Show Review: Surfer Blood at the 7th St. Entry
Surfer Blood
It’s easy to take for granted living in a city where you can see a phenomenal rock show, have a drink, go next door and then see a second phenomenal rock show, but in how many places could you see Julian Casablancas followed by Surfer Blood on a Thursday night?
The West Palm Beach quintet brought their summer vibe back to Minneapolis, only 5 months after opening for Art Brut at the Triple Rock. This time they were headlining at the Entry behind their viral debut album Astro Coast. The show was disappointingly short, coming in at around 40 minutes by my watch, although perhaps they should be cut some slack considering that they had just pulled up from a non-stop drive from Vancouver (yes, the one in Canada), and frontman J.P. Pitts was suffering from a fever.
Turbo Fruits
Surfer Blood played it straightforward, opting to run through Astro Coast, without mixing in any new material. Their travails weren’t made any easier by having to follow the hard-rocking, scissor-jumping, beer-spewing Turbo Fruits. The Nashville three-piece played a blistering, hour-long set that faltered only once, (when they decided to throw in an unnecessary CCR cover). The rest was a hard and fast mix of classic blues-rock and three-chord punk. In between songs, lead singer / guitarist, Jonas Stein, charmed the audience by soliciting swigs of beer and a haircut. Yes, a haircut. He successfully made arrangements from the stage to be coiffed by an audience member after the show, explaining that he needed “just a little off the sides.”
— JH
