Barenaked Ladies – Waite Park Amphitheater – Watie Park MN – June 10th 2023

Barenaked Ladies brought their, Last Summer on Earth 2023 tour to Waite Park, Minnesota on June 9^th, 2023, with Semisonic and Del Amitri. It was a perfect summer night to have the concert outdoors at the Ledge Amphitheater.

Review and photos by Kaila Turck

Del Amitri, a Scottish rock bank from Glasgow in the 80’s, opened the show. They got the crowd rocking for the night ahead. The band played, “Roll to Me”, in which was a top hit in the United States back in 1995.

Semisonic started off with one of their popular singles, F.N.T. It was great to listen and feel reminiscent of the 90’s. During the set they said they remembered being in St. Cloud, 23 years ago. Pondering the time, they were in downtown St. Cloud and being at the Red Carpet. Jokingly saying something about the red carpets and magic carpet rides, which if you’ve been to the Red Carpet would know that it does have its fair share of parties in all its different rooms. The band played other big hits like, “Chemistry”, “Singing in My Sleep”, a cover of “Hey Ya!” (Originally by Outkast), which got everyone dancing and singing along, but then of course closed their set with “Closing Time”. Which is one of Semisonics biggest hits, which has gone gold certified. The group puts on a super fun show, gets the crowd smiling and singing along, as well as laughing at their jokes. Semisonic are always fun to watch live, you will always have a song to dance to and great entertainment for the night.

Barenaked Ladies took the stage next, which got the crowd hooting and hollering in excitement. The band has been around since the late 80’s, so you know there are a lot of hits and singles to be heard. Which will also bring you back to reminiscent times in our younger years. They still write a comedic rap song for each city they are in; they sang about having been in Minneapolis the day before, but telling a fan they were playing the next day but not sure exactly where the town was. Because they didn’t know where the heck Waite Park, Minnesota was. In which to be truthful no one really has until recently due to the new amphitheater. Minneapolis has always been the capital for concerts but it’s nice when the concerts do get branched around the area too. The band has been working on a new album, so they mixed their setlist with new songs. But of course, they played some of their biggest hits like, “One Week”, “If I had $1000000”, “Pinch Me”, and “Brian Wilson”. They even added the theme song they wrote for the Big Bang Theory. They kept the crowd energized and singing/dancing along the whole time. So much fun is to be had at a Barenaked Ladies concert, you are sure to have a great time.