Non-stop Automatic Dancing at the Half Alive Show on a Tuesday evening

On a rather sunny and warm Tuesday evening, there was quite the buzz going on downtown Minneapolis - especially in the vicinity of Target field. Two large events going on in one location; a Twins game, and the Half Alive concert.

The night was an early one compared to most, with doors being at 5:30 and the show beginning at 6:30. But it did make sense, since there were three different bands on this ticket for the evening. Opening the night was mehro, followed by The Walters, and finally Half Alive. Although it was an early show, most fans didn’t leave The Fillmore until 10:30 that evening, getting a whole lot of music.

The first artist of the night was mehro (pronounced “marrow”, like bone marrow). Also a fun little fact I found out after some research - according to the internet, the lead singer legally changed their name to mehro! This bands very first song they ever released was “perfume” back in 2020, and it gained quite the popularity. mehro more than just a breakout artist, amassing 1.8 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Surprisingly, they weren’t on my radar (that is my Discover Weekly), so when listening to their songs I expected a bit slower of a pace for a set. The musical talent of this trio was impressive, with the drummer and bassist switching roles mid song. Although their first few songs were on the slower side, they came out swinging at the end there and had me hooked! Their latest song “You’re So Pretty” will now be added to my playlist rotation.

Next on the bill for the show was The Walters. Now you might be thinking, hmm, who is The Walters? Well, if you spend anytime on the internet (particularly TikTok) you will be familiar with their song “I Love You So”. I learned last night that that song was the first song they ever released! It had actually been such a long time since the release of that song that the band had dissolved, but when it blew up because of social media, they got back together.

Now based on that song you might be thinking “Oh their music is slower they probably just stand up there with instruments and don’t move” wrong! These guys were all over the stage. This was such an entertaining set to see! Their lead man Luke had stated that their bassist Danny is from Minneapolis, so there was quite the group of people in the crowd supporting this band. I really hope that these guys are going to stick around a little longer to play some more bangers.

Finally, Half Alive was set to take stage. I knew going into it that they had quite the production, but I didn’t expect the guy to come out about five minutes before the band took the stage to vacuum the rug. To get the crowd hyped, they had the monsters who star on the cover of their Persona album and are the main characters in their music video for “Automatic”. I thought that this was a great way to get the crowd excited, as the monsters interacted with the audience. The band started the evening with two songs from their newest album, “Persona” and “Sophie’s House”. I really enjoy when I am in the pit and can sing along with the artist, as “Sophie’s House” was my second favorite off of the new album.

Once my time was up in the pit, I ran to get into the audience because I broke my rule and looked at the setlist beforehand and saw that “Automatic” was early in their set. When this song was first released, I knew immediately that it was going to be a hit. It has been in my ADHD rotation of songs I play non-stop for the past two months. And seeing it live absolutely did not disappoint!

I really enjoyed seeing a band that was all over the stage, had a production, and even backup dancers! They didn’t have any crazy lights or props, but they did put on a true show and performance to tell a story. They even had the dancers do their own routine on stage. Overall this was a really fantastic concert, the only thing I wish that had gone differently was Half Alive playing more of their song “creature”. This was the first ever song I heard by them I think back in 2020, and it fit perfectly with the book I was reading at the time, so of course it was on my repeatable songs rotation for quite awhile. They only played a snippet of the song, which I feel left the audience wanting more. The acoustic version was really cool though!