'Washed Out' @ First Avenue

photo (2) Washed Out made his first appearance in Minneapolis this past Thursday telling us he's not sure what took so long. He kicked off the hour long set with "Entrance" off his newest album "Paracosm". While Washed Out, real name Ernest Greene, himself played acoustic guitar, keyboard, and a drum machine, his band had all the same instruments, which included a drummer, a bass player, and keyboardist, and a guitarist. Although it seemed like everyone had a mixer or keyboard for themselves, it ended up blending very well together with each musician adding a subtle layer to each song. The stage was decorated with strings of flower lights and each musicians' stand was adorned with flowers as well. Along with the mood lighting this definitely helped define Greene's sound of lo-fi, dream pop, and certainly chillwave. This is also probably why the audience wasn't as enthusiastic as Greene had hoped. 4 songs in he was really encouraging the audience to get into it, which they did, but it seemed short lived. This was something that he did a few more times throughout the 12 songs they performed that night, with the audience obliging him every time only to quickly return to standing and staring. This isn't to say the show was boring, it's just sorta hard to dance to music that is so low key. I think the audience was more entranced than ready to dance. There were times where the audience did respond, most notably during "Feel it All Around" which is also known as that song at the beginning of Portlandia. And finally at the end during "Eyes Be Closed" which was off his first album "Within and Without". photo (4)Overall it was a sleepy, but dreamy set that engaged the audience, but never got them amped up as much as Washed Out wanted them to.

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