The Faint - Tonight in the Mainroom

Download: The Faint - "I Disappear"

The Faint are playing an 18-plus show in the First Avenue Mainroom tonight. I had the good fortune of catching up with Joel Petersen on the phone last week and began unraveling the complex cocoon of dance that is the Faint.

The guys have spent the last six months fashioning a studio in a building they just bought and moved into: "Since then, we have been working and writing what will be our next record," Petersen said. "In the building we are constructing a studio, which will actually be a real studio. We had an acoustic engineer come in and everything. We just passed the electric inspection two hours ago."

They broke down and decided to build a studio because it is "the fruition of everything that we all kind of do," he said. "So much of our band has been about doing it on our own. I think the next step is to make our own records and make them truly our own ... It's great not being on someone else’s clock, I think it’s going to be very liberating for us."

All of this is working to their eventual goal of their new record, which will be done whenever it’s done.

“Unfortunately I can only give you a very vague answer,” Petersen said. “It’ll be done when it’s ready. We want to leave a lot of room for experimentation. In the past, we sort of prioritized things to the point where we didn’t get to do what we wanted to do. It’s tough to say exactly, but we hope to start recording in the next two or three months and we’ll see how it goes from there.”

Each Faint record has marked a step in the band’s evolution toward a better and better outcome. The new record will likely be no different.

“I think we always have a changing vision,” he said. “It’s what keeps us interested in making music and art and being creative people. As to how it sounds, it’s still a little up in the air. I think these next couple months will be defining what the record will sound like.”


The Faint was last in Minneapolis 18 months ago, and promise to play a few new songs. The Faint are easily the most authentic and influential dance band around, and put on an amazing show -- definitely not worth missing. With them comes Flowers Forever who are a good, solid pop spinoff from Tilly and the Wall.

Doors open at 8 p.m., 18+, $18 at the door, $16 advanced.

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(Ian Anderson)