LAST NIGHT: Silversun Pickups, School of Seven Bells, and Atlas Genius At The State Theatre 9/20

You know what? The State Theatre is a really great place for a rock show. Don’t get me wrong, Minneapolis is full of amazing rock venues, but I have seen great shows at the State lately so I’m super enthusiastic about it.

South Australian newcomers Atlas Genius opened the show last night with “Back Seat,” a smooth groove with a great melody from their recent EP, Through The Glass. Regardless of the fact that this quartet is made up of good looking boys with cute accents, frontman Keith Jeffrey had an adorable smirk on his face throughout the entire set— almost as if he had a secret he wasn’t telling us. AG treated the half-full but captivated theatre to a couple new songs from the forthcoming and yet-to-be-announced debut album, including one I didn’t catch the title of that had awesome harmonies and crisp vocals. My absolute favorite from the set was the new tune “Electric”— larger than life drums from Michael Jeffrey and super fun keys from Darren Sell (the adopted part of this band of brothers). Overall I was very pleased; watch out for these guys. Also, I’m pretty sure that Keith Jeffrey is a funny dude that was holding back on the jokes and banter last night. At least, that’s how he portrayed himself.

School of Seven Bells put on an angelic set. When the group threw down “Scavenger” and “Low Times” from the latest release, Ghostory, they were true-to-the-album performances. Leading woman Alejandra de la Deheza started to dance around and feel the music about halfway through, which, though her dancing was a bit awkward, helped engage the crowd a bit more. All in all, great set with a minimalistic light show that accented the performance well.

Speaking of lighting, Silversun Pickups put up a cool extravaganza in that department as well. Solid color backdrops with corresponding spotlights. It sort of made me feel like I was in a giant music video (especially the part where I was eye level with the spotlights and seeing stars). Guitarist and lead vocalist Brian Aubert hit the stage with “Skin Graph” looking quite comfortable with the packed theatre; it was their moment to shine. The truly awesome part of this set for me was bassist Nikki Monninger’s temporary replacement Sarah Negahdari. Seriously, this gal was completely comfortable with the music and really let loose once Aubert introduced her to the crowd. Negahdari was fun, sexy, and extremely talented; things don’t always fall in place like that when a band member goes on leave (maternity, if you were wondering).

SSPU kept up a nice consistency of tight rock-and-roll all night. As expected, closing out the set (pre-encore) with the hit single “Lazy Eye” from the 2006 release Carnavas was, and probably will always be, the crowd favorite. Like many other bands that pass through town, Aubert spoke of SSPU’s love for Minneapolis. Comments like “Pizza Luce is the best pizza ever!” definitely received major brownie points with fans of this increasingly successful band.

By Laura Yurich
Silversun Pickups w/School of Seven Bells & Atlas Genius
Thursday, September 20 2012
State Theatre - Minneapolis

Posted 8 months ago