A Latin Trap King and a Pair of Punk Queens in Your Complete Concert Calendar: March 19-25

Pretty much all the live music you can catch in the Twin Cities this week.

10:57 AM CDT on March 19, 2024

Press photo; Chris Hornbecker|

Bad Bunny; Sleater-Kinney

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

Karaoke @ Acadia

International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers

Cyrille Aimée @ Dakota

St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood

Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34

Explosion Big Band @ Jazz Central

River City Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe

New Band Night @ Palmer's

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

Karaoke @ Zhora Darling

Wednesday, March 20

RJ Vocal @ Acadia

Weeping Wound, Surefire, Glasswaves, Evernorth, & Dread @ Amsterdam

MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe

Chris Thompson Quartet @ Berlin

Dylan Salfer @ Bunkers

Maggie's Wednesday: Tom Hunter @ Crooners

Jenni Muldaur & Teddy Thompson @ Dakota

Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34

Southside Aces @ Eagles 34

Maoli with Mishka @ Fine Line

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

Dream of the Wild @ 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

Chelsea Wolfe @ Varsity

Saint Paul Mudsteppers Monthly @ White Squirrel

Wu Wednesday with DJ That Dude Trey @ White Squirrel

Thursday, March 21

Marty Bush and Natalie Prauser @ Acadia

Ross Clowser Quartet @ Berlin

Wain McFarlane & Friends @ Bunkers

Le Winston Band with Steam Machine @ Cedar Cultural Center

Greg Volver, J. Streitz and the Long Odds, Petty Larcenists @ Cloudland

Joyann Parker @ Crooners

Doug Anderson @ Crooners

Howie Day @ Dakota

LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34

Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34

Too Many Zooz with Pell @ Fine Line

Blu Kanu @ Granada

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

Medium Zach @ Modist Brewing

Tommy Blossom (Album Release) with Story Night, Buried Animals, Dominick Fields @ Mortimer's

Dvořák Symphony No. 8 @ Orchestra Hall

Malevo @ Ordway

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

Treehorn @ Uptown VFW

JP Saxe @ Varsity

Natalie Prauser @ White Rock Lounge

Devaney & Friends with John Swardson & Bad Blood, Matt Caflisch Band @ White Squirrel

Friday, March 22

Hiahli @ Acadia

Kenny Mason @ Amsterdam

Ben Cook-Feltz + j. bell & the Lazy Susan Band @ Aster Cafe

Bryan Nichols/Dan Carpel @ Berlin

Chris Morrissey @ Berlin

King Fu Hippies @ Bunkers

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

SFJAZZ Collective @ Dakota

Miss Shannon's 4th Friday Sock Hop @ Eagles 34

Ca$ual, Closetalker, Slow Mass @ Eagles 34

Mitch Rowland with Harris Harper @ Fine Line

Coax From Chuckanut @ Ginkgo

Villain of the Story @ Green Room

Allison Mahal with Poolboy @ Hook and Ladder

‘Melodies and Masterpieces’ feat. Rootz Within, Push & Turn, Joe Barron Band, Joe Dunn, Dizzle Arts @ Hook and Ladder

The Sam Graber Band @ Icehouse

Pete James Johnson Trio @ Jazz Central

In a Funk @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Juice! @ Modist Brewing

Punky Weekend Party @ Mortimer's

Dvořák Symphony No. 8 @ Orchestra Hall

Walking Phoenix, Tarias & The Sound and Cold Casuals @ Palmer's

Colin Hay @ Pantages Theatre

Cannabis Kiss, Sons of Ra, JoJo Green, Sunsets Over Flower @ ROK Music Lounge

Moonshine Prophets @ Schooner Tavern

Mitis Live @ Skyway Theatre

Louise Post (of Veruca Salt) with creeping charlie @ 7th St Entry

Ray Gun Youth, Ghost Kitchen, Malamiko @ 331 Club

29 Wolves @ Terminal Bar

A Thousand Horses with Aaron Clafton @ Turf Club

Garage Party @ Uptown VFW

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

Untilapocalypse @ Acadia

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

Chris Morrissey @ 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

Maud Hixson @ Crooners

Linda Peterson @ Crooners

Maggie's Afterglow: Geoff Jones and Rick Carlson @ Crooners

Emmaline @ Dakota

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

Koo Koo @ First Avenue

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

Cornbread Harris @ Icehouse

The Vibeout Suite @ Icehouse

Kent Goodroad @ Jazz Central

Minnesota, Abelation @ The Loft

High & Mighty @ Minnesota Music Cafe

DJ Kwey @ Modist Brewing

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

Hush Victoria @ Pilllar Forum

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.

PB&J, Level @ Terminal Bar

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

Bas @ Varsity Theater

Scott Hefte and the Bury ‘Em Deep with Rank Strangers, Canyonero, DJ Minnie Blanco @ White Squirrel