Heiruspecs’ Magical Block Party on August 19

For decades Heiruspecs has been on the bill on summer block party type shows. Almost always in Minneapolis, and about 23% of the time with Mark Mallman also on the bill. I remember doing the Barbette Bastille Day show in probably 2002. That’s 21 years ago. Mostly these have been beautiful shows. I feel all the energy of Irving and Lagoon, loading the gear. Seeing which band brought their tour van. Seeing Foxy Tann looking like a million and a half bucks guiding the crowds energy between sets and then hearing Heiruspecs get introduced. We start playing a loud loose slightly inebriated 55 minute set to a big ass crowd of people enjoying a great day of summer. After the show I’m trying to use my food tickets right as everything is closing up and hopefully trying to flirt with some women who just saw me looking all awesome up on stage. These are great memories, but these events are curated and risked on other people’s dime. Maybe it’s Kim Bartmann or Anne Saxton from the Barbette/BLB Universe, Corey from Pizza Luce, someone else launching one of these parties. No matter how cool someone else’s taste is, you don’t really have control over a situation unless you’re putting it together, taking the risk, making the event happen on your terms. I will happily cede some of that control over for the ease of just being told “here’s your load in time, send your stage plot, rock your show, here’s your money”. But as Heiruspecs makes the slow transition from working band to venerated institution we want to plant more seeds into events that we control, that we curate. We’ve got a good ass thing going with our Holiday Classic shows which goes down in December. We’ve been doing those since about 2003. (I can’t 100% confirm this but I actually think it was Patrick Costello from D4 who named those events Holiday Classic when he was booking at Triple Rock Social Club, if you see Patty, ask him about it). We control that, we book awesome bands and we have an amazing time. Wolf Lords, MaLLy, Carnage, Black Blondie, I-Self Devine, Guardians of Balance, DJ Dan Speak, Nakara Forje, Christian Fritz, Lady Midnight, Juice Lord, Hey Arlo - that’s just some of the artists who have played with us on these Holiday Classics. The joy I feel thinking about all the people who for years have been a part of these shows. It brings me joy.

Okay, I can talk for as long as I want cause this is my blog so here’s an aside. My overriding desire in my young twenties was to make a contribution to the world of music in the Twin Cities. To offer up songs, events, experiences that would be loved, remembered and celebrated. Walking in to a venue, saying hello to the sound person, making sure they have the stage plot, getting everyone paid, smoking a joint with the weed smokers in Heiruspecs plus our friends after the show around an unexplainable amount of shoe-boxes because everyone has to bring cool shoes for a winter show. It all feels special to me. I love our scene. I love the scene surrounding Heiruspecs in particular. And I love that we have put stamps on things, carved out spots for other great musicians, for great events. And the next chapter in that is the Summer Classic.

We started hunting around for a spot to bring the Summer Classic together right after the Holiday Classic. Peter Leggett, our drummer, cooked up the idea really simply and I started emailing around. It had to be in St. Paul. It had to be outside. First Ave didn’t have the capacity to take on an outdoor show. And let’s be clear, the economics of an outdoor show really work for significantly more popular acts. If you can get 3500 people to pay a serious ticket price, you can handle a lot of the infrastructure of an outdoor show. But we couldn’t get 3500 people to watch us if we paid THEM! But guess what? Free block party shows are the shit. You get folks who are iffy about your band but 100% in for a good time. You can spend your money on food and merch. You can take in that energy. There’s a certain pressure when you spend $50 on a show. . .”this better really be a good time”. It can choke the fun out of something.

There’s a dude in town who really gets Heiruspecs, gets our ethic, gets our music, gets the vibe. His name is Joe Alton, he booked us at a bunch of Beer Dabbler things back when he was a part of that organization, and he always treated us well. He went to Central, he understands the city, he knows everyone, he knows a lot about beer. And every time you see Joe Alton you’re glad you did. A couple winter meetings between Joe and Heiruspecs helped us sort out what might work for the event and he put is in contact with Clutch Brewing. Now I know Clutch, they’ve been using Trivia Mafia for a long time for their Thursday night trivia. But I don’t know them personally, I just know that if you choose to use Trivia Mafia, you’re probably an amazing brewery. But Joe put us together and we felt the good energy. The opportunity to put on something cool in Saint Paul. You shouldn’t have to leave Saint Paul to party during the day. These block parties shouldn’t all happen across the river.

I put out the calls to try and lock down great artists for our first Summer Classic. AND WE DID! Some folks who would’ve been a great fit on the bill simply had to say no because of travel or other gigs et cetera. Some people said no cause people say no. But the groups that said yes. . . .are you kidding me? I’ve been loving Maria Isa since I saw her at the First Ave Mainroom for best new band nights with Leroy Smokes backing her up probably like 2002? I just remember being floored by everything about her. That night did I think she would be en route to being a State Representative? No, but I believed in her. Her old manager used to give out cards and say “we’re gonna change the world” and I absolutely believed her. And when I think about where Maria has gotten, that manager was right. Seeing someone like Maria still delivering the goods as an emcee (and one of the best freestylers in MN) and being involved in the political process. And not just involved. . .elected. It’s big. And I’ve never been disappointed by Maria Isa live because she gets live performance in a way that a lot of equally talented emcees don’t get. Live performance is a different muscle and Maria has those muscles. When I asked Unknown Prophets if they would entertain an offer for the show Big Jess basically said “no”. They got a new record out, but they haven’t blessed a stage in years. But I bet maybe seeing that it’s St. Paul, it’s outdoors, it’s with their brothers from Saint Paul, it all fit. I don’t know, I’m just touched that they would come back onto stage for our thing. Man, that’s amazing. They also still have it. The new music is the best they’ve made. They are actually more in their lane than they’ve been. They are such a fundamentally sound group. And then St. Paul Slim just tossed us the quick “yup” when we asked if he would host. We’ve known Slim since high school. We were all in the same program. To have him in the fold, it’s just perfect, it’s just the cherry. Seriously.

So at this moment on June 27 when the Star Tribune is saying nice things about our new record, the announce is out for our summer shows, it’s just a nice moment. I know there will be a million headaches, a million texts, a bunch of rehearsals, some weird trips to rental stores, a bunch of growing pains. But look, it takes work to do something magical. And it’s worth it. I’m really looking forward to this show, and to the show at Icehouse on Saturday July 22. I hope you come to both. I hope you drag your friends to the shows. I hope you make this summer magical. What is the other option? There isn’t one. Let’s just be magical.