TORRES & Ariana and the Rose at the 7th St Entry in Minneapolis, September 17th, 2021
Torres headlined the 7th St Entry in downtown Minneapolis Friday night at the 13th stop on her nationwide tour for her newest album “Thirstier” (link to Spotify streaming below). The 7th St Entry, which used to be a restaurant, is a smaller stage attached to the historic First Avenue venue. With a small venue, fewer people can attend creating a more intimate experience for everyone.
As audience members enter the venue, they pass by the merch table with everything being sold by both artists performing that night. Shirts and jackets hung on the wall to show their designs and Vinyl records and CDs were laid out on the table with a sign stating each item’s price. Behind the table sat big cardboard boxes filled with prepackaged shirts and sealed copies of records and CDs. As people continued through the venue, they start to see different parts of the stage, illuminated by blue and purple from above and have to find their perfect spot to watch the concert. The stage felt crowded with keyboards, a drum kit, mic stands and other equipment, plus lots of cables and wires connecting everything.
New York-based artist Ariana and the Rose opened the night with her synth-pop, disco songs using a laptop and her Reloop beat pad. A Reloop beat pad is a piece of equipment almost covered in square buttons that is often used to create beats in songs. An artist can prerecord various soundbites from instruments, regular sounds they hear in the world or clips of lyrics and then assign these sounds to a specific button on the device. Ariana uses this type of equipment for her live performances because she is usually creating her songs alone and could not play all the instruments herself. With this technique of performance, she played most of her current discography, one EP and her various singles. Between songs, Ariana would talk to the audience giving insight as to how the pandemic has affected her and expressing how happy she was to be back on tour as well as telling the stories behind some of her songs. Before playing her song “You Were Never My Boyfriend,” she explained the song was about being in a weird, undefined relationship of sorts. “I thought to myself, if I were to break up with him, I couldn’t because we were never really dating. It’s crazy,” Ariana told the audience. Sadly, she will not be joining Torres for the rest of the tour due to a family emergency, she announced on her Instagram story Monday afternoon.
After a twenty-minute break to reset the stage and do sound checks, Brooklyn-based Torres – stage name for Makenzie Scott – took the stage. Wearing a bright red top and matching leggings, Scott took front stage with her keyboard player to her left, bassist to her right, and drummer behind her. The band did some quick checks to adjust their in-ear monitors – earphones used to protect their hearing and allow them to hear themselves and their bandmates – and jumped into playing songs from Torres’ newest album. The second song performed was “Don’t Go putting Wishes in My Head” from the album and her current number one song according to Spotify. Half of the setlist performed was from the newest album but Scott also played hits from her four previous albums. Near the beginning of the set, the bassist’s drink spilled on the stage, thankfully not affecting any cables or electronics on stage. They ended their set with “Gracious Day” from Torres’ fourth album “Silver Tongue.”
For many in the audience, Torres’ performance at the 7th St Entry was their first concert back in person since the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Ariana and Scott recognized this and gave the audience their all to make it a fun and memorable evening.
