MUNA, hemlocke springs

Sunday, October 11 · Palace Theatre

Doors 6:00pm · Show 7:00pm

Synth-PopDance-PopArt-PopAll Ages

★ racket - The three members of this L.A. indie-pop band know they’ve cultivated one of the most dedicated queer fanbases in music; so much so that, in 2020, Queerty magazine literally named ‘em queer heroes. But with their new album, May’s Dancing on the Wall, Muna gently pushed away from being the "queer joy mini-skirt rollerblade band," as they’ve half-jokingly dubbed themselves, and instead released a politically charged "dark, poppy, intense, sweaty, funky dance album." Outside of the Immortal Technique-indebted subtlety of “Big Stick,” Dancing is still a Muna LP—big, shimmering synths and shout-along choruses, where the political is mostly personal. Expect no shortage of queer joy and mini skirts (though probably no rollerblades) tonight in St. Paul. Opener Hemlocke Springs, who recently played the Varsity, released her first full-length, The Apple Tree Under the Sea, earlier this year. The album sounds well-crafted but not excessively labored over. The singer deploys an arsenal of gripping voices over a variety of theatrically pop settings, with tracks like the domestic fantasy "w-w-w-w-w" and the manically revving “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Ankles” serving up confections more complex than your average sugar rush.