Artist: Kai Brewster’s Millions

See also: General B and the Wiz, A Little Too Short to be Storm Troopers

Venue: Green Room

Seth Duin fronts a Fleetwood Mac song during Kai Brewster’s Millions set on June 25 at Green Room. "I showed up today thinking I was going to play guitar, now I'm playing bass,” said Duin, who switched to guitar for a song when bass player Trevor Woggon arrived. Kai Brewster plays drums for the song. “The thing I love about Minneapolis, all these talented musicians here,” Kai Brewster said. “It's a Nashville, it's an LA, it's a New York. But there's no industry here. There's no record label. There's nothing. So it's just people who are in it for the love of the game. You're here and you're in the scene because you love music.” Frank Merchlewitz plays keyboards and said he digs the Minneapolis music scene. “I feel like it's really collaborative. I feel like everyone on this level is very talented, very open to sharing bills, different types of music on different bills is always fun. I think the Minneapolis scene has turned into something where, if you put yourself out there, and just show interest, people will have you," Merchlewitz said. Kevin Gamble, far left, plays keys.

Kristen Mastantuono and Laura Hugo sing a Gillian Welch song with Kai Brewster’s Millions at Green Room on June 25. That night, Kai Brewster’s Millions also covered Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead and music from less contemporary genres. “The ethos of these musicians in a way, is bringing such great musicianship to a breadth to so many things,” Kai Brewster said. “At least I’ll speak for myself here, letting that challenge of figuring out all of these genres and all of these styles and all these songs. And at the end of the day, I just want people to have a good time.”  Tanner Montague, the owner of Green Room, played drums for the evening.

Frank Merchlewitz, far left, plays keyboards in Kai Brewster’s Millions at Green Room on June 25. "What we do is so different in this type of show where we play covers. We are in a bar band. It's very different than when we're in an original project. We're all in original projects as well. We're going to play covers, but these are covers that we want to do," Merchlewitz said. “This is barely a band,” Brewster said. I asked what bands the band members were in, and they reacted as if I asked them to recite all the U.S. presidents. “I fell in love with playing in bands, because I love being around creative and talented people,” Brewster said. “I can't think of a better crew of people to be around. And, frankly, the other half of it is, I get zero juice out of playing by myself. It doesn't do anything for me.” Kai Brewster, Frank Merchlewitz, and Seth Duin are all in the band General B and the Wiz, amongst other projects.

Where to catch them next: 

Some of the Millions members are in A Little Too Short to Be Storm Troopers, which has a regular live band karaoke gig at Inbound, the first Thursday of every month, except in July where they will be doing karaoke this Thursday, July 13.