Tuesday, January 3, 2012

MN Music Menu's Top 15 Local Live Bands of 2011

  Over the past twelve months I have watched a lot of live bands performing in a number of different capacities  including but certainly not limited to solo gigs, duo's, trio's and full bands as well as different stages such as festivals, street dances and theatre shows. As a local music critic, my favorite way to observe a live performance is in a dive bar atmosphere with intermediate ambient sound, a good beer in hand and with a generous amount of passion being exhibited from on stage. I am also a musician who plays drums and likes to sing and I know that there are a ton of factors that determine the amount of passion being displayed while on stage. However, passion is engagement, it's physical interaction between people who are often hundreds of feet apart, sharing a musical moment in time. It's body language, and it counts just as much or more as musicianship, band tightness and continuity of style. With all it's importance, passion is by far the least pursued and portrayed aspect of live performance locally today.
  All of this of course is a segue to the topic at hand. The Music Menu's Top 15 list of live bands that, among other great attributes, are 'passion filled' performance groups. These bands 'bring it' as performers, musicians and personalities that are appreciated on and off the stage. Some of the things that I look for when critiquing live performances are continuity of stage dress, band tightness, appreciation for their audience, off stage demeanor, sound quality, PASSION, individual musicianship, songwriting, originality, genre range, crowd interaction and price versus performance. Without going into any further detail of what each criteria means to me, suffice it to say that the following bands have all these characteristics and it is my pleasure to introduce them to you. The bands are listed in order based on continuity over a given number of witnessed performances.
The list is as follows;

#15 East Fillmore

for your listening pleasures.
Blues
St. Paul, MN.
http://www.eastfillmore.com/Site/The_Band.html



#14 Flashback

70's Rock
Burnsville, MN.

Tony Hernandez














http://www.flashbackbandmn.com/fr_home.cfm


#13 Downtown Sound


Classic Rock/Country
New Prague, MN.
Jim Reeder












http://downtownsoundmusic.com/


#12 Outside Recess


Classic Rock
Maple Lake, MN.













http://outsiderecess.com/

#11 Menace


80's Rock
















http://menacerocks.com/

#10 Better Off Red


Classic Rock
Plymouth, MN.
John Ryan












http://betteroffred.bandvista.com/



#9 Big Bob Scoggin


Variety
Minneapolis, MN.
Bob Scoggin













http://www.bigbobscoggin.com/

#8 The Shaw Brothers





Classic Rock/Country
Prior Lake, MN.
Trent Shaw
http://shawbrothersrock.com/

                                                                                                           

















#7 Sweet Papa Dave Band


Blues
St. Cloud, MN.
David Hart
http://www.thesweetpapadaveband.com/


#6 Sell Out Stereo


Classic Rock
Minneapolis, MN.



















http://www.selloutstereo.com/


#5 Chris Brooks & The Silver City Boys


Modern/Classic Country
Minneapolis, MN.
Chris Brooks
http://www.chrisbrooksband.com/fr_home.cfm


#4  Modern Condition


Progressive Rock/HipHop
St. Cloud, MN.
http://www.myspace.com/modernconditionmusic


#3  Leon Laudenbach Band



Blues/Rockabilly
St. Cloud, MN.
Leon Laudenbach












http://www.leonlive.com/






Leon Laudenbach & Mark 'Sparky' Anderson performing the Headwaters Blues Opry 2011.






#2  Redneck Hippies




Classic Rock, Blues, Funk
Eagan, MN.
Kevin Gagnon
http://www.redneckhippies.net/

















#1  Gilman's Crossing



 Gilman's Crossing is;

Ray Gilman-      Guitar/Vocals
Ben Craig-         Bass
Pat Swedzinski- Vocals/Guitar
Brian Sherry-     Drums

http://www.raygilman.com/


Well, that completes our list for 2011. Please check out all these band links and keep supporting local live music. Happy New Year!
D. Carl Larson
Check out the Music Menu blog site here- Music Menu Website
Check out the Music Menu band site here- Music Menu




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3 comments:

  1. LulubelleJanuary 10, 2012 at 10:54 AM

    Much respect to you , as you seem to know your live music and share my wants when seeing a show. In my opinion, you are missing someone on our list. About 8 years ago I went to see a show at the Uptown. I was invited to check out a friends new band. They were great and we thought the show was over. A guy walked up on stage and I thought he must be tearing down the equipment because there was no other music listed for the night. He sat down with his guitar and began to sing. Most everyone was planning on heading home and most everyone stoped and listened. He brought my friend and I to tears with a song sung in spanish (which I do not understand). My friend that I went there with researched who this man with the angel voice was and called me to tell me he played every tuesday at The Terminal Bar in NE Mpls. I, at the time, never went to shows by myself but had no qualms about going when I couldn't find a second on a tuesday. I was welcomed in by a guy on the street before I even entered the bar. When I went in, to my suprise the place was quite busy for a tuesday. There was Javier with two others (drummer and a stand up bass player)making music just as passionate as I had heard the previous weekend. I went back almost every tuesday for two years. I came to know the other "fans" who were more like family than fans. We came to hear covers of well known and little known music of many greats and original music of Javier's. This sparked my love for local music and I went to shows (by my self most of the time) as much as I could. I now knew what kind of feeling I could get from that type of experience and went out seeking it in every little dive I could make it to. I have seen a lot of shows and only a few with that type of passion and a "family " following . Unfortunatley, "Terminal Tuesdays" is no more but I have been out to see Jav a couple of times recently and I can tell you this is an artist not to miss. p.s. the more intimate the venue the better. Being able to look around and see the reaction of those in equal epreciation of whats happening on the stage is part of the experience. I have seen this mutual epretiation highten the music as Javier seems to be very much in touch with what's happening in the crowd and passes that on to who ever may be playing with him as complete synchroninicity. Enjoy...

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  2. KlausJanuary 10, 2012 at 6:16 PM

    Javier Trejo is, hands down, the finest, most gifted and talented singer/songwriter and musician I have ever had the privilege of playing with. He's got that certain *something* ... Call it soul; call it what you will... But he's the 'Real Deal' if there ever was one, and you would do well to go see and hear him in a small venue and at an affordable price while you still can. Yes, he's that good! A must-see live performance experience. You will not be disappointed!

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