Jeremy Messersmith is such an easy artist to root for – talented, modest, friendly and approachable. When we saw him nine months ago at the Fine Line, he signed a shirt for kid two (who absolutely adores him) and was eager to talk to anyone who wanted to chat. Both kids were lucky enough to get tickets to the Electric Fetus Breakfast Show on February 16th and (of course) he was happy to sign stuff for them again and pose for a picture.

It seems that he is starting to get rewarded for his work. His newest album, Heart Murmurs, was released on Glassnote Records, home to that little band called Mumford and Sons. A few days after the two sold out First Avenue shows, his Twitter feed was full of London stuff. When he returns to the States, a quick tour swing through the west awaits. I’m guessing we won’t see any more living room shows any time soon, unfortunately…

We had four tickets to the Saturday night show, but scheduling was tight due to dinner, roads were terrible and Colleen didn’t feel good and decided to head home early. One woman who was turned away at the door was the lucky recipient of a free ticket, though.

I’ve talked a lot lately about how crowded sold out shows are getting at First Avenue, but arriving after the headliner has taken the stage is really bad (and one of my least favorite things to do). I’m guessing we missed the first two songs (Tourniquet and ?) and had to stand way in the back by the rear bar. We moved up a little as the night went on, but it was still sub-optimal (and definitely too close to the dumb bar talkers). At least there weren’t a ton of super tall people completely blocking us out.

Andrea Swensson has a nice review on the Current blog, but I haven’t seen a full set list anywhere. My favorite song was probably the cover of Robyn’s Call Your Girlfriend, but the closer Someday, Someone was also great, as was A Girl, A Boy And A Graveyard. I thought I had heard him sing the Robyn cover before, but kid one corrected me, saying it was really The New Standards.

Smart kid, that one.

I loved the big 10-piece band – First Avenue should have string sections more often (the Laurels String Quartet sounded great and added a very unique and powerful dimension to a number of songs). I’ve never been a big fan of Cloud Cult, but keyboardist Sarah Perbix was wonderful. It was also really nice to see my friend David and his daughter afterwards (near the soundboard, of course).

Up next: Cake in Las Vegas