Trampled by Turtles w/ Houndmouth and Baharat at Bayfront Festival Park
Trampled by Turtles are from Duluth, Minnesota, where frontman Dave Simonett initially formed the group as a side project in 2003. At the time, Simonett had lost most of his music gear, thanks to a group of enterprising car thieves who'd ransacked his vehicle while he played a show with his previous band. Left with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, he began piecing together a new band, this time taking inspiration from bluegrass, folk, and other genres that didn't rely on amplification. Simonett hadn't played any bluegrass music before, and he filled his lineup with other newcomers to the genre, including fiddler Ryan Young (who'd previously played drums in a speed metal act) and bassist Tim Saxhaug. Along with mandolinist Erik Berry and banjo player Dave Carroll, the group began carving out a fast, frenetic sound that owed as much to rock & roll as bluegrass.
On their 2021 album Good For You, Houndmouth share a collection of songs set in places as far-flung as the Alamo and the Hudson River, each populated by a motley cast of characters: fairy-tale princesses and vampires, parking-lot lovers and wanna-be beauty queens. The fourth full-length from the Indiana-bred band—vocalist/guitarist Matthew Myers, drummer/vocalist Shane Cody, and bassist/vocalist Zak Appleby—the result is a lovingly gathered catalogue of those wild and fleeting moments that stay lodged in our hearts forever, taking on a dreamlike resonance as years go by.
Baharat is a band united by their desire to instill a unique flavor of music into their hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. The band uses their music to deliver heartfelt messages about cultural identity by utilizing compelling and nuanced compositions powered by a driving rhythm section. Starting out as the backing band of singer/songwriter Lyla Abukhodair, Baharat soon became a more collaborative project as each member started to contribute more to the writing process. Once the songs were no longer exclusively composed by Abukhodair, she and the band felt it necessary to rebrand as more than just her backing band. The band consists of the aforementioned lead singer Lyla Abukhodair, childhood friend/Bass player Jackson Engstrom, Rob enthusiast Rob Runnels on drums, and Marshall Dillon/Emanuel Eisele on lead and rhythm guitar, respectively. This diverse cast of members allows for an equal amount of influences to be present in Baharat’s music. The band has roots in punk, folk, and midwest emo music.