St. Paul Gets So Hot with MUNA at The Palace
There is something special about traveling to catch one of your favorite bands to start the weekend. MUNA’s Gets So Hot Tour at the Salt Shed Fairgrounds kicked off my long weekend in Chicago, which happened to end with me running the Chicago Marathon before heading home and bookending the weekend with round two of MUNA in the Twin Cities. I am a special kind of person, and while I was feeling it a little bit from the marathon, travel, and being completely peopled out from the weekend, I simply could not pass up the opportunity to catch this show again in my hometown at The Palace.
What I also appreciated about MUNA’s tour was that not only did the band choose an awesome opener, there was only one, which made my near middle aged soul so happy. hemlock springs started the night off with an extended opener set, playing mostly songs off of their newest release “the apple tree under the sea.” hemlocke’s set felt like a synthy fairytale brought to life on stage; while I was just introduced to their music for the first time at the Salt Shed, I couldn’t help but be entranced not only by their stage presence & performance, but the moody vibe of the music. What drove the performance home for me was the genuine authenticity hemlocke springs brought to the stage, with a pure sense of being unapologetically yourself in everything you do. Even though most of the crowd was there for the headliners, similar to the Life’s So Fun Tour where Nova Twins opened, I left with a newfound appreciation for hemlocke springs and I cannot wait for their return.
Photos by Madeline Milles
After a quick set change it was time for MUNA to take the stage. Opening the night with a handful of songs off of their newest record “Dancing on the Wall” (including “It Gets So Hot,” “Dancing on the Wall,” “Wannabeher,” and “Mary Jane”), MUNA took the stage to an overwhelming and never-ending wave of cheers and dancing. This is definitely a personal take, but it was just so cool for me to see this show in Chicago before the marathon and after the marathon in the Twin Cities, since nearly half of MUNA’s setlist made it onto my Chicago Marathon playlist, and hearing those songs before and after the race made the experience so much more special for me. Songs like “Wannabeher,” “What I Want,” “Number One Fan,” and “Mary Jane” hit for me at key moments of the race and hearing them live merely hours afterwards felt like a core emotional experience being unlocked.
What made the set for me was once again the authenticity of the band shining through during each moment of their setlist. MUNA celebrated not only queer joy, which is evident in their tracks, but also queer rage, which shone bright during “Big Stick,” where the band poured out appreciation for the Twin Cities community for showing up for each other and being the example of resistance during the federal occupation of Minneapolis and surrounding communities. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the band tenderly highlighted queer joy and finding yourself during “Kind of Girl,” which was dedicated to the trans community. During this same song, I believe there was also a proposal and engagement, which was recognized by the band and called out as magic being in this venue.
Even though MUNA ripped through their twenty-two + medley song setlist with tracks from all four of their records in the mix, it felt like the show was over all too soon and there were of course songs I hoped would make it into the setlist that didn’t. I appreciated that the band did some extended outros for a couple of songs (“Mary Jane” and “Why Do I Get A Good Feeling?”), put the emotion into the live rendition of “So What,” and overall took the stage and time with the fans radiating with pure joy. While I am bummed that my time with the Gets So Hot tour has come to an end, I am ecstatic that I got the opportunity to catch MUNA both in Chicago and the Twin Cities, because my hot take is that the crowd in the Twin Cities was leagues better and more into the show than Chicago. Maybe it was that I was completely surrounded in a hot and sweaty GA crowd or that I could basically feel the bass in my veins at the Palace or that I am biased to the Twin Cities, but I couldn’t have asked for a better way to cap off my Chicago Marathon weekend.
Photos by Madeline Milles
