The Ting Tings at First Avenue 4/2

I’m going to start out with a pretty bold statement: The Ting Tings are the most underrated band making music right now. A lot of people dismiss them as just noise or as not a serious band and I don’t really understand why. They’ve developed their own distinct sound that not only defies genres but stands out from anything else out there today.

Where they really stick out is in their live show. Last night’s killer set at First Avenue was  a gleaming example of this. The show started out with MNDR, an electronic singer who had never heard of before. While at first I was a bit skeptical of the strange woman wearing a short gold top and red booty shorts, by the second song my friends and I were all dancing along. It was hard to resist her charm and infectious dance beats.

Speaking of dancing, this woman was not afraid to shake her thang. Yes, I just used the word “thang.” I imagine this was pretty awkward because her parents, who apparently are from Minnesota (she mentioned she used to live here), were in the audience. Dirty dancing aside, I imagine they must have been proud of their daughter because she won the audience over and made at least two new fans.

Ballin' with MNDR.

As great as MNDR was, the main attraction of the night was the Ting Tings. They started off their set by coming out in darkness and Katie silenced the audience. This led perfectly into "Silence" and the band quickly brought the rock as Katie grabbed her guitar and Joules hit the drums. At the end of the song, Katie announced, "I have only one request for you tonight and it's that you fucking dance!"

Oh no, what a horrible request!!! Of course, they made it easy to dance with their high energy and rockin' dance beats. The band constantly had the audience clapping along and Katie kept those of us near the front on our toes the whole time as she would regularly come and sing at the very front of the stage to dance or shred on her guitar.

One thing that really impressed me was the number of different instruments the duo plays. Katie had to keep track of keys, guitar, bass, cowbell, various pedals and knobs and things that I had no idea what they were. Joules did all that plus drums plus backing vocals. Seriously, these guys are legitimate musicians.

One highlight of the evening was when they played one of their most well known songs, "Shut Up and Let Me Go." The whole audience erupted and you could hear everyone in the place singing along. Everyone danced harder than usual. Speaking of dancing, the only time during the whole show I stopped dancing was during the short intermission between the main set and the encore. Even then, my dancing was really only replaced with screams for more.

The only real criticism I have of the show, if you can call it that, is that it ended. I could've kept dancing all night long had they continued to play. For now, I'll just have to wait until they come back. I know I'll be one of the first to buy tickets to see these two wonderful Brits again.

What a bunch of badasses.

As many of you know, this was my first concert of what I'm dubbing the Month of 10 Concerts because... Well, I'm going to 10 concerts this month. Here's to hoping that they're all as great as the one last night. Tomorrow is Gotye and Kimbra. Look for my review Thursday!