Rock the Garden

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending Rock the Garden, a four-act concert that was held on the street in between the Walker Art Center and the Sculpture Garden. There were at least 7500 folks in attendance, and it felt quite crowded. I waited a good 30 minutes for a flippin' burger, and didn't even bother with the beer or Chipotle line. Overall, the crowd was quite respectful and carried a good energy. And the music was great!

Photo credit MPR.

First up was a Bon Iver, a folksy singer from Wisconsin. Sadly, I didn't pay much attention to him, we missed the first few songs and spent the first 45 minutes getting acclimated to the area, checking out the merch booth while it was unattended.
Cloud Cult followed Bon Iver with a great set, they also had two band members/artists paint during their set and turn out some pretty sweet paintings.
Third up was The New Pornographers. I really enjoyed hearing them live, they certainly are a polished act. The energy during "Bleeding Hearts Show" was electric! Finally, I worked my way towards the front of the stage for Andrew Bird. He gave us a wall of lush noise... along with some great songs! He also performed a newer song that had some of the best violin pizzicato layering I've heard from him, I'm excited to see if that song will make it onto a live or studio album. It was my fourth time seeing him live and it wasn't the best show, I enjoyed his performance last winter at the Guthrie the best. However, Rock the Garden was the first show where I knew all the songs prior to the concert and that made it much more exciting when he suddenly broke into "Imitosis" or "Firey Crash". All in all, it was a fun show, hopefully the lineup next year will be as good. Thanks for reading.

P.S. Don't even think about seeing The Happening, bad bad bad 1.5/5 killer plants.