Getting saxy at First Avenue

Songwriting duo Marian Hill brought their unique sound to Minneapolis.

Francheska Crawford Hanke, Reporter

First Avenue hosted Marian Hill Thursday night with their own vibrant, seductive sounds that had most everyone on the floor swinging their hips along with the lead vocalist on stage and two opening acts each with powerful female vocalists driving the sound.

Marian Hill is comprised of songwriting duo Jeremy Lloyd and Samantha Gongol in collaboration that started all the way back in high school. Gongol and Lloyd both write the music and lyrics together while Lloyd finishes the piece in production and Gongol brings them to life vocally.

The final product is a blend of acoustic blues and digital bass sounds with lyrics focused on the many intrinsic experiences of relationships.

Their duo stems from the classic idea of a woman on vocals at a center stage microphone and a man behind at the piano, adding the music to her lyrics to have the vocals accompanied instead by technographic and electronic production from a laptop.

Their concert featured Lloyd dancing and head-bobbing furiously over his mixing keyboard and, for some pieces, saxophone player Steve Davit that added an entirely new element.

Davit has been playing with the band since they first performed live.

“Jeremy showed me the song ‘Whisky’ as soon as they made it and I fell in love,” he said on his website. “After they made another song or two I decided to record myself playing sax and send it to Jeremy for dissection.”

Now Davit appears on stage with the duo, “wailing” on his saxophone for much of their set list.

The combination of electronic dance beats, ethereal vocals, and a saxophone produced a sound one attendee, Catherine M. described as “just kinda sexy.”

Leading up to the main act, SHAED and VÉRITÉ opened. SHAED set the energy for the entire show shortly after 8:00 p.m. with a jumping set filled with high-energy tracks befitting of their slogan, “We make colorful music.”

The musical trio is made up of Chelsea Lee as vocalist and Spencer Ernst and Max Ernst in production and additional vocals. All three are touring for the first time. Together on stage, they kicked off the night with the right dynamic intensity that lasted through to the final song.

Following, Kelsey Byrne, known as VÉRITÉ took the stage with a performance centered on her powerful, but crisp vocal talent. As a relatively new artist with two years of experience performing live, her appearance was welcomed with the title of #1 Most Viral Twitter Artist within a week of her first single’s release. It’s understandable to see why considering the rich quality of her voice.

When Marian Hill finally took to the stage around 10:00 p.m., bodies flooded towards the stage. Dancing, drinking and singing along, attendees filled the space with movement and noise.

Overall, the concert boasted a high energy level without any quieting dip-despite housing so much soulful sound. Instead, the compelling vocals were embedded within electronic beats that transformed the traditional female vocalist at a microphone cliche into a hip-swaying, boot stomping affair and still tackled topics like the human condition and the interworking of relationships at their various stages.