Craig Finn & The Band of Forgiveness with James Felice @ Fine Line—Probably the most impressive moment of Finn’s quite impressive new set, Always Been, comes on the closing song, “Shamrock,” which notes the shift from SA to Speedway to show the passage of time—and the guy hasn’t even lived here in decades. Now that’s an eye for detail. If the strugglers on Hold Steady albums always hold out a hope for salvation that’s reflected in the sweep of the music, Finn’s solo albums center on quieter vignettes about similar down-and-outers set to the sympathetic accompaniment of a back-up band inspired by ’70s singer-songwriter rock. This sort of project can be a danger for a writer with a literary bent, but Finn avoids easy epiphanies or ironies. And his characters express themselves with far fewer justifications than most folks of good fortune or bad typically go in for, even if I get the uncomfortable feeling that one of them is going to ask to sleep on my couch “just for tonight.”—Keith Harris

Joey Valence & Brae @ First Avenue

Open Mic with Neal Dimick @ Ginkgo Coffee

Flavor Jam - Spooky @ Green Room

JW Francis @ Icehouse

The Adam Wolff Trio @ Metronome Brewery

Pat Donohue & Friends @ Midway Saloon

Chazz Reed Halloween Karaoke Party @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Subseason with Paperbark, Tacit Rainbow @ Pilllar Forum

Swamp Poppas @ Schooner Tavern

Juice Lord (EP Release) @ 7th St Entry

The Flying T, Yes We Are @ 331 Club

Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Gullywasher @ 331 Club

Acid Mothers Temple with the Macks @ Turf Club

Dying Fetus @ Varsity Theater

St. Paul Mudsteppers @ White Squirrel

Thursday, October 16

The Handburglars Takeover ft. Critter B2B Devoyd @ Abi’s

Manual Controller @ Acadia

Cage the Elephant, Hey Nothing @ Armory

Clayton Ryan & Ross Thorn @ Aster Cafe

Liz Draper, Chris Hepola, Crystal Myslajek @ Berlin

Karaoke Night @ Boardwalk

Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s

The Customers, the Silverteens, the Right Here @ Cloudland

Jana Anderson @ Crooners

Acme Jazz Company with Arne Fogel @ Crooners

Dylan Salfer Band @ Dakota

Juke the Buffalo with Tectonics and Enigmaknots @ Day Block Brewing

Ida Metsberg and Kyle Gray Young @ Driftwood Char Bar

Jake La Botz @ Dubliner Pub

Devil Dodger @ Dubliner Pub

LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34

Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34

Safety Knife @ Eagles 34

Chaparelle with Esther Rose @ Fine Line

Jonathan Richman @ First Avenue—Still boyish in face and perspective at 74, Richman may be the only septuagenarian in rock would even try to pull off "That Older Girl," about how it stings to fall for a 15-year-old when you’re only 14, let alone make it sound like it happened just yesterday. Yet the rest of Richman’s latest album, Only Frozen Sky Anyway, primarily looks forward: He has one eye on mortality, and he tends to wax mystical about passing to some other plane, but not in a particularly woo-woo way. Anyway, he’s got other plans to make besides dying. "But We Might Try Weird Stuff" is the most considerate suggestion of getting kinky you’ll ever hear, and as he strolls through an unnamed European city on a Saturday night, taking in the sights and sounds, he ventures into his own version of the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever.” With regular drummer Tommy Larkins along for the ride, Richman will revisit his past material as well. There will be dancing in lesbian bars, Pablo Picasso will somehow escape being called the asshole that he was, and that summer feeling, it’s gonna haunt you.—Keith Harris

Shawn Phillips @ Fitzgerald Theater

Vinyl Night @ Gambit Brewing

Snapped Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room

Dirty P’s Thirsty 3rd Thursdays with the Liquor Pigs, Cornbread and/or the Feelin’ @ Hook and Ladder

Heartland Souvenirs (EP Release) & Eli Gardiner (Single Release) @ Icehouse

Revefleur, The Lamellas, Agony in the Living Room @ Klash

Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill

Peter Kogan Jazz Presents Two Tenors @ Metronome Brewery

Rooms on Fire @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Beethoven Fifth Symphony @ Orchestra Hall

Duck Bomb with Threads Electric and Golden Satellite @ Pilllar Forum

2428, 13 Howell @ Schooner Tavern

Beach Vacation with Cool Heat @ 7th St Entry

Saxsquatch @ Studio B

Richard Kriehn with Joyann Parker & Mark Lamoine @ 318 Cafe

Cross Pollination with Knife Emoji, oceanOgrapher, squinny @ 331 Club

Handsome Midnight, MLLT, Bridal Style, & DJ Eros @ Underground Music

WIGGLE ROOM IV – BE AGGRESSIVE with Gartex, Stainka, Sirwootalot, Serenity @ Uptown VFW

Noga Erez @ Varsity Theater

Devaney & Friends ft. Emmy Woods @ White Squirrel

Country-oke @ White Squirrel

VOSH with North Innsbruck, Night Audit, & Shading the Sun @ Zhora Darling

Friday, October 17

Loan Sum @ Acadia

Sun Room @ Amsterdam

Crankdat with Kompany B2B LEVEL UP, Reaper, Machaki @ Armory

The Federales with Taylor James Donskey @ Aster Cafe

Frequency Friday @ Bazemnt

Jackson Peters & Owen Brady @ Berlin

Aby Wolf & Laurels String Quartet @ Berlin

Dedicated Enemy @ Berlin

DJ D-Mil, Some Shitty Cover Band @ Boardwalk

Drinkwine with Friends Band @ Blues Saloon

High & Mighty @ Bunker’s

Local Dope $#%T @ Can Can Wonderland

Cole Pulice with Molly Raben @ Cedar Cultural Center—Since relocating from the Twin Cities to Oakland, saxophonist Pulice has taken ambient in intriguing new directions. On their latest, Land's End Eternal, Pulice plays guitar for the first time, and some of it reminds me of Jon Hassell without the exoticism.—Keith Harris

Jamaica’s Family Fundraiser Four @ Club Underground

Marvelous @ Crooners

Joyann Parker Band @ Crooners

Adam Wolff Trio featuring Rachel Holder @ Crooners

Minute by Minute: Doobie Brothers & Yacht Rock Tribute @ Crooners

Andrew Walesch and His Orchestra @ Dakota

Ami Burbul Band, Rockin’ Iguanas @ Driftwood Char Bar

Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub

Wild Colonial Bhoys @ Dubliner Pub

DJ Shane Kramer @ Dusty’s

Mechanix @ Eagles 34

Latino Rock/Punk Fest @ Eagles 34

Zoomtown Reunion @ 56 Brewing

Emo Night @ Fine Line

Neko Case with Des Demonas @ First Avenue

Happyfault @ Ginkgo Coffee

anni xo (Album Release) with Clovers Daughter, Sophie Hiroko, & LAAMAR @ Hook and Ladder

Hipshaker MPLS @ Hook and Ladder

Will Paquin @ Icehouse

Take That Back featuring Joan Hutton and Sue Orfield @ Jazz Central

Beauz @ The Loft

70s Magic Sunshine Band @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill

Aaron Seymore Quintet with Nathan Walker @ Memory Lanes

Green Line Quintet @ Metronome Brewery

GB Leighton @ Minnesota Music Cafe

The Temptations and the Four Tops @ Mystic Lake

DJ Diesel @ Mystic Lake

Joshua Schmidt @ Mystic Lake

In This Moment, Dayseeker @ Myth Live

Beethoven Fifth Symphony @ Orchestra Hall

Richard Goode Plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14 @ Ordway

Steady Range @ Padraig’s

Dan Wilson and Humbird @ Parkway Theater

Unattractive Giant Monster with Selfish Teammate, Suburban Muscle @ Pilllar Forum

Groove Scenario @ Red Sea

Jimmi & the Band of Souls @ Schooner Tavern

Disconcé ⏤ A Night of 1000 Beyoncés with Priscilla Es Yuicy and Cariño @ 7th St Entry

Lent, Tre Spiritus @ Terminal Bar

Tony Ortiz @ 318 Cafe

Speed Riders, the Boot R&B, Postal Bois @ 331 Club

The Tubs with Foyer Red @ Turf Club

Jim Byron (Record Release), Dr. Simon R. Calder, Hayley Anne @ Uptown VFW

City of Acid: Acidbat, Jobot, Andy Fargo @ Uptown VFW

Paul McCartney @ U.S. Bank Stadium

New Medicine @ Varsity Theater

Zacc Harris @ Volstead’s

Catfish Troy @ White Squirrel

DesertX with Oliver Phibes, Perennial @ White Squirrel

Toussaint Morrison with Traveling Suitcase @ Zhora Darling

Saturday, October 18

N3RDKING @ Acadia

Geese with Racing Mount Pleasant @ Amsterdam—I've yet to hear what so many do in these unlikely critics' darlings. Every time I warm up to the way they flap their drums and guitars, there's Cameron Winter's honking vocals to make do with.

Thomas Sticha @ Aster Cafe

SNV—Big Tunzy Entertainment @ Bazemnt

Hyde/Hannigan/Carpel @ Berlin

Yohannes Tona @ Berlin

DJ Just Nine @ Berlin

Worldwide Discotheque @ Black Hart

DJ Ys, the Whiskies @ Boardwalk

Joshua Espinosa (Album Release) with Tom Lieberman, Blake Hartman and The Gut Buckets @ Bryant Lake Bowl

The Good the Bad & the Funky @ Bunker’s

Strictly R&B @ Cabooze

DD & Company @ Carbone’s

Pachyan with Mndsgn with Michi @ Cedar Cultural Center

Dedicated Enemy, Partial Traces @ Cloudland

Momma with Rafaella and Bugsy @ Coffman Memorial Union

Classic Women Songwriters with Maud Hixson & Rick Carlson @ Crooners

Marvelous @ Crooners

Amy: A Tribute to Amy Winehouse @ Crooners

Twin Cities Flamenco Collective with La Conja & Molly Kay Stoltz @ Crooners

Kenny Garrett @ Dakota

RevellionFest: Punk ‘n Spice, Hold the ICE @ Day Block Brewing

Tiny Traces, Fiona Hayes, Nic Bell & the Wilderman @ Driftwood Char Bar

Release the Craicen @ Dubliner Pub

Psychic Vampire, Night Freak, American Muscle, Rubberman @ Dusty’s

LGBTQ Women’s Dance @ Eagles 34

Sons Of The East with Kim Churchill @ Fine Line

Matt Maeson with Wells Ferrari @ First Avenue

Out 4 Blood as Linkin Park, Rakuyo as System of a Down, Javelin as Crow B @ Flying V

Smile Like You Mean It, Supersoaker @ Gambit Brewing

DJs Vougeeli x Effygasm @ Gidi

Lainey Wilson @ Grand Casino Arena

DragMixx feat. Aura Ginn, Splash, Iggy Handsome, Crow Shay, Saint Reign Cassadine, Ovary Analytica @ Green Room

Young Franco @ Green Room

NO KINGS TWIN CITIES: Fall (of Fascism) Festival @ Hook and Ladder—Folks, you don’t need me to tell you it’s bad out there. Not only is an unchecked loon (and not the kind we like) dismantling everything worthwhile about the federal government, but it’s highly likely that ICE thugs will soon rappel into Minneapolis to kidnap our neighbors and teach us unruly antifascists a lesson. There are plenty of No Kings events planned for the metro on Saturday, including rallies in downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul, but as our inflatable comrades in Portland have shown us, we don’t just need to organize—we need to party. The Hook and Ladder is stepping up with a post-rally “Fall (of Fascism) Festival” that offers live music, games, a dunk tank, food trucks, drinks, and community. And events like this are a reminder of why we need places like the Hook, which isn’t so healthy financially these days, so kick them a buck or two if you can.—Keith Harris

Delicate Steve @ Icehouse

Pierre Lewis with Dale Alexander @ Jazz Central

High & Mighty @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill

Greg Volker and the River @ Memory Lanes

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company @ Metronome Brewery

The Paul Harper Quartet @ Metronome Brewery

Northstar Halloween Bash @ Midway Saloon

Jaybee & the Routine @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Alexis Rose @ Modist Brewing

Rewind: The Ultimate 2000s Night @ Myth Live

Beethoven Fifth Symphony @ Orchestra Hall

Fall Sensory-Friendly Concert @ Orchestra Hall