Sunday, November 20, 2005

Sound Gallery Open House!

The Sound Gallery Open House happening last night, a music extravaganza celebrating new recording studio acquired by Nick Tveitbakk (Daykit, These Modern Socks) and Jacob Grun (seldomseen), was unbelievable! This event was HUGE, in a HUGE space. Seemingly thousands were still there in the wee hours of the morning, with a few more acts to go! (Numbers were in the high hundreds, I'm certain). I've never been to anything like this in my life. People lined the flights of stairs, the band room was really cool and exclusive and looking like a groovy '60's den, with fantastic DJ Plain Ole’ Bill spinning a wide array, from '80's pop tunes to Grandmaster Fly.

The lineup was jawdropping: Joanna James, Super Danger, Plastic Chord, Parts for all Makes, Puppies, XOXO Judy, Faux Jean, seldomseen, Harp and Finial, Thunder in the Valley, Daykit, and Chris Koza, and I likely missed a few in between. I got there in time to see the last three. TiTV were fantastic as always, getting everyone to dance wildly. Lead singer Graham called Amy Hager (Fort Wilson Riot) onstage to sing a song. "She doesn't know this song. She doesn't know the words. But she's going to sing it with us!" Amy was of course completely up to the task, listening and getting the feel of it, then pulling everything up from inside and belting out a raw, strong, bluesy croon, then "baaaby" stuff, then improvizational lyrics on the spot, she and Graham alternating between crooning with and screaming at each other. It was a rare, great moment, of many that night. She has an incredible voice, and she and Fort Wilson Riot are not to be missed.

I'd not seen Daykit, and now I know what all the buzz is about. Lead Corey Palmer is an excellent vocalist/songwriter. Daykit, generated These Modern Socks with 3 of their personnel, including Corey and feature two Harp and Finial guys. All good, and hundreds of people were happy to see Daykit again.

Grun, experiencing laryngitis from singing and meeting and greeting so many friends and still quite elated, gave me the tour of their beautiful recording studio rooms and equipment. Amazing. It's an extremely large beautiful warehouse recording and performance space on 3rd Avenue North, South of Washington, with a spectacular future ahead. Keep your ears to the ground for more to come of this.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree! It was realy impressive! The Sound Gallery is the best thing that has happened in Twin Cities, for the Art Community. I beleive it will become a magnet for many artists.
I was realy impressed as were many other people who attended the open house!