My plan right now is to hit Danny Brown on Friday and Sleater-Kinney on Saturday. But there are plenty of other options as well.
Tuesday, March 19
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Explosion Big Band @ Jazz Central
River City Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge
- Thank You, I’m Sorry (EP Release) with Dad Bod, Fend and NATL PARK SRVC @ 7th St Entry—A great top-to-bottom local indie lineup worth leaving the house on a Tuesday for, packed with names that might be pretty familiar to Racket readers. (And if not mistaken, three of these bands have overlapping members, as is the custom these days.) NATL PARK SRVC's Magician—"richly layered, capital-R Romantic pop, with tunes a given but exceeding your expectations," to quote, well, me—was among my 20 top local albums of 2023. Fend, who you may recall as among my Poised to Pop picks last month, released two terrific EPs in 2023 and have a new release in the works. Dad Bod's "Milkdrinker" was one of 2023's hottest local singles, and I'm really looking forward to their next moves. And then there are the headliners, Thank You, I'm Sorry, whose local bona fides we established here. The band's new EP Repeating Threes is a worthy follow-up to last year's Growing in Strange Places.
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
Andrea von Kampen with Lydia Luce @ Turf Club
Worker’s Playtime: Pop Wagner @ 331 Club
February Conspiracy Series feat. The Pistol Whippin’ Party Penguins @ 331 Club
The New Havoline Supremes! feat. Mary Cutrufello, Dan Lowinger @ White Squirrel
Mothobsidian (Residency) with Full Catholic, Freaque @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, March 20
Weeping Wound, Surefire, Glasswaves, Evernorth, & Dread @ Amsterdam
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
Chris Thompson Quartet @ Berlin
Maggie's Wednesday: Tom Hunter @ Crooners
Jenni Muldaur & Teddy Thompson @ Dakota
Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Open Mic with Neal Dimick @ Ginkgo
Fever Candlelight: The Best of Hans Zimmer @ Granada
Lighter Co. (Residency) with Salty Dog + General B and the Wiz + Burning Blue Rain @ Icehouse
Creative Collaborations - Bone Blast Vol. I @ Jazz Central
LXG Open Jam @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Chandler (March Residency) with 5cent Reality, Sunshine Emblem, Mortiholics @ Mortimer's
JJ Grey & Mofro with Judith Hill @ Palace Theatre
Cole Diamond Presents Whiskey Wednesdays @ Palmer's
Sigcell, Serving Salt, Gwen @ Pilllar Forum
Dance Church: Open Decks @ ROK Music Lounge
Swamp Poppas @ Schooner Tavern
Of The Orchard with Valors and The Honest Heart Collective @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Gentleman Dreadnaught @ 331 Club
- Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes with Becky Kapell @ Turf Club—I've still never caught one of his shows, but having heard his live album, Quarter Past Tonight, I can absolutely vouch for the ability of Cody Diekhoff, the Cook County agriculturalist in question, to entertain a crowd. He's opened for Todd Snider, which should give you some indication of his style of humor and brand of politics.
Ghidora, Abaddons End, In The Distance @ Underground Music Venue
Saint Paul Mudsteppers Monthly @ White Squirrel
Wu Wednesday with DJ That Dude Trey @ White Squirrel
Thursday, March 21
Marty Bush and Natalie Prauser @ Acadia
Wain McFarlane & Friends @ Bunkers
Le Winston Band with Steam Machine @ Cedar Cultural Center
Greg Volver, J. Streitz and the Long Odds, Petty Larcenists @ Cloudland
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Too Many Zooz with Pell @ Fine Line
Jeff Gavin (Album Release) with Bigg Kiaa, Palmbutta, Jaz Steele @ Green Room
Black Widows (Residency) with Ice Climber, Comedian Gabby OK @ Hook and Ladder
Tommy Goodroad, Molly Brandt, Bryan & The Haggards @ Icehouse
Tommy Blossom (Album Release) with Story Night, Buried Animals, Dominick Fields @ Mortimer's
Dvořák Symphony No. 8 @ Orchestra Hall
Riddim Driven with DJ I Roach & Friends @ Palmer's
Burning Blue Rain @ ROK Music Lounge
Mubbla Buggs with 2.4.2.8 @ Schooner Tavern
Zheani with Rx Cowboy @ 7th St Entry
Cross Pollination: Awful Offal @ 331 Club
Josh Meloy with Joe Stamm @ Turf Club
The Meshes, Psychic Sports, and Tonal Whiplash @ Underground Music Venue
Natalie Prauser @ White Rock Lounge
Devaney & Friends with John Swardson & Bad Blood, Matt Caflisch Band @ White Squirrel
Friday, March 22
Ben Cook-Feltz + j. bell & the Lazy Susan Band @ Aster Cafe
Bryan Nichols/Dan Carpel @ Berlin
The Development @ Caydence Records & Coffee
- Ana Tijoux with María Isa @ Cedar Cultural Center—Chilean rapper and activist Tijoux is my kind of chin-up revolutionary. On Vida, her first solo album in a decade, the creator of "Antifa Dance" tells “Niñx” (“Little Girlx”) that every asshole's secret weakness is that “life scares them.” And if you didn't come to party and you're thinking of knocking on her door, be warned that closes the album with this suggestion: “If the end of the world is coming, let’s dance naked together.” She's so upbeat some doomers might even find her corny. Me, Vida reminds me of a Raymond Williams quote I'd love to own a cross-stitch of someday: "To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing."
The Rope, Cult Sequence, True Moon, Burning @ Cloudland
Bobby Lyle's 80th Birthday Celebration @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Geoff Jones and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Miss Shannon's 4th Friday Sock Hop @ Eagles 34
Ca$ual, Closetalker, Slow Mass @ Eagles 34
Mitch Rowland with Harris Harper @ Fine Line
Villain of the Story @ Green Room
Allison Mahal with Poolboy @ Hook and Ladder
The Sam Graber Band @ Icehouse
Pete James Johnson Trio @ Jazz Central
In a Funk @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Punky Weekend Party @ Mortimer's
Dvořák Symphony No. 8 @ Orchestra Hall
Walking Phoenix, Tarias & The Sound and Cold Casuals @ Palmer's
Cannabis Kiss, Sons of Ra, JoJo Green, Sunsets Over Flower @ ROK Music Lounge
Moonshine Prophets @ Schooner Tavern
Louise Post (of Veruca Salt) with creeping charlie @ 7th St Entry
Ray Gun Youth, Ghost Kitchen, Malamiko @ 331 Club
A Thousand Horses with Aaron Clafton @ Turf Club
- Danny Brown @ Varsity—Brown had a helluva 2023, a banner year even for a guy who’s had plenty of ’em since kicking his career into gear in 2010. Spitting rhymes like “I wanna rock right now/Hittin' whippets and eating halal/Get to clippin' while whippin' these sounds/You get hit, you gon' sing like Bilal” on Scaring the Hoes, his collab with JPEGMAFIA, the Detroit rapper’s whine cuts through the clutter and clatter of that producer’s glitchy funk like the sirens and horns that topped the Bomb Squad’s sampled cacophony on classic Public Enemy records. He followed up that noisemaker with the introspective Quaranta, an often regretful look back at the past 42 years of his life, particularly the 12 since he entered his fourth decade with his second album, XXX. His main theme? “This rap shit done saved my life/And fucked it up at the same time.” Here Brown recalls his early years as an ex-con, tries to keep his bearings in a gentrifying Detroit, and mourns a relationship, all with the insight he hadn’t yet developed a decade ago. There’s a myth that rappers inevitably get less relevant as they get older. Quaranta suggests that’s maybe because most rappers aren’t talented enough, but it’s certainly because they’re not honest enough.
Atomic Nun @ White Rock Lounge
The Collaboratory 4th Fridays @ White Squirrel
Saturday, March 23
Natalie Jane with Jessica Baio @ Amsterdam
The High 48's Bluegrass Brunch @ Aster Cafe
The Other Ol’ Blue Eyes with Chris Lynch and Jacqueline Ultan of The Dust of Suns @ Aster Cafe
Bryan Nichols/Dan Carpel @ Berlin
70s Magic Sunshine Band @ Bunkers
SugarCoat, BlurCurve, Buckaroux Banshees @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Brennan Wedl with Dirt Buyer and Minigolf @ Cedar Cultural Center
12th House Sun, Psylo, Lana Leone, Linus @ Cloudland
Maria Jette, Sonja Thompson and Stephanie Arado @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Geoff Jones and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Hemma, Michael Gay, and McKain Lakey @ Dusty's
Friendly Spectres, River Sinclaire, McVicker, Hot Bagels @ Eagles 34
Efmi and Confucisaurus @ Eagles 34
Bad Bunny After Party with DJ Orma @ Fillmore
Mo Lowda & The Humble and The Bright Light Social Hour @ Fine Line
The Rural Alberta Advantage with Julianna Riolino @ First Avenue
Leading Ladies of Americana: Clare Doyle, Laura Hugo, Katy Tessman, Emmy Woods @ Green Room
Missy Raines & Allegheny (Album Release) with The Lake Monsters @ Hook and Ladder
Minnesota, Abelation @ The Loft
High & Mighty @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Punky Weekend Party @ Mortimer's
Classic Albums Live performs Fleetwood Mac: Rumours @ Ordway
- Sleater-Kinney with Black Belt Eagle Scout @ Palace Theatre—I prefer to think of Little Rope, released in January, not as the band’s second post-Janet Weiss album but their first post-post-Janet Weiss album. Not because capable new drummer Angie Boylan defines the band’s new sound any more than do the occasional synths that fill out the mix, but because after making the most of their new freedom on The Path to Wellness, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker seem to have accepted specific roles within their partnership. Little Rope simmers more than it explodes, with targets maybe more allusive (“The thing you fear the most will hunt you down” and “Hell is just a place that/We can't seem to live without”) than you’d hope in this fraught moment, and its aim less steady when they do zero in on the enemy (“You’re burning all the books in this town”). Yet Brownstein’s guitar virtuosity continues to evolve in unexpected ways, here inflected by grief for a mother and stepfather who died in a car accident last year. And Tucker’s enormous voice remains more nuanced than almost any full-throttle rock belter you can name. At its best (I pick “Untidy Creature”) their outrage sounds as fresh as when they were first redefining rock feminism 30 years ago, but with the perspective of middle-age refining their analysis. Oh, and they still rock. That’s just a given.
Little Man, The Customers and High Tiny Hairs @ Palmer's
Boiled In Lead with Áit Ait & Brian Boru @ The Parkway
Resonate: Immersive Dance Experience @ ROK Music Lounge
Back Alley Experience @ Schooner Tavern
Danielle Nicole Band with Brandon Miller @ 7th St Entry
Blue Felix, Chad Erikson & The Untimely, VVolf Mask @ Studio B
- Bad Bunny @ Target Center—It’s hard not to talk about Benito Ocasio in superlatives these days. He first established his name as the biggest star in Latin trap, but in recent years he’s leapfrogged over that title to become the world’s biggest pop star en español period. He hasn’t been to Minnesota in six years, back when he was enough of a fledgling that he could still play a smaller venue like El Nuevo Rodeo. And with his 2022 smash Un Verano Sin Ti, he began to dominate the anglo world as well. His October release, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, is less stylistically diverse, but for a “back to basics” record, it still mixes up its beat plenty, with tastes of Jersey club, drill, and house. Since I shamefully no habla, I’m hardly the guy to catalog Bad Bunny’s strengths, but even across the language barrier I can hear a swagger in his voice, and I often get a laugh or two from his lyrics when I check out the English versions. And while I don’t believe that music is a universal language, the beats sure don’t get lost in translation.
Jeff Ray and the Stakes @ 331 Club
Armchair Boogie with AJ Lee & Blue Summit @ Turf Club
Down Syndrome Association of MN Benefit Concert @ Underground Music Venue
Adam Ant with The English Beat @ Uptown Theater
FAR REAL – Celebrating the Music of Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., The Neptunes & More @ Uptown VFW
Scott Hefte and the Bury ‘Em Deep with Rank Strangers, Canyonero, DJ Minnie Blanco @ White Squirrel
Sunday, March 24
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Dave Power’s March Madness: Tokyo Airport with Liz Draper @ Berlin
Totino-Grace Spring Jazz Concert @ Crooners
Story Tellers: The Great Songs of Elton John and Neil Diamond @ Crooners
“All Night Long” – A Tribute to the Music of Lionel Richie @ Dakota
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
651 Jazz, Gated Community @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Marc Broussard with Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers @ Fine Line
flipturn with Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners @ First Avenue
Punky Weekend Party @ Mortimer's
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's
Fruition with Willy Tea Taylor @ The Parkway
Tow'rs with A Boy and His Kite @ 7th St Entry
The Real Chuck NORAD @ 331 Club
Circles Around the Sun x Mikaela Davis and Southern Star @ Turf Club
St. Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel
Monday, March 25
Charlotte Sands with Senses, Cloe Wilder @ Amsterdam
Call it Anything Vinyl DJ Night with Sam Cassidy and James Taylor @ Berlin
Coma Club, Scott Yoder, River Sinclaire @ Cloudland
Kavyesh Kaviraj: The Music of Ahmad Jamal @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
World Music Monday @ Eagles 34
Monday Nights with JT Bates ft. Grain Trio @ Icehouse
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Wanderer with Rot, Agony Reigns and Visceral Reaction @ 7th St Entry
Roe Family Singers @ 331 Clufb
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
Darkest Hour with Filth is Eternal, I AM and Somnuri @ Turf Club
The Dans: Dan Newton, Dan Lowinger with Lauren Asheim, Vaughn Asselstine @ White Squirrel
