Liz and I were extremely excited for this show; I hadn't been to a concert in a few weeks, and the Heavenly States, a band from San Francisco, had been on our radio show earlier that day. After a few phone calls trying to direct the band to the station, they made it at about 4:25 with their upcoming cd (out August 26th!) and 7-inch split with Coldplay and the Postal Service in hand. All four of the members were extremely cool, and we especially clicked with Ted, the singer. Brook, the bassist, looked disturbingly like Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. We all got along fabulously, and we heard great stories about the band and its history. We played a few songs off their self-titled cd, their first since they changed their name from Fluke Starbucker (a character in a short film apparently. Amusingly, the actor from the film ended up producing some of their songs). One of the cooler things going for them right now is a 7-inch split with Coldplay and the Postal Service; alas, it is only available through the magazine Devil in the Woods or on ebay. After some craziness trying to figure out how to use the record player ("press the on button" being the solution), we played the whole record, which included an acoustic version of Coldplay's Clocks and an absolutely hilarious Postal Service cover of Phil Collin's Against All Odds. Finally, after several more techincal difficulties involving the record player and my incompetency, the Heavenly States headed out, and I couldn't wait to see them perform.

Liz and I got to the King Club early so we could get a table. The King Club is a cool venue, but every time I go there the bands are too loud. First up was local band The Spirit Plane. Instrumentally, they weren't bad, but the vocals just weren't working for me. The singer seemed a bit timid with the microphone. They also had some sort of slide show going on one of the walls, which was just pretentious and distracting. They played for almost an hour, which was a bit ridiculous for an opening band.

As the Heavenly States set up their equipment, we chatted with Ted a bit more; turns out he is from the same hometown as Matt Weber of the DPC (Owatonna, MN), and Ted had played with Matt's high school band (Orchid Bath?) once back in the day. Who else hails from Owatonna? Har Mar Superstar, who is still friends with Ted. It's good to have connections.

And so the band played, and they were excellent. The band includes a guitar, bass, drums, and a violinist/keyboardist, Genevieve, who was just awesome. The violin was a really cool and different touch, and she totally rocked out on it. It definitely reminded me of the accordion player in the Decemberists. I love it when bands have a totally random instrument in their lineup. You could tell everyone in the room was really into the band. They played from their upcoming cd for about 30-40 minutes, a good mix of fast, upbeat songs and slower, darker ones. My only complaint was that the King Club just doesn't have the best sound; it gets a little fuzzy at times.

Up next was Kid Dakota, a Minneapolis band. Liz and I saw Kid Dakota a few months ago in Minneapolis- at least, about 10 minutes of them until I proceeded to faint at the Uptown Bar. So it was good to get to see a full performance this time. The singer looks like the prototypical indie-rock singer, with the thick black glasses and short brown hair. He has a really great voice, and the songs ranged from twangy, country-ish songs to standard indie-rock to some really dark, sad ones. A lot of songs that got really quiet in the middle, so that you think the song might be over, but oh no- it isn't! Again, my biggest issue: they were really loud. I was embarrassed, but I had to cover my ears for much of it for my own sanity. I blame the venue, since its been an issue every time I've ever been to the King Club. Anyway, Kid Dakota wrapped up about 1:30, making this one of the longest concerts I'd ever been to. Still, it was a great show; the Heavenly States were amazingly cool people and a great band to watch.

-Nicole