Em Beihold was headlining a show at the Fine Line in Minneapolis.

Janani K. Jha was the opener and was a perfect pairing musically for Beihold. Formerly performing as J. Maya, Jha deferred a spot at Harvard Law School to pursue music. When she blew up on TikTok, Jha got a real chance to see how far she can go. Her debut album The Rest of the Laurels, released in December 2024, has a number of mythological inspired songs. Jha was on as a duo (vocals, guitar) with a lot of backing music. She came out with powerful vocals and that was going the be the foundation for the whole set. A call out to the headliner got the appropriate cheers and she moved back to the music. Echo was a number regarding cultural appropriation, and we had the loudest and most complex of the backing music allowing Jha to go for it on the vocals. The guitarist Nick was great support not just from the music perspective, but as a lively and emotive side partner. Jha had a full and practiced set of connecting banter and it’s a trend that the younger generation seems to do pretty well. It was a slow down to the acoustic stretch of songs, and Prometheus on the 405 was just vocals and guitar. Machine Learning had a fair chunk of the crowd singing along, and those themes of social anxiety connected with that younger audience well. Mentioning this was her first national tour was another fun moment, and Jha took the guitar, going into a brand new song. Coming back to the louder side, Royal We was a fan favorite and had a strong dance vibe. Finishing up her very efficient thirty minute set, Janani K. Jha closed on Gladiator, a very good summation of her work and an excellent opener for the evening.

Em Beihold was the headliner that the crowd was stoked to see. When we saw her in April 2025 at the Green Room, it was solo on piano as she was still workshopping many of her new songs. With the February 2026 release of her debut full length, Tales of a Failed Shapeshifter, Beihold has finished the project and I was excited to see how things turned out. Coming to the stage as a trio (vocals/keyboards, violin/guitar, and drums), she also had plenty of backing music. From the jump, this was Beihold returning triumphant. Assured, short and punchy pop songs, good backing music from band mates and programmed, Beihold alternated early numbers behind the keyboards and then singing all across the front of the stage. Hitting the super popular Brutus as the second number cemented the crowd’s reaction and excitement. A short tease of Numb Little Bug led to Shiny New Things instead and Beihold displayed a good sense of humor throughout.

Beihold had a fan come to stage to help sing Exorcism and after a hiccup on when to start, it was a cute moment and Beihold was quite gracious in the duet. Unicorn had some darker and funky backing music and was a pure dance hall number. The crowd was all in, and Beihold had the audience right where any performer would hope. Back to the keys, we got a bit of autotune to start Soup! and the syncopated keys and violin were a nice contra to the smooth programmed music. Em Beihold was methodical without being mechanical and that’s not always an easy thing to accomplish. When she turned the microphone out for the close of Goo, there wasn’t any doubt that they had it covered and that must be a great moment for any performer. Beihold noted that this late in the tour her voice was starting to give out, but that her bandmates could “play some bluegrass on the spot”. Leaving stage for a round of coughing, she wasn’t wrong, as they went into a short rendition of Back Up and Push. We got an audience choice between some older songs and City of Angels won the screaming match and let Beihold croon just a little. It was quickly moving towards the end of the evening, and a cute telephone answering message intro led to an electronic heavy Won’t Let Go, which had a significant percentage of the crowd with phone lights on and swaying, in one of those moments that only live music can bring. Hot Goblin was a perfect close to the main set, a plucky song that let Beihold thrill the audience once more. But given the earlier tease, it was a must for the encore to be Numb Little Bug, throwing the crowd into near chaos and almost drowning the singer out. Em Beihold had finished a wildly successful show and both band and audience headed out beaming.