The Sky Clears Up For The Gin Blossoms at The Common Sound Music Festival

Last updated on June 21st, 2018 at 10:54 am

Mother Nature can be cruel at times, including today. Even with a chance of rain along with a heat advisory for the Twin Cities, the weather still didn’t stop about 1,000 fans from coming out to Beth El Synagogue for a fun day of Food and Music at The Common Sound Music Festival.

I arrived in time for The Common Ground Company to take the stage. They are definitely a fun local band that seems to be musically based in Folk, with an Americana vibe. I love the violin, absolutely my favorite part of the band. Both ladies have wonderful, strong voices- although one of the lady’s voice cracked early into the set. It was not a big deal, as the rest of the set was perfect. If I want a more relaxing atmosphere I will definitely take time to see these guys.

Coming on next is one of the big two that were ticketed for this event. Big-Wu (another local band) came on stage after a small rain shower hit the area. If you want to know what kind of music this band plays, it’s pretty simple: this is an energetic jam band. It’s hard to tell when one song ends and the next song begins. That mattered absolutely zero as the crowd came a little closer to the stage, some dancing to the melodic groove. Finally, this started to feel more like an outdoor festival!

All the worries about the rain and hot temperatures turned out to be negligible at best. The heat didn’t seem to affect anyone and the rain lasted about 5 minutes at most. The predicted rain that was supposed to happen as The Gin Blossoms were coming on never happened, in-fact just the opposite did as the clouds diminished just in time.

Finally, it was time for The Gin Blossoms! No time for sitting, those chairs you brought are now worthless. If you were in front, it was a night of constant singing along, starting with the 1st song, “Lost Horizons,” all the way until they introduced their new album, Mixed Reality by treating the audience to three of the songs (“Angels Fly“, “Mega Pawn King” and the upcoming single and video “Break“). If those songs are any indication, it should be a fantastic new album to throw into the rotation.

The whole evening went lightning fast, between the new songs were all the hits like “Allison Road” and “Until I Fall Away”.

Lead singer Robin Wilson‘s constant use of the Tambourine was a wonderful surprise as it wasn’t just him using them. He handed them off to members of the audience as both the audience and Wilson played them on and off throughout the night.

The rest of the night was dedicated to their biggest hits, as Wilson volleyed back and forth with the audience on several songs including “Found Out About You“, “Hey Jealousy” and “Til I Hear It From You” before exiting the stage (which lasted about 30 seconds), and returning to fulfill the obligatory encore.

The Gin Blossoms came back on stage for a two-song Encore, starting out with “Mega Pawn King” from the two-day-old album Mixed Reality. We finished the night dancing and singing to one of their biggest hits (if not the biggest), “Follow You Down“.

Here is a cool way to end the night! Lead singer Robin Wilson took the Tambourines that were used, Autographed them and gave them away to some of the kids in the crowd. Very Cool! You just gave those kids something they won’t forget anytime soon. Thank You, for being a class act.