Trampled by Turtles release Palomino at First Avenue
Trampled by Turtles have come a long way. Knowing this, on Saturday, April 10th, 2010 the management of First Avenue awarded the alt-bluegrassers with their very own star on the infamous exterior wall of the finest rock club in the Midwest. Later that night singer and guitarist, Dave Simonett, sincerely explained how that was one of the biggest honors to date for the band.
The bluegrass boys from Duluth, MN were in fine form for night two of their album release weekend at First Avenue. Palomino is the title of the band’s fifth album in six years, and if their live performance of each track is any indication, it is destined to be one of Trampled by Turtles’ best.
After Minneapolis band, A Night in the Box, opened things up, the superb California Americana-playing, Devil Makes Three, kept things rolling with a terrific set of rebel country. Then as they did the night before, Trampled by Turtles opened their set by playing straight through their new release Palomino. The crowd attentively bounced along to the new songs before the band finally mixed in older material to take the show out. That’s when the crowd did its best to rage, but on this night it seemed there wasn’t enough energy to rage.
It was a rather mellow yet nice show, and the band’s version of “Breathe” by Pink Floyd was a fantastic piece of their first encore. The band ended the night with their raucous hit “Codeine”, from their 2005 release, Blue Sky and the Devil. The joyful and animated crowd then dissipated, all smiles, into the streets of downtown Minneapolis with appreciation of one of Minnesota’s greatest musical treasures.
