dave@weheartmusic.com

Friko at Fine Line (05-22-2025)

Downtown was quiet with no ravenous sports fans or torrential rain filling the streets. In fact, it was a perfect night to stroll to a venue. Even better was the casual scene at the velvet rope as the person in front of me and a Fine Line staffer shared a bonding moment for the patron wore a baseball cap with Snoopy donning headphones and the staffer sported a Snoopy flying ace tattoo on his left arm.

Snoopy has found much love with the Gen Z generation and it was a young crowd that waited for one of the hottest bands out of Chicago (Friko) to take the stage.

Jamie xx at the Armory (01-18-25)

As an arctic blast poured into the Twin Cities in the form of a polar vortex, a propulsive beat of electronic dance music provided a welcome counter to the plummeting temperature outside. The person behind the mixers and turntables? James Thomas Smith, better known as Jamie xx. One has to appreciate the stage name for it is a nod to the band he helped form with a group of London classmates in 2005: the xx.