JODI BEE BENEFIT
On April 27, we were lucky enough to perform as a part of a benefit for the beloved Jodi Bee at the Turf Club. Jodi is a Twin Cities visual artist, massage therapist, and founder of Vagabond Bodywork. Proceeds from the celebration, complete with incredible music and a silent auction, went towards covering some of Jodi’s ongoing medical expenses. We couldn’t think of a more worthy cause to put our support and songs behind!
An early call time gave us plenty of time to run through our set. Amazingly enough, the cozy (read: teeny) green room in the Turf’s basement complemented our many voices quite well! Our second show of the season, this was many of our new ladies’ first gig with the choir. It was lovely to get a chance to warm up and get in the singing mood before we hit the stage.
Once 8 o’clock rolled around, we were ready and excited to kick off the evening’s performances! We began our set with our quintessential Devo cover “Whip It”, the perfect song to get our energy going. This was followed by “How Can I Sing Like a Girl”, one of our They Might Be Giants covers, and “Violet”, a lovely tune from MN’s own Jeremy Messersmith. Next came The Chordettes-inspired version of “Enter Mr. Sandman” by Metallica. Always a crowd (and choir!) pleaser, that one!
We then slowed it down a bit for a rendition of The Magnetic Fields’ beautiful “All My Little Words” from 69 Love Songs. Our final song was one that was quite bittersweet to sing. We’ve had the Prince mash-up “When Doves Cry For U” in our repertoire for quite some time, and it only felt right to close our set performing in his memory. Purple was an honorary PFLC color that evening.
Our set was followed by performances from Twin Cities music essentials StoLyette, Clustercuss, Dosh, and Töö Fäst För Thë Dëvìł, with DJ Shrek 2 spinning some records in between. It was a raucous evening of local music and beautiful art with our caring community. We were honored to support our dear friend Jodi Bee!
MAYDAY
MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY! What better way to celebrate the first day of May and the highly-anticipated arrival of spring than a performance at the MayDay Festival at Powderhorn Park! Each year, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater puts on an absolutely amazing festival and parade in Minneapolis, and we were so thrilled to be a part of the festivities!
If you’ve been to MayDay before, you know that it is a vibrant, lively, and BUSY occasion! Many of us in the choir, and the countless other attendees, rode their bikes, walked, or carpooled, as parking was at a premium. Our fellow choir member, the lovely Sarina Yospin, lives right across the street from Powderhorn, so she offered her house as a meeting spot. Even with the boisterous noises of the parade and festival in the background, we were able to warm up our voices together quite beautifully in her backyard. And with that, we were ready to head over to the park and sing to our community on this most beautiful day!
Our performance took place on the Family / Folk Stage, which was right on the lake under a unique and colorful pergola, and on the way to the Tree of Life ceremony. Lots of walk-by traffic to sing to! After miraculously fitting us all onto the stage area, we settled ourselves, hummed a few starting notes, and off we went! We started with the always catchy and fun-to-sing “Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements, which was followed up by “We Belong”, which was written by Lowen & Navarro and popularized by Pat Benatar. It’s always fun to see the crowd’s excitement at recognizing the songs we are covering, and to see them sing along!
Next came “Violet” from Jeremy Messersmith and “Hive”, a song written for us by Aby Wolf. We love singing songs by local musicians – so much talent to display! We once again saw it only fitting to sing our Prince medley, “When Doves Cry For U”. The crowd seemed to appreciate another chance to celebrate the music of this truly inspiring icon, who’s presence could be felt throughout the day via music, purple clothing, and even a huge Prince puppet.
We followed that up with “Love You” from The Free Design, a late 60s / early 70s sunshine pop band. It’s a cute, carefree little ditty that is a blast to sing. With time for two more songs, we sang through “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel with its beautiful chords and harmonies, and “Whip It” to round things out with a little Devo. As we took our bows, we realized just how many people had stopped to watch us sing! We felt overjoyed to share our songs with our friends and neighbors in the spirit of May Day and spring!
