Far Caspian
7th Street Entry, Minneapolis MN
Oct. 8, 2025
I lived in Minnesota for college in the middle of the 1990s, and taking the Northfield Line bus to Minneapolis to see a show at First Ave or 7th Street Entry was one of the rare cultural amenities available at that time. I used to take the complimentary tickets that were sent to us at KRLX and ride into Minneapolis, see a band, and then wait in the cold in hopes that the bus would arrive on time to return me to Carleton.
A lot has changed since then, but First Ave and 7th Street Entry are still very much the center of the Minneapolis live music scene, and my hotel is barely half a mile away, so it seemed worthwhile to investigate the offerings.
Last night‘s headliner at 7th Street, of whom I’d never heard previously, was
Far Caspian. I found their new records reviewed with guarded optimism on Pitchfork and checked out the samples on Spotify, all of which seemed fairly promising. The band is Irish/English, but all the songs are written by one man, the Irishman of the group, Joel Johnston.
As described in Pitchfork, the Far Caspian band is largely an outgrowth of Johnston’s burgeoning skills in sound editing and sound design. At one point, Johnston was making all of this music by himself on his computer and instruments, and formed the band only in response to interest in hearing the music performed in concert.
I would describe Far Caspian as shoegaze-influenced, but largely drone pop with some more earnest affinities to The Cure or other postpunk bands, with a deeply romantic streak. I think fans of The Radio Dept might enjoy some of the work, although the Swedish combo is more influenced by keyboard than Johnston is.
As a performance, the band doesn’t have much of a stage show. Johnston does most of the talking, and almost all of the singing and lead guitar. But there were three other guitarists, a bassist, and keyboardist and percussionist, making for a very crowded stage at 7th Street entry.
Most of the concert was from the latest album
Autofiction, released in August to
largely positive reviews, with some from a 2021 record and a previous EP. Johnston said that it was his first experience touring in Minnesota, and he was grateful for the warm response from a room that was relatively full for a Wednesday night.
I thought the sound of the band was very good, especially the overlaying guitars backed by warm synthesizer tones. The composition was intermediate, with some very strong songs and some that frankly just don’t hold up. The weakest point is Johnston’s singing, which is diffident and meek to the point of irrelevance in concert.
You can sense the band’s best attributes on songs like “
Between Days” from Johnston’s debut EP in 2018. It’s surging and catchy but moody and hazy at the same time, and earnestly amorous, with a chorus of “I’ll remember” to a memorable moment with a loved one. I’m sure the song title’s resemblance to the Cure is not a coincidence. (Lead YouTube comment: “It's really overwhelming to see so many people listening to my silly music on here. Just wanted to say thanks for all the kind comments and for taking the time to listen. It really means the world to me. Hope everyone is doing well, Joel x”) The
title track to Autofiction tilts closer to gloomy jangle pop akin to the Reds, Pinks, and Purples and their antecedents like Dream Syndicate. It’s probably not an accident that the simple video feature listeners on headphones, singing along while tapping at their laptops. This music practically whisper-screams “lo-fi shoegaze dreampop beats for studying.”
“
Let’s Go Outside,” also from the 2018 EP, was a similar winner; completely unironic and warmhearted in its empathy. And there is an important element to Johnston’s bedroom-pop composition approach: When he is engineering his own sound, he mixes his singing well to bring the songs to life; that was sadly missing in concert where he mumbled and slurred many of the lyrics far below the bed of guitars.
On balance, the show was erratic, but I was pleased I went, and I like the sound of Johnston’s music, but his produced songs are more satisfying than the live performance.
Another attendee at the show has a partial setlist here:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/far-caspian/2025/7th-street-entry-minneapolis-mn-13463dd9.html
I did not see the opener,
A Beacon School, and nor did I see another other band t-shirts.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2025 06:04PM by zwirnm.
