We Went There: Friendship + 2nd Grade + Pat Keen’s Bug Band at 7th St Entry
Friendship brought their ragged, world-weary Americana to the 7th Street Entry on July 11th, celebrating their revelatory new album Caveman Wakes Up. They opened with the woozy “Salvage Title” and closed their main set with a stirring version of “Resident Evil,” which shook through the crowd, and in between played a 70 minute set that showcased a band that clearly are running on all cylinders. Throughout the set they were dark and funny, blending bleery eyed songwriting with twangy, angular rock, all tied together by lead singer Dan Wriggens forceful baritone.
The band’s songs have a crackling energy on record, but that spark was even more pronounced live, with a bit of a menace hanging over the whole affair. There is a simmering tension in their music, blending Silver Jews-esqe profound non-sequiturs and Crazy Horse-lite jams. On songs like “Free Association” from their new LP (video above, where they were joined by opener 2nd Grade on stage), they sound like they could have been top of the pops during the late aughts when bands like the National were packing big spaces. On tracks like “Betty Ford,” which on the record are fairly downcast, the pain and regret felt like a ton of bricks crashing down on the crowd, adding to the weight of the material. On “Seen But No Reply,” a deeper cut, the band used silence as a powerful tool to increase the intensity of the set. Throughout the set, Wriggens tried to cut the latent tension with some funny, dry stage banter, but the crowd seemed perfectly content, if not outright happy, to soak in the heaviness.
2nd Grade, from Philly like Friendship, were the touring opener, and they brought a slightly more power-pop take than Friendship, and played a high energy set that jumped from sounding like Thermals and Ben Kweller to some short detours into more jangly songwriting. It was a fun set that helped bridge the night and keep the crowd riled up for the headliners.
Opening the night was Pat Keen and his Bug Band, which was very exciting for me. Keen’s I Saw a Bug LP was my favorite Minnesota record of 2024 by a large amount, but the few times he’s pulled a band together to play the material I’ve always been out of town or otherwise unable to go. His set, even by my high standards of wanting to see this material live for over a year, lived up to the hype. It was a three piece band, with some electronic manipulations from a member of 2nd Grade technically making them a quartet, that explored the smart, jazzy, playful instrumental music from I Saw a Bug. A synth/drum machine set the parameters, but it was the playful interplay between the two guitars, along with either bass or pedal steel, that created the lush soundscapes that clearly won over the growing crowd. It was a set that blew me away with it’s combo of smarts and spirit, and makes me both more frustrated I’ve missed previous iterations of and wildly excited to see them again, hopefully sometime very soon.
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