Kathy Easthagen started making photographs when she was given a camera for her sixth birthday. Hating to have her picture taken, it didn’t take her long to figure out that the person taking the pictures usually doesn’t appear in them.
A lifelong Minneapolis resident, Kathy began documenting the local music scene during the 1980s, her most frequent subjects were the many Replacements and Husker Du all-ages shows.
“It was a great time to shoot bands, there were no rules, none of the ‘first three songs only, no flash’ that’s the norm now.” Kathy explains. “I’ll try to stay off my soapbox, but it was so much freer then. The punk ethos, the whole DIY-thing, it was great! I’d buy a ticket, bring my camera and no worries. By the mid-90s alternative music was big business and everything changed. It’s so much tougher now and the chances to get that killer shot are so slim. It’s a good thing I love a challenge and thrive on stress!”
Kathy started shooting and writing the occasional live review for the Big Takeover in the late 1990s and credits the Big Takeover with keeping alive the sense of community that she first found in the Minneapolis music scene back when she was still a teenager. “Yeah, the best thing about the Big T is different opinions, different tastes are fine, no one is trying to be the hippest kid on the block. God knows I’m not.”
In addition to the Big Takeover, her freelance music work has appeared in Mojo, Spin, the NME, CMJ New Music Monthly, among others, and as a traditional photojournalist her work has appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the (London) Daily Telegraph, Minnesota Independent, City Pages, Twin Cities Daily Planet, as well as the college paper where she was a staff photographer while completing a dual degree in journalism and studio art.
“One of my favorite memories of college was writing a term paper for a Shakespeare course between sets at a Charlatans show that I was photographing for the Big T! Seriously. I was up front and leaned my notebook on the monitor to write while the bands set-up and tore down. This would’ve been around the summer of 2001. I went home after the show and typed up the paper and turned it in the next morning.”
Low’s sparse arrangements has always made live performances tricky, in my opinion, as poor sound or quirky venues has often exaggerated the ‘space’ in their music. This evening, however, the sound was stellar.
“We are Motörhead, we do not have beer thrown at us.” Lemmy Kilmister
Soul Asylum’s annual holiday show at First Avenue has become a fixture on the bar’s calendar in the past five years. It’s as predictable a part of the holiday season in Minneapolis as the Guthrie Theater’s “Christmas Carol” and channel 45’s Yule Log.
The floor was bouncing, many high-fives exchanged, way too many bottles raised in salute, and a whole lot of people were singing along to every word. It was a fun show and a great way to wrap up the holidays.
However, this show was only partially about nostalgia. It was also a celebration of the still bustling Minneapolis music scene.
Frances McKee said from the stage they haven’t played Minneapolis in over 20 years and that they’d likely never be back. Here’s hoping she’s wrong.
It was a fun, dystopian beach party disguised as a concert.
The National have proven to be one of the more commanding live acts and singer Matt Berninger a most unlikely rock star.
Their hour and a half set was packed with classic songs and the crowd were on their feet from the opening notes of “Black Coffee in Bed”.
There are songwriters and there are storytellers. Craig Finn is a storyteller. Half the fun of a Hold Steady show, especially in Minneapolis, is listening to Finn’s stories and reminiscences.
It’s hard to say how many present at the final stop on Hole’s US tour were there expecting (hoping?) to see a train wreck or how many were there out of curiosity.
If someone would have told me that the most anticipated concert of the summer would be a band that hasn’t played here since 1988, just released their first album in 14 years, and performs in identical costumes, I would have thought that person was insane.
They may have performed these songs thousands of times, but there was nothing dull or rote about the show.
