Essenger – The Turf Club – St. Paul, MN – April 22nd 2026

Essenger – The Turf Club – St. Paul, MN – April 22^nd 2026

Review and photos by Legion Ratfell

After seeing Essenger open for The Birthday Massacre last year, I was excited to see him headline a show and get some more stage time because he really impressed me. He did not disappoint this time.

The whole night was an excellent vibe across a few different genres that, although different, somehow flowed very well together. Starting off was North Innsbruck, a new local favorite of mine in the darksynth scene. Horror-inspired with dreamy but driving riffs and synth lines, accompanied by old horror movie scenes playing on a projector screen, they bring a dark, moody, but danceable energy that I love. They’re also very energetic performers who clearly love what they’re doing it and it shows. Their new album Ritual, released this year, also featured a few songs with vocals, which blended really well with their sound and added a fresh energy to their whole set. I highly recommend them if you’re in need of some darker synthwave.

Next up was Echos, touring with Essenger. I’d seen her ages ago so it was good to see her again. Bringing a more rocky energy to the evening, bathed in eerie light and smoke, she brought a heartwrenching and lovely performance. Her voice is very floaty and ethereal, and I love her lyric-writing and melody composition. She reminds me a bit of Amy Lee from Evanescence music-wise, but I’d say a bit darker, dreamier, and heavier. Songs about heartbreak and heavy emotions, executed beautifully. An absolute delight to watch and listen to.

I first found Essenger through his collaborations, of which there are many, but he has quickly cemented his place for me as his own artist. His live show really solidifies it for me. I appreciate when a smaller artist brings the care, precision, and vision that he clearly has to a small space. Programmed lights for every song, fog machine going crazy, him slamming on the synths, switching to guitar, then to straight up hardcore screaming and metal vocals, all over trap-like and synthwave and various other EDM beats, and covering all of it with lyrical themes about dystopian societies and sincere emotions and frustrations, Essenger’s kind of got it all for me. He even has a synthwave raggaeton song. Genre has no hold on him, and it makes for an incredibly varied and downright fun set. People were dancing, people were screaming along, it was an excellent energy in such a small space. He also played a few new songs from an as-yet-unannounced new album, but they made me very excited for it, so I will definitely be keeping an eye out for that.