St. Paul, Minn. —
I’m pretty excited about Circles Around The Sun’s upcoming show at the Turf Club in St. Paul, Minn., a hometown show for me. I’m glad I’m able to hit that one, and I wish I was able to catch more of this tour from this funky, psychedelic band with an unusual beginning.
The show is part of the Los Angeles-based band’s nine-show Midwest tour, starting March 8 at the Beachland Ballroom & Taproom in Cleveland. The tour then hits Columbus, Ohio (March 9), Ferndale, Mich. (March 10 and 11), Kalamazoo, Mich. (March 12), St. Paul, Minn. (March 15), Madison, Wis. (March 16), Evanston, Ill. (March 17), and Milwaukee (March 18). The rooms they are playing on this tour are generally pretty intimate.
Ticket information for all of these shows can be found here.
Beyond that, Circles Around The Sun — improbably born out of an assignment for original set break music for the 2015 Fare Thee Well festivities of the Grateful Dead — has a bunch of festival appearances scheduled this summer.
I was lucky enough to catch a couple of Circles Around The Sun shows before founding guitarist Neal Casal died tragically in 2019.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw this band play in person — a Phish after party in Chicago, following the Saturday show of Phish’s 2017 Northerly Island run. Casal had a way of stretching out an idea in such a tasteful and exploratory way, and the band used its spacey, soul-driven instrumentals to express emotions with notes instead of words.
At that show, a friend and I were tired from a long, long day on our feet and whispered about leaving for the last hour or so of the show, but there was no way we could leave as the band ripped one mesmerizing jam after the other. I’m forever grateful.
Casal and keyboardist Adam MacDougall weaved around each other with the improvisational synergy they developed as members of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, and bassist Dan Horne and drummer Mark Levy were every bit a part of the journey, while supplying the funk and disco beats and grooves. Their initial body of work, which came at the request of film producer Justin Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann’s son) developed a buzz immediately that magical weekend at Soldier Field. Their music accompanied a slideshow of Grateful Dead pictures. Those incredible recorded jams did have a Grateful Dead feel to them, and there were plenty of nods to beloved Dead songs (with song titles such as “Saturday’s Children”). It was released as Interludes For The Dead (an extended 4LP version of the album was released last year as part of a reissue of the original vinyl pressing; copies of that limited pressing are still available here).
The band with Casal released two more studio albums that allowed the band to branch out beyond the realms of Fare Thee Well, though they continued to develop their spacey sound.
Thankfully, the band has continued on despite Casal’s unthinkable passing.
Circles Around The Sun is releasing its fourth album this spring with Language. John Lee Shannon has settled in with the band on guitar after the band rotated several others in that spot, most recently Scott Metzger (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead) a few years back. Shannon’s extended tenure with the band has no doubt helped, and he’s a part of the new six-song album due out this spring.
I had the chance to see the band play at the Turf Club last March (the band had initially scheduled a show there in June of 2019, when Casal was still with the band, but the show was cancelled or postponed). I’m thankful they have continued.
On that tour last year, harpist Mikaela Davis opened. Last year, they released the song “Language,” which showcases Davis’ harp. The band performed the song with Davis (she is not a part of this March tour). It was a Thursday night funk throw down.
If you are into funky, exploratory instrumentals, don’t miss your chance to catch these guys.