By the time Cloud Cult takes the stage at Rock the Garden Saturday at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the local band will have made its network TV debut. It's scheduled to appear on NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly" at 12:35 a.m. Friday on KARE, Channel 11.
Minnesota's psychedelic rockers taped the show earlier this week in California, where they learned two things. One was that Daly truly is a Cloud Cult fan. "He gave the band a nice introduction to the studio crowd and knew a lot about them," band manager Adrian Young reported, explaining that Daly saw the group perform at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. They thanked the host with one of their "live" paintings (the band includes two "visual artists" who paint while the musicians perform).
The other lesson: "Teller actually talked to us," Young said, referring to the mime half of fellow guests Penn & Teller. "We didn't know he could talk."
CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER