The Ike Reilly Assassination @ First Ave 11/21

Fresh off the network television debut of Ike Reilly (one of his songs was just prominently featured on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money"), and wrapping up a tour before a temporary hiatus, The Ike Reilly Assassination was in fine form Wednesday night at First Ave.

Now in it's fifth year, the night-before-thanksgiving gig at First Ave has become a tradition for many local music fans. This was my third time attending the "I gotta make sure I don't get too drunk because I don't want to be hungover at Thanksgiving" show, and the first time I have been successful in my quest for said Holiday serenity.


First up on the bill were The Falls, a young Minneapolis thrashabiily outfit made up of four young dudes who absolutely rocked the Mainroom. Lead singer Matt Walsh showed unrelenting energy and excitement to be playing for so many people, exclaiming that they had only played for about ten people before then. I figured that that couldn't possibly be true, so after the show I asked him if they had really only played for very small crowds. He said that they had indeed only played bars "with room for about 30 or so people", so he was in fact being serious. Featuring a stand up bassist, hammering drums, a great guitarist, and a lead singer who strode about the stage menacingly with a faded black skull and crossbones t-shirt, this band is like the Danzig of rockabilly.



Local indie rock superstars The Alarmists took the stage next as the place began to fill up with eager Ike fans.



Ike's show began with a surprising solo acoustic version of "I Don't Want What You Got", with Ike appearing suddenly in the spotlight on the landing of the stairs in the middle of the club. The Ike-ettes, a fairly recent addition to Ike's bag of tricks, chimed in with some backup vocals, and the rest of the IRA came out after that song. Joining the band for a couple songs later in the staggering evening was Little Man guitarist Chris Perricelli, who is an awesome guitarist as well.







oh yeah, and backstage there was this wonderful little note written on the wall that Slug from Atmosphere wrote for one of his idols, Rakim, who would be at First Ave the next night. this was extremely cool to see, as Rakim is one of my old school faves as well.