Slothrust Delights a Sold-Out 7th Street Entry

Last updated on October 28th, 2018 at 02:56 pm

Supported by pals Mannequin Pussy, this was truly a show you did not want to miss. We sat down with Slothrust before the show to talk to them about their new album ‘The Pact’ released September 14th of this year.

MIM: Your newest album is titled ‘The Pact’ so do you three have a pact amongst yourselves? Because of the album or that brought you the idea to call it The Pact?

Kyle: Don’t Die?!

Leah: We have an unspoken pact to, or maybe medium spoken, to always try our best.

MIM: What inspired the album art for The Pact? From what I understand you [Leah] did the album art for the past few albums.

Leah: I started thinking about the album art for this one very far in advance. I try to keep a really particular channel in my brain open to see what came to me. For records in the past I’ve known pretty quickly what I wanted to use and for this one I started to get this recurring image of a purple balloon which I became very obsessed with and this idea of the purple balloon as a totem and an object that is very common and very familiar but something is a little bit off about it as though it’s almost from a different dimension or a parallel timeline so that kind of became the concept. We worked with this photo duo from Seattle called, Cè Ça. I also was pretty inspired by this artist Eyvind Earle who did a lot of early Disney castles. The poison apple in Snow White was definitely something that inspired the look of the balloon, like the moment when the poison drips over the apple and yeah kind of running with that and the vinyl comes with a lyric booklet that has a ton of photos in it, a lot of stuff that ties together with a loose narrative of things that aren’t quite what they seem, perhaps something you would find in a really strange castle.

MIM: How did the ‘Slothrust Trail’ come to be? What inspired the idea to do a game along with a streaming ability for the album?

Will: A while back we came up with the idea of making a Slothrust board game, have the van like go across the country and stuff, which we still would love to do at some day but it seemed a little extensive and out of our range of skills.

Kyle: We could just make an app

Will: Then we were pretty sure we know people

Kyle: Yeah it’s 2018…

MIM: Do any of you have a high score in the game?

Leah: So funny story, there is something called the “leaderboard”. Which I am personally not a gamer, this was not my idea but it’s been going really great and now you can win these different prizes. But some people have been hacking it…

Kyle: And like putting their own high scores in there.

Leah: Yeah, we got a message from someone that was like ‘listen, I’ve been playing this game for a really long time and I just want to let you know I’ve figured out a way to recode the score’ I was like, is this making it? Are we stars now?

Slothrust started their set with the song Surf Goth. It’s heavy and sets the tone for what was bound to be an enchanting time. The talent of this band essentially slaps you in the face as soon as the music enters your ears. It’s as if the guitar, bass, drums, and vocals are so perfectly matched like interlocking puzzle pieces.

Kyle, Will and Leah continued the set with a few much-anticipated tracks off their latest album. Including Peach, Birthday Cake, For Robin, Walk Away, The Haunting, On My Mind, Double Down and Planetarium, as well as some deep cuts from previous albums. Halfway through the set Will (drums) and Kyle (bass) performed a 90’s interlude that electrified the crowd even more.

Shortly after, Kyle jumped from bass to keys as the band performed the track ‘On My Mind’ and front women Leah danced with a small stuffed Sun that a fan had made for her. It was a very special and intimate performance.

Finishing with an encore, Slothrust gave their all to Minneapolis and this show will not soon be forgotten.

Mannequin Pussy started the show with an energetic punk set and a sensual stage presence from frontwoman Marisa Dabice. Their overall rugged and loud performance captured the audience and spit out a pepped up crowd waiting for the next song. You could tell Mannequin Pussy was there to put on an epic show, and they did just that.

Article & Interview by Nicole Wells