The momentum surrounding Morgan Wade’s rise was on full display Friday night at First Avenue and the fans ensured she felt and heard their support the entire evening as they belted each song and were locked in.
Warming things up on the mainstage was Theo Kandel with his humor and charismatic set. Theo kicked it off by engaging the crowd with a few tales from home, NYC, sharing his most recent travels to the Twin Cities, and sharing his most recent food find while in town. Shout out to Our Kitchen. However, this busker-like approach was brilliantly coordinated to lead into a few of his first tracks including, Flight to JFK. An airport he passionately shared he despises, but inspired an opening track the crowd right away soaked up.
As a new comer to Theo’s music I was immediately drawn in by his stage presence and though he was quick to claim his act isn’t comedic, nor is he a comedian, I could’ve been convinced. The set played with different styles Theo has built up through his career and did a fantastic job energizing the crowd with an assortment of song choices and one brief cover song to break things up. I know Theo was just in Minneapolis twice in the last month or so but I hope to catch him again on his next pass through.
Then, out came Morgan. At the risk of sounding dramatic, fanboy, over the top I will say this. There is an energy when certain artists are about to come on stage, an energy that I can only summarize with my audible response to a couple of fans last night “Wow, you can FEEL the energy and passion in here” to which they agreed and proceeded to sing every song through the night. And as if that energy was not clearly evident, it wasn’t just the couple fans but majority of those in attendance singing along to EVERY song and with passion. And I can’t blame them, Morgan’s energy and voice are raw with lyrics that we all can relate to or the very least feel the story they’re telling…