When it comes to New Year's Eve shows, both Gully Boys and Davina & the Vagabonds have been there before. Multiple times. When it comes to streaming a New Year's Eve concert this year, well, both Minneapolis bands say it's weird.
The manic but melodic Gully Boys recorded their gig a couple of weeks ago at Mortimer's bar in Minneapolis. It is the trio's first foray into streaming during the pandemic.
"It was kind of strange," Gully Boys drummer Nadi McGill said of the performance without an audience. "We love Mortimer's a lot. I feel like it was really comforting to be back on that stage. It was very different energy playing a song to silence. It was kind of awkward. It was a weird adjustment. It's easy to play a show and build off the energy of the crowd. But it was just the camera crew of three people."
Davina & the Vagabonds entered the livestreaming world in June at the Hook & Ladder, in the riot-torn Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis, just weeks after George Floyd was killed.
"It was fun, and it was weird," said singer/pianist Davina Lozier, who is accustomed to singing to partying people, not to a camera.
"I love performing. I'm a ham. I was looking at a camera but I was still trying to connect with a community as much as I possibly can," said the high-energy performer, who lives three blocks away from the Hook. "As a person in this neighborhood, I felt a sense of strength and community, and it felt freeing for me to do that."
For the 11th straight year, Davina & the Vagabonds will ring in the New Year at the Dakota in Minneapolis. But the 8 p.m. show will be over long before midnight, and it will be streamed via dakotacooks.com ($20).
When the veteran combo takes its New Orleans-flavored jazz and soul around the world, Lozier talks up the Dakota.
