RGC at The Triple Rock Social Club, Feb. 20 2010

Alan Sparhawk, Retribution Gospel Choir (photo by Jon Behm)

In the City Pages, Erik Thompson provides an appropriately concise but complete review of Retribution Gospel Choir’s recent show in Minneapolis.

The three-piece were locked in all evening long, hardly giving themselves (or the crowd) time to catch their breath before it was on to the next song, which only served to add to the intensity and frenzy of the songs themselves. The spotlight was clearly on Sparhawk’s guitar work during the entire set, tearing it up on “Your Bird” and an extended, fierce version of — appropriately enough — “Electric Guitar.” Sparhawk joked recently about how he’s done things in reverse and gotten louder as he’s grown older, and this was by far the loudest show I’ve ever seen him play.

Retribution Gospel Choir get intense at the Triple Rock

To kick off the show, Alan Sparhawk stood on the stage and yelled, “We bring you greetings from Lake Superior.” Somewhere in the middle of one of the greatest jams in rock and roll history on “Poor Man’s Daughter,” I almost had a euphoric coronary.

Meanwhile, over at the website Reviler, photographer Jon Behm has posted several images from the concert that pretty well captured the energy.