The Black Queen – Amsterdam Bar – St. Paul, MN – September 19th, 2026
The Black Queen with Club Drugs and Holy Water – Amsterdam Bar – St. Paul, MN – September 19th, 2026
Review and photos by Kate Klaus
The Black Queen stopped at Amsterdam Bar & Hall in St. Paul on September 19th to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album, Fever Daydream, bringing an evening of dark, atmospheric electronic music to the intimate venue, with Holy Water and Club Drugs setting the tone before The Black Queen disappeared almost completely into the haze of sound, emotion, and literal smoke.
Holy Water opened the night with Jake Desrochers alone onstage, armed with guitar, electronic sound equipment, and songs carrying dark, haunting tones and lyrics that felt exceptionally heavy in such a small room. Visually, Desrochers could have been intimidating at first glance. Dressed in a dark suit, with a bald, tattooed head and a commanding presence, he looked perfectly suited to the music coming from the stage. But between songs, another side of him emerged. Desrochers spoke openly his sobriety and pieces of the life behind the music, revealing a quiet and deeply thoughtful personality underneath that imposing exterior. That vulnerability made the performance hit considerably harder. Several times he left the stage entirely and made his way into the crowd, eliminating what little separation existed between performer and audience and pulling everyone further into the experience. Holy Water was dark and deeply personal, but more than anything, it was powerful. Desrochers didn’t need a full band or elaborate production to command the room. The weight of the music and the honesty behind it were enough.
Chicago’s Club Drugs shifted the energy considerably. Still firmly rooted in the electronic world of the evening, the duo brought a more chaotic and energized edge to the stage. Synths and vocals dominated the sound with guitar cutting through the electronic layers, creating something abrasive and strange while still carrying plenty of emotion. Behind them, a screen flashed a collection of fascinatingly weird imagery that somehow made perfect sense alongside the music. There was an unpredictability to Club Drugs that made the set especially engaging. It was edgy, occasionally disorienting and just weird enough to make it difficult to look away.
Then the room went dark… really, really dark. The Black Queen emerged through an almost impenetrable combination of shadow and haze, and while there were moments when it was legitimately difficult to see the musicians onstage, it somehow worked. Rather than feeling like something was missing from the production, the obscurity became part of it. Figures appeared and disappeared through the fog and darkness, while the light occasionally caught a face or instrument before surrendering it back to the darkness. The current live incarnation features Greg Puciato on vocals alongside Steven Ryan Alexander, Danny Lohner and drummer Chris Pennie, and this tour marks a decade since the release of Fever Daydream. The anniversary provided the foundation for the evening, but the performance reached beyond simple nostalgia, incorporating material from elsewhere in the band’s catalog as well. At the center was Puciato and his incredibly expressive and expansive vocals. Anyone primarily familiar with his more explosive work might have been struck by just how different he becomes within The Black Queen. There were no expectations that every moment needed to erupt. Instead, his voice was melodic, controlled and haunting, exposing a softer and more pensive side of a vocalist often associated with considerably more aggressive music, and his vocals sounded incredible. Rather than fighting against the electronic atmosphere surrounding him, Puciato seemed to float inside it. His voice moved through the synths, haze and dim light with an emotional restraint that somehow made the heavier moments feel even more powerful.
Around him, the musicianship gave those songs a new dimension in a live setting. Lohner brought a natural sense of showmanship to a stage otherwise consumed by restraint and shadow, while Alexander’s intricate guitar work offered details that continually surfaced through the dense electronic landscape. Pennie’s drumming provided the pulse beneath it all, giving songs that can feel almost dreamlike on record a tangible physical weight in the room. Ten years after Fever Daydream, these songs haven’t lost the strange, nocturnal quality that made the album so compelling in the first place. If anything, hearing them inside a small, dark room made their atmosphere feel even more pronounced.
The entire evening felt carefully matched without the three artists ever becoming interchangeable. Holy Water brought vulnerability beneath an intimidating exterior. Club Drugs brought chaos, movement and wonderfully strange energy. The Black Queen brought everything inward, turning darkness, haze and restraint into something immersive. From Holy Water’s haunting vulnerability to Club Drugs’ chaotic energy and The Black Queen’s immersive atmosphere, the night was a captivating display of just how many different forms darkness can take in music.
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