VIDEO: St. Michael-Albertville Trio at Heart of Section 30's Twin Cities Success

 A trio of St. Michael-Albertville alumni helps to comprise the band Section 30, which takes to the stage tonight for an Albertville Friendly City Days concert that’s likely to keep your mind off of those the less-than-summery temperatures outside.

The band, which is named after a northern Minnesota cliff-jumping zone, consists of Tony Bartholomew (drums), Matt Cary (lead guitar), Lincoln Hofmeister (vocals, rhythm guitar), Jarett Weber (bass guitar) and “Smokin’” Joe Sikorski, who serves as a jack-of-all-trades, playing the keyboard, violin, accordion and trumpet.

 The five-member band has been playing together since 2007, and this year they are finally getting their chance to play at Albertville’s Friendly City Days, which is something the group said they "have wanted to do for years." Their wait is over tonight at 8:30 p.m., when they treat the local crowd to their personal blend of pop-rock, alternative, rock-and-roll brand of music.

 “If you ask each one of us to describe [our musical style], I think you’d get five different answers,” Cary said.

 “I don’t usually put it in the context of a genre,” Bartholomew said, “I put it in the context of Cities 97/KS95 [two popular FM stations in the Twin Cities].”

Though they’ve been anxiously anticipating their chance to playing in what many band members consider their ‘hometown’, it’s not due to a lack of other shows to do. Two years ago Section 30 beat out a couple hundred other bands-including 20 finalists- in a Cities 97 Battle of the Bands competition, earning them a spot on the Basilica Block Party’s lineup. They have also appeared and performed a few times on KARE 11’s "Showcase Minnesota." Just last weekend, the band was rocking St. Louis Park’s popular Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill for close to 1,000 people, and they have a full summer schedule with gigs every other weekend – a schedule they like to maintain so there is still plenty of time for family and friends.

The band members said to expect a large share of cover songs at tonight’s concert, along with some of their original songs intermixed into the set.

“When we first started the band, there was no thought to play any other songs [than our own],” Bartholomew said.

“But you figure out pretty quick that if you want to play at any major clubs, you have to play covers,” Hofmeister added. “But we’re very good at sneaking in our original music.”

 “Then when people come to show after show they start to learn the album,” Sikorski said, “and next thing you know you have a group of people singing along to our original music.”

Section 30 released its first album, "Someday," in 2008 and they are currently hard at work writing and perfecting a new set of songs. They plan to be back in the studio this September to begin recording their second album.

In fact, the band is hoping this year’s Friendly City Days crowd can help them with the cover of their upcoming album. A photographer will be out snapping pictures during the concert, and they hope to use a photo of the crowd holding up their signature Friendly City Days mugs for the back cover of the album.

Section 30’s music can currently be purchased at their shows, via their website or over the Internet through iTunes, Amazon or CD Baby. And if you are one of the 500+ people who ‘likes’ stmichael.patch.com on Facebook, you have a chance to win yourself a free copy.

Albertville’s Central Park will be the place for the weekend’s musical action. Their performance begins at 8:30 p.m. with an hour break starting at 10 p.m. for the fireworks show, followed by the return of Section 30 tunes as the display’s after-smoke fades away. So throw on a hoodie, head out to the park and raise your mug for the sounds of City Days’ 2011 celebration.