Review and Photos by Christopher Goyette

The Cedar Cultural Center has long been celebrated for its eclectic, boundary-pushing curation, but rarely has its warm, community-centered space felt quite as surreal and hypnotic as it did on Friday night. Norwegian avant-pop and electronic duo Smerz—Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg—brought their chilly, lovelorn, genre-blurring soundscapes to a captivated Twin Cities crowd. The duo transformed the packed room into an intimate, sub-bass-heavy sanctuary of "girly existentialism." Supported by Atlanta-based experimental electronic artist Kaitlin Simotics, whose opening set masterfully channeled the avant-garde synth-pop influences of Art of Noise and the precise, mechanical rhythms of Kraftwerk, her opening set was an exercise in tension, release, and a dystopian cacophony of sound with an occasional "I love you Minneapolis" mixed in. Performing under a deep red light, Simotics delivered a uniquely mesmerizing performance as she laid on the ground, tapping her Roland sampler to the beat of the music while casually looking down at a little recipe sheet for her songs.

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Smerz took the stage about 20 minutes later to the delight of the packed auditorium. Armed with a setup that fused one-finger piano riffs, lush string presets, and the organic drive of the drums, they took us immediately into their urban dream world. The stage’s moody, glittery, yet intense framing perfectly mirrored the acoustic aesthetic of the night, with a semi out of focus video of their live performance played on a screen directly behind them, which grounded the experience in something structured, elegant, yet deeply real and raw.

Opening with the atmospheric drift of "DREAMTALK," the duo immediately locked the audience into a trance. The transitions between songs throughout the night were seamless, flitting from the disjointed, mechanical rhythms of "WHAT" moving throughout a majority of the sweeping, melancholic tracks of their 2025 sophomore record, Big city life. Motzfeldt and Stoltenberg’s vocal interplay proved to be their greatest weapon as their voices drifted like ghosts over heavy, physical percussion on tracks like "FEISTY" and "A THOUSAND LIES," creating an intoxicating contrast between vulnerable dream-pop and dark, warehouse techno. The mid-set performance of "EASY" and "SORRY" felt like the emotional core of the night, layering choir-like vocal arrangements over urban beats. By the time the jagged rhythm of "ROLL THE DICE" gave way to the final track, "YOU'VE GOT TIME," the crowd was utterly transfixed. The audience sang along to the closer, leaving many smiles on faces as the lights came up.

Smerz operates in a lane entirely of their own creation, treating live performance not as a party, but as a shared dream. For an hour at The Cedar, Minneapolis was entirely theirs—caught in a vibe between classical composition, glitchy electronics, and pop immediacy. I feel that the material from Big city life has only grown more monumental on the road, especially alongside the fresh momentum of their new "Easy EP," which the band just released on May 15th.

While living in Europe last year and missed every single one of their sold out 2025 performances. Shortly after moving back to Minneapolis in March, I was super excited to hear they were stopping through the Twin Cities. Big city life has been playing non-stop on my record player since I picked up a copy last fall, and will continue to do so with a new perspective.

Setlist:

• DREAMTALK

• BUT I DO

• IMAGINE THIS

• WHAT

• BIG CITY LIFE

• WIN

• FEISTY

• A THOUSAND LIES

• BIG DREAMS

• EASY

• SORRY