As promised, jazzy cabaret pop revisionists the New Standards are going ahead with their beloved holiday concerts at Minneapolis' State Theatre in early December, a two-night, three-show affair that will mark singer/pianist Chan Poling's return to the stage following a health-related hiatus.
Tickets to the trio's Dec. 3-4 run — two 8 p.m. gigs plus a 4 p.m. Saturday matinee — will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster and noon at the State's box office priced $29-$124. Guest performers and all the extra trimmings for the revue-style performances are being kept under wraps, as is always the case.
The always-busy Poling announced in August he was canceling all gigs through the fall to undergo treatment at the Mayo Clinic, following a similar hiatus in 2019. That included dates with his older, louder band, the Suburbs, who had just put out one of the best-reviewed albums of their four-decade career in July, "Poets Party."
In an email to the Star Tribune, Poling noted how these always-meaningful New Standards concerts will carry a lot more weight this year.
"It's been a long dry spell, and the very essential notion of community has been locked out for too long," he said. "That's what the TNS Holiday Show is all about: community. Now we can gather again. Boy, it's going to be fun."
Around the same time that Poling announced his hiatus, New Standards singer/bassist John Munson also lost out on a couple of other big gigs with his prior band Semisonic, which canceled two nights at First Avenue in early September due to COVID concerns.
The New Standards have not announced any other holidays-related gigs around Minnesota, but they did let fly news of a special photo book going on sale featuring images from the shows' 15 prior years. They also can properly tout "The New Standards Holiday Show Album" this year, a CD and digital album they recorded in lieu of last year's pandemic-canceled shows.
Poling has one other big gig on the calendar for the holidays: The Suburbs will take over the Palace Theatre in St. Paul on New Year's Eve with Suicide Commandos and Scrunchies.
