The Wake

Walking into the Fitzgerald is like walking into the 1920’s: Vaudeville, radio plays, top hats and flapper dresses, champagne and dry martinis. It is surprising that this place which your grandparents would probably feel right at home in is hosting the ongoing Minnesota’s Public Radio The Current’s Fakebook Series – which covers topics of music and popular culture. The Current’s Fakebook series is in the business of bringing rockers and writers together for interviews, music and all around good times while exploring the word through writing and song.

Having played hosts to such bands as psych-pop outfit The Poison Control Center and low-fi indie rockers Bound Stems, the Current has also invited such authors and comedians as John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise (he is also that dorky guy you see on those apple commercials), Neal Pollack, author of rock n’ roll novel Never Mind The Pollacks, and Amy Sedaris, lead actress in the bizarre television series Strangers with Candy. This time around, The Current is bringing pop culture reporter and essayist Chuck Klosterman and Minneapolis’s home grown band Tapes n’ Tapes to the Fitzgerald for music and interviews.

Author of such books as Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto and Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey, Chuck Klosterman will be there talking with host Mary Lucia about his works and his take on the written word. Klosterman, a native of North Dakota, has chronicled his love of hair metal bands, his relationship with celebrities throughout his adventures through rural North Dakota, and the celebrity highlights of interviewing Britney Spears and the like.

Locally grown indie rock band Tapes n’ Tapes will be present, backing up Chuck with some music, interviews and all around rock. Just back from a tour reaching around the world, Tapes n’ Tapes are back in Minneapolis taking some time off, working on some new music and enjoying the old sights. The local band grew into a national musical act after their ’06 release The Loon, which spurred comparisons of Tapes n’ Tapes to such bands as Pavement and The Pixies. Following this release the band went on a tour of the U.S. followed by a tour of Europe, Japan and Australia. Being natives of Minneapolis and having worked with the Current before, Tapes n’ Tapes can be expected to put on an inspiring performance at the Fitzgerald.

Hosted by Mary Lucia, a humorist in her own right, the Current Fakebook series has been making waves in Minneapolis for the last couple years, promoting unique shows and events and bringing out the hipster inside all of us. If this sparks your interest, head up to the lavish Fitzgerald theatre in Saint Paul. It’s worth checking out regardless of your love/ hate relationship with pop culture.

Feb. 23 2007- Doors open at around 8:00 p.m and tickets cost $15.