Astronautalis returned home to "the nerdiest [stuff] ever" Monday at the Triple Rock. / Photo by Leslie Plesser
"There really is no better place to start a tour than Minneapolis."
"I've lived in a lot of places, but I've never felt at home faster than I've felt here."
Two different shows on Monday ended with two different kinds of declarations of love for our city. The first was by former Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein, whose new band Wild Flag kicked off its first real tour at the Varsity Theater. She tempered that compliment, however, by adding, "There's really nowhere to play between here and Portland."
With her former S-K bandmate Janet Weiss pounding away on drums (Weiss will be missed Saturday when Stephen Malkmus' Jicks come to town without her), Brownstein seemed to be having a blast Monday banging on her guitar with rhythmic abandon, just-like-the-old-days style. However, the real star of the show was the group's other main singer, Mary Timony. The former Helium frontwoman added most of the poppy hooks to the set and made for a great feedback-swapping partner with Brownstein.
Wild Flag tore through its eponymous debut album in about 50 minutes flat, pretty much playing the record as-is, save for a cool, extended guitar jam during "Glass Tambourine." Other highlights included the grindingly bouncy "Romance," anchored by Rebecca Cole's organ bursts, and the pre-encore bruiser "Racehorse," where the band demonstrated its build-it-up, tear-it-down capabilities. As often happens when rock vets start new bands, this one made up for its lack of material by adding a pair of covers to the encore: Timony bellowed out the Stones' "Beast of Burden," and Brownstein led a fist-raised rendition of Patti Smith's "Ask the Angels."
Across the river at the Triple Rock, newly transplanted northeast Minneapolis resident Astronautalis played a homecoming gig a week and a half into the tour behind his new record, "This Is Our Science." Backed by an explosive three-piece band, the indie-rapping rock howler delivered powerful renditions of new tracks such as "Contrails," the Tom Waits-ian gritty "Holy Water" and the bleak ballad "Secrets on Our Lips."
The real-life Andy Bothwell added some welcome levity during his usual freestyle session, in which he polled the crowd for talking/rapping points. "Dr. Who," "quantam entanglement," "Calvin & Hobbes" and "flux capacitor" were among the suggestions from the crowd. "This is the nerdiest [stuff] ever! Ain't nobody getting laid tonight," Bothwell cracked, but also added, "I like it." Proving he fits right in locally, he had no trouble improvising lines with all those entries. Welcome home, Andy.
