The Fillmore Soft Open-Concert Review

Soft Opening of The Fillmore MPLS-Feb 5th, 2020

Concert/event review by Joslyn Danielson

The long-awaited opening of a new concert venue has the Minneapolis music scene abuzz with curiosity and anticipation. This month the Fillmore is opening a location in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis. Following in the footsteps of First Avenue and The Palace, more and more venues are popping up that are large enough to host national acts and local artists alike. With locations across the country (San Francisco was the first to open in 1965), Minneapolis will be the newest Fillmore location in the United States. The 36,000 square foot venue will be kicking off the grand opening celebration Feb 12-14 with 3 nights of performances by Grammy Award winner Brandi Carlile.

On Wednesday, February 5th, The Fillmore hosted an invite-only soft opening for employee friends and family to check out the new space, and allow the venue to work out some of the last kinks in operation. They featured four local artists from Minneapolis for the event. From the start I was impressed with the operations of the door, security, and front of house. The lines of excited guests were seamlessly directed into the building and through quite intense security. Be prepared to empty your pockets and walk through a metal detector. Even with all this, we didn’t have to wait long at all and were through the door promptly. As we walked in the door we were relieved to see a free coat check to our left (a necessity for Minnesota in early February).

The venue itself is quite expansive, with four huge glowing chandeliers hanging above the main floor. We counted at least 4 different bars in the two-story mainroom, not including the new Trax restaurant and bar attached to the venue lobby. With a reservation, Trax would be a lovely and convenient date spot for some burgers before a show. Unfortunately it was a little too busy for us to check out this time. BG’s Lounge upstairs is also a great place to take a break from the show, and you could even watch the stage on a projection screen on the wall. For the soft opening each guest was given two free drink tickets which could be used for almost any drink. Each bar was full with craft beer, cocktails, mix drinks, and absolutely giant cans of White Claw (they sure do know their North Loop market!) The bar staff was very friendly and energetic, we never had to wait too long to be served. They all seemed very excited for the opportunity and future of the place.

The first musical artist to perform was DJ Tip, who was unfortunately the only negative aspect of the night for me. They were the opening act as well as filler music in between sets. I found it very hard to get into the music choices, considering they seemed totally random and spanned across all genres and decades. Usually this isn't a negative point for me as I love variety, but the way in which the transitions were executed were jarring to say the least. It was a classic bad wedding DJ situation. As soon as a song you like is finally played, it would be cut off after about 20 seconds (one should never cut off Beyonce right before the chorus...) by another sudden transition and someone yelling unintelligible ‘hype’ into the microphone. To top it all off, towards the end of the show they announced to the audience that the next song was dedicated to the sound man, who ‘cut them off early’ before. They then proceeded to play “Somebody I Used To Know” by Gotye in a seemingly very passive aggressive statement. It sounds like I was not the only one to hold this opinion, and we hopefully will see more professional MC’s at future shows.

The crowd was relieved when the next band came on the stage, Charlie Doesn’t Surf (a local indie-rock band now based in Mpls) got people dancing up front right away with their nostalgic pop punk jams that brought you right back to 2008, listening to Green Day in your room while reading Tiger Beat and wondering if you would ever find love. But Charlie Doesn’t Surf executed the style very well and in a more polished and ‘adult’ way. They had the crowd head-banging to the rockin’ guitar riffs, but also had genre variety with some psych-rock influenced songs. The three-piece had a huge sound and the drummer really held down the momentum with huge cymbal crashes and occasional ska beats thrown in for energy.

After making the rounds to BG’s Lounge during the set break (and avoid hearing the DJ again), we went back downstairs just in time for Maple and Beech to take the stage. It was difficult to pin down their exact genre, indie-pop is probably the most accurate. They had an added retro-classic/disco feel to many of their songs, with sweeping synth and ballad-esque emotional lyrics. They definitely took the crowd down to a more chill vibe; a welcome break from the previous high-energy performances. The project started with Producer Tyler Tholl, and has since grown into a seven-piece ensemble. It felt like a lovely mix of 80’s synth pop and a sultry blues lounge; a combination that is quite inventive and dance-able (Cue freeze-frame movie ending).

Closing out the evening was pop artist Alex Rossi, who has been performing in the Minneapolis music scene for over a decade under both the name Alex Rossi, and the group Root City which was founded in 1998. He is known and recognized for his songwriting and fun, energetic sound. You can hear the strong influence of funk and soul in his music, with a little bit of beach-pop for a summery and whimsical vibe. He doesn’t hesitate to shred the guitar solos, however. With each song he switched genre gears entirely. One minute it’s alt-punk, to blues, then on to classic reggae, right into 80’s hair band/stadium rock. Rossi is another artist who is nearly impossible to pin down to one genre, but you can always hear the strong foundation of funk and soul, giving him a distinctive and recognizable sound. His vocal stylings were akin to Michael Buble, that is if Buble played upbeat funk instead of crooner jazz. With a jam-band attitude, Rossi would often turn the spotlight over to his bassist and drummer, who are both clearly talented and experienced funk musicians, as well as masters of tempo. At one point the bassist was scatting while carrying the bass-solo melody, a very impressive feat. And who doesn’t love a good slappin’ bass solo?

All in all, the event was very well executed for a soft-opening, and I can’t wait to attend more shows. Minneapolis is finally on the map of musical hotspots in the USA, and the opening of venues like The Fillmore are the next step to bringing the scene to the next level. I’m looking forward to seeing the venue flourish. It definitely has a huge amount of potential.