La Dispute’s Killer Show at First Ave

Howdy y’all!

Holy cow, what a show! I’ve got a lot to say on this one, so buckle up!

First up, we had a band that had some crazy fun atmospherics and energy, Flooding. Almost shoegazey in style, paired with these dark screams from the vocalist, the three-piece blew me out of the water in terms of expectations. The reverb, purposeful ambience, and feedback from the guitars filled the room with some really intense sounds, and entranced you to keep watching, too. They reminded me a bit of Wolf Alice, mostly their song “Moaning Lisa Smile”, but again, a lot slower and vibey than anything.

They had a decently long set, and some of the songs took a bit to get into their groove, but overall it was a super fun set, and I’d love to see them play a longer set sometime, just letting the room fill with their music. Plus, they had some pretty fun merch too!

I was really excited to see From Indian Lakes live again. I've attended their concerts about three times now and even had the chance to photograph them in Austin a couple of years ago. They never disappoint! I listen to a lot of their music daily, so hearing them live is always a fun way to compare. Personally, I tend to enjoy the instrumentation and energy of their live performances more, while the trade-off is that recorded versions offer crisper and cleaner vocals.

During this performance, they played some of their hits, like "The Flow" from their album *Head Void* (which also had some really fun merch), and "We Follow." It was great to see that most of the crowd knew the songs too! The lighting for this set, as well as for the entire show, was quite dim, which created a fantastic atmosphere for the audience, but it made me a bit worried while shooting photos!

What I particularly enjoyed about this set was witnessing how much fun the band members were having together, especially the bassist, who was moving around and vibing to their own music. I love seeing artists genuinely enjoy their time on stage instead of just going through the motions! I also thought they were a great transition from Flooding into La Dispute as well, this tour worked well in terms of flow from band to band!

La Dispute came on stage to a scream from the audience, and immediately went hard into their music.

Starting with I Shaved My Head, the pit opened up right away, and the crowd was just going crazy, as was the vocalist, Jordan Dreyer. Being in the phot pit during this beginning section was so fun, but also a challenge! Jordan would traverse the ENTIRE stage in a matter of seconds, so trying to get focus, light, and make sure he was in frame during this whole section was a fun chaos of its own.

Eventually, I left the pit, trying to get some more crowd shots, but again, the light was pretty dim here, unfortunately, but MAN did it actually look really good! I got in the mosh pit myself a bit, and I want to really shout out the Minneapolis crowd just as Jordan did himself- Hardly anyone was on their phone throughout the majority of this show, and it really did have an effect in bringing everyone together, crowdsurfing, bouncing around, and just enjoying some hardcore music going on.

The biggest moment of the night, and I imagine this is how it is throughout a lot of the tour in general, was King Park. “Will I make it into heaven if I kill myself?” being screamed by every single person in the crowd, along with the vocalist, was an absolutely insane watch, and so cool to hear everyone colliding on their vocals.

They ended up pausing a lot, talking with fans and the crowd, and taking time to give appreciation to everyone in attendance, and speaking about the importance of community especially at shows like these.

They didn’t play a whole lot of songs for the set, but taking the time to engage and really move on stage as well, it was a well worth it show, and they ended up finishing out the set with the as displayed on stage (in some really cool banners) song, Noone Was Driving the Car.

Generally, this show was just as good as I expected, and I cannot recommend more going to see La Dispute live whenever they come through again. An absolutely fun blast of a show, with a super fun, caring crowd as well.