Concert: Taggart & Rosewood and Doomtree @ First Ave, Minneapolis, MN

Taggart & Rosewood

See those purpley-blue-hued guys on the left, that's Taggart & Rosewood

We arrived to the venue on a cold Wednesday night in time to see the 2nd act, Taggart&Rosewood, get underway. Do you recall the movie, Beverly Hills Cop? Well, you may want to go look it up on IMDB. The two main cops helping Axel Foley were named Rosewood & Taggart, played by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton, respectively.

But I digress, this duo, plus band is composed of... wait, I don't know this info as well as the blog Totally Gross National Product, they said...

"BIO
Taggart & Rosewood is Zach Coulter (Solid Gold) and Ryan Olson (Polica), founding members of Gayngs.  After years in the studio and the addition of Jim Eno (Spoon) on drums, the new collaboration culminated in their debut album The Killingest.   Existing in a dream state, The Killingest is a rumination on something vast and powerful.  Made with precision and depth, it is filled with reason and purpose.  But of what, we don’t know.  

What we do know is that The Killingest was crafted unlike any other album.  With the help of an Emotiv EEG to USB brain computer interface conducted by Mark Mallman through the Logic MIDI Bridge, the synapses of their DMT-influenced brains were translated to audio and dispersed throughout the album.  The result is a deeply ethereal space that Taggart & Rosewood seem to have always filled, without us ever knowing.

The album was written at 55 beats per minute, and variations thereof.  An intentional pace, the tempo is a necessary choice to match the confused psychotropic universe the album invents."

If I'm being honest, I don't know what most of that means, or even if it's meant to be serious or sarcastic, but I do know that the show these two guys put on was one of the most visually interesting, musically unique, and just downright fun ones I've seen in some time. They didn't really acknowledge the audience during their set, which made their feat of staying "in character" all the more interesting.

I don't think I can describe the music, but I would definitely go see them again, especially if they headline their own show. I might have even liked them more than Doomtree... might.

They had full-on white suits plus a mesh, pull-over thing covering their faces. They drank from champagne flutes and had a real night club vibe to their little part of the stage.

Doomtree

Now, on to Doomtree. I had initially seen this show on Dessa's show schedule page, and for much of the week prior thought she would be performing solo. Once I had the 2nd-hand tickets in my hand, I quickly realized this was a show for Doomtree, with whom Dessa performs. Cool with me. I've heard about this "super group" for some time and was intrigued to see them live.

They do not disappoint. They have so much energy and motion on stage, not to mention the lyrics and crowd interaction, that it's very hard not to like them... and why would you try not to like them? I would have liked to have listened to their songs more prior to going to the show, but even that didn't make me feel like I was missing out on too much.

Unfortunately, as music-goers go, I'm an old, crotchety, good-for-nothing, and about an hour into the set the masses at First Ave started grating on my nerves... not to mention the beer can being thrust into the back of my head, and the head of the friend that attended with me, by some Caucasian, dread-locked, urban hippie chick. No thanks, time to bail. So, we left.

I'd very much like to see Doomtree again, and will keep an even closer eye on any solo performances for Dessa.