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The Current's 5th Birthday Party - How was it for you?

Posted at 8:36 PM on January 31, 2010 by Jim McGuinn (14 Comments)

Still recovering from one of the greatest, most surreal nights and events of my life, I think Chris Riemenschneider of the Star-Tribune described our 5th Birthday Party pretty well - "Not that the Current (89.3 FM) doesn't deserve to be commended all on its own, but I thought last night's elbow-to-elbow fifth anniversary party at First Ave really came off as something grander -- namely, a celebration of the local music scene on the whole. It was what I imagine the Minnesota Music Awards were like back when they were relevant. Organizers did a great job lining up a good cross-section of innovative local acts, all of whom had a terrific 2009 (thanks in part to Current support), starting with newbies the Twilight Hours and Lookbook, ending with buzz kings Solid Gold, and peaking with Mason Jennings and P.O.S. and their passionate, road-tested acts in between." I can say that our goal when we started was 'a celebration of the local music scene,' so if we achieved that, we're happy. Thx to all that made it possible. We know we'd do some things different if we could do it again (we really didn't know the demand for tix would be so intense that First Avenue's ticketing wouldn't be able to handle it). Hopefully we'll get Matt Perkins' Mustache Photo Gallery on our site soon, but in the meantime - If you were there on Friday night, what did you think about the party? Leave your comments below...

Here's a link to some great shots in the City Pages from the party.

Comments (14)

Had a blast. Huge success, great overall celebration of the Current and the local scene. I was hoping to find a set list of the artists' performances, something more official than me and my friends trying to relive the sets. Hopefully someone will come through and post them soon...? I think those who were not able to attend would like to see this too.

Highlights for myself:

Lookbook - Over and Over (they're better and better each time I see them)
Mason Jennings - A Kiss to Build a Dream On
P.O.S. - Optimist
Solid Gold - Armoured Kars and Danger Zone

The other highlight, along with the Mpls/St. Paul "Current Week" proclamation, Prince sighting, and vidmsg's from Dan Wilson and Bob Mould, was the preview of the new Cloud Cult song which I thought sounded great and was a cool sneak peak for those in attendance. Anyone else...?

Posted by vitaminDC | February 1, 2010 9:30 AM

Tons of fun! Great choices on the artists! Only improvement I can say is to have more interesting/fun transition times or have it at a venue that does not require standing.

Posted by Dustin | February 1, 2010 11:46 AM

Had the best time! I hope that in the future the venue will be larger so that more people could be in attendance. Loved seeing the 5 local acts and running into friends I haven't seen in a long time.

Posted by Tish | February 1, 2010 3:33 PM

Thanks for a fantastic night! A few of my highlights:

Barb Abney said she has a crush on Maggie Morrison's voice. After finally seeing Lookbook live, I don't know how anyone left that building not having fallen head over heels for her.

I don't think I'll ever get over the beauty that is "The Field".

Solid Gold knocked it out of the park. Adding covers of Love & Rockets, Kenny Loggins (at a brilliant half speed) and topping the night off with The Dandy Warhols' "Minnesoter" was inspired.

Thanks again, and I hope I'm there for the 10th B-Day party!

Craig

Posted by Craig | February 1, 2010 4:49 PM

I was lucky enough to get tickets at the 11th hour due to someone else's illness. So thank you Bill, and thanks for all the hard work I know it had to take. While I should be grateful and not complain, there were moments that were a real bummer. I was up in the balcony (not behind the glass), and I could barely hear any of the DJ's on stage. I also thought the singing/rapping vocal volume was out of balance with the music volume.

The Prince sighting was awesome, but this concert could have wrapped up by midnight or so. There really wasn't a need for such a long gap between acts, especially given the band makeups and the quality of bands where you simply had to be there at 8pm. I am just not able to stand for over 5 hours anymore. That being said, it was a fun time, but seemed almost as disorganized as the ticket clusterf*ck (food and beer specials ran out too)

Posted by Deen | February 3, 2010 11:55 AM

Couldn't get tix :(

I'm sure I'm one of thousands..

One would think that with as many members there are that it would only make sense to have it at a much larger venue and/or limit tickets to two per member. First Ave is great but too small for something this significant.

I am sure it was a good time.

Poor planning...

Posted by Christine S. | February 3, 2010 4:22 PM

I love The Current and that will not change. A great idea to have this concert/b-day/anniversary party. However, I am not sure who decided this venue would work. It started with the First Ave. server crashing and all of the disappointed people who could not get tickets. We were lucky enough to get tickets, but shocked when we arrived at 9:15pm to have to stand in line to get in.
The artists were great, but sadly there was a great disconnect due to such a large crowd, so the people on the outside rings were just talking and drinking and my friends and I tried to sing along and dance and were not very well received.
I do not want to bad mouth it, the idea was great- the musicians were phenomanal- especially P.O.S. and Mason Jennings, but it was just too large of an event to be held in a smallish space like First Ave. and I do have to agree, please work on transitions between sets- they were long and pretty awkward.
I hope that The Current will do this again and will listen to the listeners, go to a larger venue..
I do have to say though that we met Barb Abney and she was wonderful and that Steve Seel is a cutie pie!!

Posted by Jessica | February 3, 2010 5:05 PM

Thanks for the comments. The idea of the show started as a party, with our DJs spinning tunes. Then we thought - we could add some bands as short guests. So the initial plan was to be mostly the 'transitions' - only later did the performances go from 2-3 songs to full sets of music. So if the breaks felt long (they were 20-30 minutes - quite normal and needed actually), it may have been because somewhat, initially, it was going to be a dance party, not a concert.

And given that the only model we had to compare this event to was our 1st Anniversary party from years ago that didn't even sell out the Varsity (and most tix where purchased by non-members!), we clearly underestimated how popular this show would be, and how many members would want to be there. In retrospect, we should have realized that this show would have been huge. But thanks to all who were there - sorry to those who couldn't make it - and thx for all the amazing support we get at the Current!

Jim McGuinn - Program Director

Posted by jim mcguinn | February 3, 2010 5:49 PM

I wasn't lucky enough to get tix on all three of the original sales... but was able to get some thru the internet....and made a new friend that likes great music too so maybe it was a good thing I missed out on the original sale :) I thought the show was great... It was the first time I saw any of these acts live...Mason Jennings is awesome... wish he could have played a longer set but oh well I'll see him again soon. Solid Gold was really great, so was P.O.S. and Lookbook, I only got to catch the Twilight Hours last song since the lines were so long with only getting in with a guest list...I know the reasoning with scalpers but that didn't matter. Hope your next B-Day which I think you should make a yearly event would be best served in a bigger place or delay it till early Summer and hold an outdoor event or just charge like $20.00 + dollars.. I know most folks would pay that,and it would cut down on the scalpers looking to make a quick buck. Thanks though for putting on a special show that I'll remember for a long time.

Cubby

Posted by Cubby | February 3, 2010 11:55 PM

I wasn't there, don't even live there, but was wishing really badly to be there because I love the Current and I love Solid Gold. Anyway, despite all your complaints, you guys/gals are soooooo lucky to have a radio station that cares enough to throw a party like this one. Count your blessings that you have a progressive and forward looking station commited to you, the listeners. I, for one, wish to be a MInnesotan just to be able to attend this party next year, and the one after that and so on. Have fun people. This station is awesome.

Posted by Ramon | February 4, 2010 10:07 AM

I had way too much fun. I've seen probably 40 shows at First Ave in my lifetime, and this was probably the most fun I have had there. I could not get tickets - presale or onsale - but I had my out of town friend try too, and - thank my lucky stars - she got through, bought 'em, and mailed 'em to me. I still owe her beer. It was an amazing time. I felt like everyone there was family. One, big, happy and kind of drunken family. Highlights for me were P.O.S. - I hadn't heard much of him before, but you can now call me a fan. Mason Jennings is one of my absolute favorites and he did not disappoint. 'The Field' always gives me chills, and the acoustic version was superb. But Solid Gold was the absolute high point for me. Those guys killed, and the fact that they did a Stone Roses and a Dandy Warhols cover cemented their awesome factor in my mind. Does that even make sense? Whatever, they just rock. Nice guys too - took a shot and toasted the night with one of them. Add in the fact that Price was there, I bumped into an old hometown friend, and then I met some frickin' awesome people on top of it? Whoah, can we do it again? This time I promise I won't drink so much so I can remember more...

Posted by Jennie | February 4, 2010 5:04 PM

I thought the presale was an absolute mess, the server was down all day and when it finally came back up the presale was sold out. I then tried getting on for the public sale and that sold out immediately. I really wanted to go this show and I couldn't even though I'm a member. Too bad!!

Posted by Charlie | February 5, 2010 3:15 PM

I thought this was a great thing, and hope they do it every year!

I do have an "observation"

I was looking forward to seeing Lookbook, and the female singer does have a good voice, but it appeared what they did onstage was basically karaoke. Every once in a while the guy acted like he was playing with a knob on his machine and between songs he gave a strum on a guitar to try to throw off the audience. I don't mind "drum machines" and the like, but ya gotta be playing at least one instrument.

I am wondering how others feel about this?

Posted by Al | February 6, 2010 9:49 PM

I think tickets should be have been first sold to founding members, then opened to members, then opened to the public. I heard of some people who got tickets; are not members, never listen to the current and got to go. I've supported the current since day 1 and wasn't able to get tickets. Not fair in my opinion.

Posted by Betony | February 8, 2010 2:06 PM

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