Photos: Low Cut Connie, Jade Bird, Kiss the Tiger, and Miloe light up The Current's 17th Anniversary Party
by Jay Gabler
January 23, 2022
Adam Weiner of Low Cut Connie never delivers anything less than a committed performance, but Saturday night at First Avenue, he was on another level - literally. He climbed his piano, he rent his garment, he reached out to touch the crowd and he might have had livestream viewers reaching out as well, achieving digital communion through the sacrament of rock and roll.
It was The Current’s 17th Anniversary Party, but the artists onstage seemed to know they were making up for lost time - including last year, when The Current quietly turned 16. Quiet wasn’t a word that applied to Saturday’s lineup, even though two of the four acts played solo sets to the attentive audience.
Minneapolis singer-songwriter Miloe opened the show with a solo set of the sweet, distinctive songs that have earned him a growing national audience. After a rollicking full-band set this past summer in the Entry, Miloe stepped on the Mainroom stage with only his orange Fender, which produced an aptly bright tone in songs like “Motorola,” “Winona,” and “Greenhouse,” which built to a surging peak before Miloe closed his set with a poignant “Space and Time.”
Local Show host Diane introduced Kiss the Tiger, clarifying that despite an apparently widespread misconception, she and the band’s frontwoman Meghan Kreidler are not in fact the same person. Kreidler laughed, and later squeezed Diane’s hand as the singer-songwriter joined the band (as she also has on record) for the stirring “Hold On to Love.” Kiss the Tiger have honed a tight attack over the course of their numerous recent shows, and Kreidler absolutely commanded the stage for a set that opened with a bracing “Motel Room” and included a rendition of “Grown Ass Woman,” a song that Kreidler described as being about resilience.
Jade Bird took the stage alone with an acoustic guitar, but the British artist played as if she had the entire London Symphony Orchestra behind her. Strumming furiously and smiling contagiously, she drew roars of approval from the crowd in a room that, as she reminded us, she’s no stranger to. Songs like “No Joy” and “Going Gone” rang out anthemically, but she also quieted the room to a hush when her bandmate (and fiancé) Luke Prosser joined her for two songs including a searching cover of Radiohead’s “Black Star.”
Weiner had promised Jill Riley (who, making stage announcements, showed off the new Low Cut Connie sweatshirt she’d picked up at the merch table) an “unbelievable,” “ferocious” show, and nobody watching in the house or online Saturday night could call him a liar. Low Cut Connie filled the stage with a raucous lineup that pounded through a set including crowd favorite “Boozeophilia”; a classic rock cover medley that included “Cream,” one of the night’s two Prince covers (“America” came later); and an absolutely epic “Charyse.”
Near the middle of the set, Weiner was left alone onstage at his well-worn piano to play a few songs including an emotional cover of “Be My Baby,” a tribute to the late great Ronnie Spector. “Ronnie did it her way,” said Weiner, and in that respect at least, each of Saturday’s acts followed in her footsteps - with distinctive, committed performances.
The vax-checked crowd responded with cheers that resounded despite being a little muffled due to the necessary health precaution. As Weiner put it with a grin, “If you wanna shake your ass, you’ve gotta wear the mask.”