AirLands with special guests Dave Mehling and Diane
Friday, July 22, 2022
6:30 pm Doors // 7:30 pm Music
$17 Advance General Admission // $24 At The Door
All Ages
Ticket Purchases are Final and Non-Refundable
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A thrilling heavy-hitting ensemble of local musicians fronted by Kevin Calaba (Stars of Track and Field). Given dynamic love and lush energy by Dan Lawonn (Jeremy Messersmith), Jasper Nephew (Owl City), Dave Mehling (The Fontanelles, Portage) and Scott McPherson (Elliot Smith, Beck, She and Him), AirLands brings their music home to one of their favorite Minneapolis stages.
The five-piece will run through their favorites and also include a few tracks from Calaba’s first band Stars of Track and Field.
Expect arrangements to span from dreamy orchestral swaths to bare-boned ballad ghost towns. The band is never far from cosmic collapse, as the pieces and gears are in constant motion which is by choice and pure need.
Intimate sets by Diane and Dave Mehling open the evening and are not to be missed.
AirLands is intimate - and then sometimes reaches for the burning sun.
There are drums, vocal harmonies, a cello, an alto sax, guitars, bass, and a french horn when it’s snowing.
There are more harmonies than shred but a tiny bit of shred in a soft way.
We call it soft shred.
I think drums are for mallets, but drummers tend to disagree.
Would definitely prefer to just hum and sing over blade-runner synths for 90 minutes, but that might lose it’s edge.
I like songs that are about both what a person knows and what a person doesn’t know and I’m sometimes trying to help but mainly just observing.
Fronted by Kevin Calaba (Stars of Track and Field), AirLands is adorned with cello and acoustic guitar (Dan Lawonn of Jeremy Messersmith), French horn and keys (Sarah Jane Perbix of Cloud Cult), synthesizer and Alto sax (Benjamin Cline), percussion (Jeremy Harvey of Cloud Cult), and layered harmonies (Marlena Calaba). Together, the band sweeps between intimate acoustic songs and reaching for a more epic folk sound, never staying in the same place for too long, lest their toes get cold.
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Dave Mehling (The Fontanelles, Portage, AirLands) is a Minnesota based songwriter, performer and educator. Most recently he released Tired Fruit, an album of ambient compositions and Beach Boy, a smorgasbord of musical styles ranging from folk and electronic to drone and avant-garde.
“You are drawn in with his lyrics. They speak of very universal issues of love which we all have, but few of us have the talent to give them a voice. Dave Mehling possesses this rare gift.” - Becca Martin
Diane is an alternative hip-hop, rock and folk musician and radio DJ/producer living in Minneapolis. Since moving to Minneapolis from Fargo-Moorhead in 2018, Diane has become a fixture in the scene. 2021 was especially a year of accomplishments. She was named host/producer of The Local Show powered by Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current; wrapped up her artist fellowship year with the McKnight Foundation; co-emceed the bluegrass festival Blue Ox headlined by Jason Isbell; performed for a Minnesota Lynx WNBA Halftime Show; headlined the local music stage at Basilica Block Party; and served as an artist-in-residence at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska.