Show Review: The Cactus Blossoms at First Ave
More Than ‘Just’ a Show: Dispatches from the Cactus Blossoms concert at First Ave
By Carol Roth & Jaclyn Nott
The Cactus Blossoms at First Ave, March 2021. Photo by Carol Roth.
On March 27, 2021, we attended this very limited-seating show (which was also livestreamed). We hadn’t seen a show together since March 9, 2020, so it was an especially special night—even if it hadn’t been Carol’s favorite band playing, even if it wasn’t at the iconic First Avenue nightclub. So we both wanted to share our impressions of the concert.
Carol
It really is difficult to encapsulate everything I feel when I see a Cactus Blossoms show. They may never know how transformative their music has been to my life. The comfort it gave me during the worst times in recent American (and world) history. The good friends it brought into my life from across the Americas. The adventures it took me on—from Omaha to Toronto and many places in between. The inspiration it gave me to finally learn guitar and even start writing some songs myself. The appreciation it gave me for live music and discovering new artists. The passion for Americana it ignited within me that eventually culminated in creating this site with Jaclyn.
Add to that all the things that made this show so remarkable and poignant—this was my first show of theirs in over a year and the first time I’d been inside First Avenue since 2019—and I’m even more overwhelmed. But I’ll try to use words like a regular human person and describe my experience.
Although the strict safety protocols at the club added to the strangeness of this experience, they put me at ease about being indoors for two hours with a hundred or so strangers. The air was cold and clearly being cycled from outside; I could even smell cigarette smoke at one point, which hadn’t happened in a club for many a year! The tables were spaced far apart. The patrons wore masks assiduously (well, most of them; you know who you are, couple who took yours off as soon as you sat down!). The servers wore masks as well as face shields. The band members who weren’t singing were also masked.
My brain had been so skeptical that anything this good could actually come to pass that I didn’t feel much excitement leading up to the show, but as soon as I was within the hallowed space of First Avenue, I felt overwhelmed. My heart started racing and my eyes welled with tears.
I didn’t have my glasses, so everything was a bit blurry, but I’d recognize Jack Torrey and Page Burkum from a mile away, I’ve watched so many of their performances. And I could see their broad smiles as they stepped onto the stage. They’re one of the acts that pretty much laid low during the entire pandemic, so their excitement at being in front of an audience again was palpable.
The Cactus Blossoms at First Ave, March 2021. Photo by Carol Roth.
They played the first two songs as a duo, which made me remember that several of their shows I was meant to see in April 2020 were going to be duo performances. I’d been excited about that because I hadn’t seen them perform that way since late 2016 or early 2017.
They opened with two of their oldest songs (early versions of which appear on their first, largely unavailable self-released album), “Adios Maria” and “Stoplight Kisses.” They almost immediately stumbled over lyrics in the second song, which made me laugh. They’re one of the most polished and precise acts I’ve ever seen, so the little hiccups throughout the show were a reminder that they were a little rusty, that their polish comes in part from their usually heavy touring schedule.
But truth be told, they were still more buttoned-up than most bands are at their best. Only a hopeless superfan (ahem) would notice the occasional misplaced verse or transposed lyric.
The set was heavy on songs from You’re Dreaming, their 2016 album that I’ve listened to more than any other, so I was in heaven. They also played several songs from Easy Way and two new songs. I was excited by the soaring harmonies and countrified seventies rock sound of the tunes, and I can’t wait for the album they promised they’re working on.
They closed, as they often do, with “Traveler’s Paradise,” and the lyrics seemed even more heartfelt in light of the special circumstances surrounding this show: “I’m gone but not forgotten / Troubles, sure I’ve got ’em / Now they don’t seem as real.” Jaclyn and I left with full hearts and soaring spirits. For that magical hour or so, our troubles not only didn’t seem real—they didn’t exist.
Jaclyn Nott (l) and Carol Roth (r), March 2021. Photo by Carol Roth.
Jaclyn
As a counterpoint to the superfan that is Ms. Carol, my experience at this show was no less visceral, but within the context of the outsider. While Carol has been steeped in the Cactus Blossoms catalogue and live shows for some time now, I had never heard them before she dragged me to their show at the Turf Club in the dead of winter in early 2019 (I require that I be dragged everywhere in the dead of winter, for the record).
It was an absolutely packed house that night, people rubbing up against us to get drinks at the bar (or to stay warm and friendly—probably all of the above), where we’d managed to score two coveted stools. Carol knew all the words to every song, and I just took in the sound of a band that made me think of Roy Orbison all night. As a big Orbison fan, it was so easy to get lost in the songs—their treacle-sweet harmonies paired on either side of each phrase felt like sitting in a rowboat without oars and not caring, drifting along at an unhurried pace at the whim of gentle and never turbulent waves.
Enter 2020.
Listening to CB albums over the past year has evoked just that kind of imagery that’s helped me through the anxiety, fear, frustration, and depression that took over every single aspect of my life—and obviously I’m not the only one. But, when Carol told me (screeched is more accurate, with a slight dash of non-mask-induced hyperventilation) she scored two tickets to their First Ave concert, I admit that I was torn. Part of me was ecstatic not only to hear them perform live again but to get out of the effing house, but the rest of me (a solid ¾) was terrified of being indoors with a bunch of people who I, frankly, had no reason to trust would be masked the entire time. But, the ¼ of me that’s been crawling out of my skin won—a rare victory over anxiety these days, so I took a chance.
From the start, the First Ave staff were awesome, but it was admittedly very surreal. It was as if the club had been taken over by super cheerful, masked dinner theater guides. It was obvious that they were all not only taking every precaution possible to protect themselves and the audience, but that they all knew quite well what it took for the majority of us (rude couple Carol already chewed out) to brave the event at all. Seeing how I hate musical theater (don’t get me started), I was relieved when no one broke out in Hello, Dolly. I ordered a very strong vodka drink, sipping it through a straw underneath my mask, to remove all musical theater imagery.
The Cactus Blossoms at First Ave, March 2021. Photo by Carol Roth.
It was heartwarming to know that so many people from around the world were livestreaming the show, and in between songs, I was reminded by their physical absence that I was in front of a live band...in the midst of live people that weren’t my cat. When the CBs played a couple of new songs that were lovely, slow, and mellow, I was as simultaneously entertained by the songs themselves as by the knowledge that Carol was delightedly losing her $h!t in the best way possible right next to me. When the lead guitarist for this particular show, Jeremy Yvilsaker, played solos or embroidered along the edges of each song, sad or lilting, I was reminded of My Morning Jacket and Wilco that often take country-rock songs down a moodier gravel road to somewhere you don’t expect. This seemed to me the exact tone for what I’ve been feeling these days. With 2020 behind us and more hopeful days ahead of us, it is and always will be music and the stories they tell—with or without lyrics—that carry us through. Here’s to a smoldering hot summer of outdoor concerts where we can be near-ish each other again and take in the sounds that keep us going!
Cheers!
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the main music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym @taberkeley!
Jaclyn Nott. Photo credit: Cody Weber.
The graphic designer, webmaster, writer, and editor for the Adventures in Americana site, Jaclyn Nott enjoys a wiiiide range of music—and Americana is just one of many favorites. Her main hustle is grant writing, content writing/editing, and web design, but her true passion is screen- and creative writing.
