Another Heaven Setlist

Lil Song
Help Me
Macabre Subway
Heavy Metals
Blue Star
Down
Arab Stardust
Real Life

Extraterrestrials Setlist

Strange Shadows
Thought Bubble
It’s Alive
Arm in a Sling
Radiation Suds
Looking Out Da Window
Spinning Around
200 Pesos
VCR Guy
Speak Like a Prude

The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is the national trade association representing independent live entertainment venues and they just concluded their 5th annual conference in Minneapolis. As part of that, they sponsored some live music events, and over at Cloudland Theater in Minneapolis there was a free show headlined by Another Heaven.

Extraterrestrials got the evening started. Classic rock with new wave synth absolutely intrigued me and I will definitely be looking for their 2023 album Terrestrial, which featured Monica LaPlante and Christy Costello as members. Alas, no Costello on this evening, but the band (vocals/guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums) came to play and the opener Strange Shadows was a good intro and had lead singer Orion Treon crisp on his vocals. I enjoyed the dual vocals (LaPlante, who we saw at Turf Club in January 2025, on harmonies) on Thought Bubble, which also let keyboards and bass fly. Those new wave accents and a touch of brashness were a fun depth to the rock numbers and Extraterrestrials were on it. Arm in a Sling had great drums by Austin Cecil (wearing a brilliant t-shirt that simply said Henchman) and the syntheist of keys supporting Treon’s vocals. A joke at the substitute keys player’s expense let him take a fabulous intro on Radiation Suds and the set was flying along. Treon didn’t bring a lot of attention to it, but his guitar work was solid throughout, with good use of pedal modulation and playing very well with the deep bass. 200 Pesos had drums crashing again and really the whole band amped up another level of intensity in the late set song. Speak Like a Prude was anything but sonically, and was an excellent end of the run for Extraterrestrials, who had killed their opening set.

Another Heaven was up next. We last caught the band right here at Cloudland in November 2024, opening for Shower Curtain. Self describing as sludge wave, their 2024 album See You Later is the latest of a long run of music over the last decade. The quartet (vocals/guitar, guitar/vocals, vocals/bass, and drums) were blistering from the first number Lil Song, which played loud and hard. The overwhelming and heavy guitar work was countered by clear singing and made the band’s sound and that musical tension work very well. Subway held the same theme, with the dual vocals playing along to make a near choir to the strings, but also had an excellent guitar solo. That sludge descriptor hit at the end of the number, as you could feel the increasingly slowed down guitar and bass rattle in your chest, and it had a hefty reverb close. The intro on Heavy Metals was particularly intense and held a bit of grunge era sharpness to it. The nearly yelled back-up vocals from the bassist on Down was sharp and provided another sound as they strongly contrasted against the blaring guitars, and the quieter cymbal work at the end of that song was very effective. As they finished up with Real Life, Almost Heaven had lived up to the promise of a great live music experience.