The last time all seven members of Doomtree performed together on one recording, Lazerbeak only had one kid at home, and the biggest string section Dessa had worked with was the Laurels String Quartet. The last time they all performed together at First Avenue, the club only ran one other venue in town, and the Palace Theatre was still a shuttered historic landmark.
The long lull is over, though, as Doomtree just dropped its first new all-crew track in five years while announcing shows at both First Ave and the Palace on May 1 and May 2, respectively.
"Excited to say we got the ol' band back together for a new full-crew Doomtree song," producer/beatmaker Lazerbeak proudly declared in an email announcing the news.
Titled "Five Alive," the new track was dropped as a standalone single on a bunch of digital platforms. And no, it's not the precursor to an album; this is it for now. The "five" in the title could refer to it featuring each of the Twin Cities hip-hop crew's rappers: Dessa, Cecil Otter, Sims, Mike Mictlan and P.O.S., the latter of whom kicks it off over an eerie but bouncy digi-boom beat from Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger.
As for the live gigs, the First Ave set is being looped in as part of the club's yearlong 50th anniversary celebration. Doomtree's last show at the ol' black box was to mark the release of their last all-crew album, "All Hands," in February 2015 – which followed the last of their unforgettable Blowout series there in 2014. The crew did play the Palace not long after it opened in 2017, but they haven't done many gigs since then; the Common Sound Block Party was their only show in town last year.
Tickets for both shows will be $35 (or $50 for the Palace's reserved balcony) and go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via eTix.com and First Avenue outlets. A special in-person pre-sale event is happening Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Depot Tavern, which adjoins First Ave.
Dessa, by the way, also happens to be playing a sold-out First Ave show Thursday night as part of a tour touting her genre-imploding live album with the Minnesota Orchestra.
