I've got very good news for the fair-avoidant among you—this year's musical counter-programming is way stronger than usual. Though if you do find yourself on the fairgrounds you'll hear plenty worth listening to—Margo Price for free! Below I've helpfully and ingeniously labeled fair performances (all ticketed, most of the free ones) with "State Fair."
Tuesday, August 25
Greatest Jam on Earth @ Blues Saloon
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Lakewood Cemetery @ Father Hennepin Park
Mo Lowda & The Humble with Beemer @ Fine Line
Death of the Heron, Glass Casket, Galleon @ Green Room
Funk N’ Spuds @ Indeed Brewing
Black Label Society @ Ledge Amphitheater
Lazy Scorsese @ Minnehaha Bandstand
The Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Rüfüs Du Sol @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
RJ Vocal, Ambient Toad, Helen @ Pilllar Forum
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
Sabai x Hoang @ Skyway Theater
August Conspiracy Series featuring Soul Tribe, Nur-D, Solana and the Sunsets @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Mike Munson @ 331 Club
Nitzer Ebb, Rhys Fulber, Sam Woodman @ Turf Club
Todd Rundgren @ Uptown Theater
Ali Gray’s Country Jamboree @ White Squirrel
Alex & Toke’s Acoustic Tuesdays feat. Kate Malanaphy, Sam Hellman @ White Squirrel
Seer, Crypt.id, Semi Infamous, & X1ztyr @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, August 26
PIG, Cyanotic, Absynthe of Faith, DJ Fenris @ Amsterdam
The Cherry Pit Open Jam @ Berlin
Dean Harrington & Pavel Jany @ Carbone’s
Jennifer Eckes and Kevin Werner Hohlstein @ Crooners
Ann Reed and Joan Griffith @ Crooners
The Rockin’ Iguanas @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Diplomacy @ Dubliner Pub
Miss Shannon Presents @ Eagles 34
Raquel Rodriguez, Cameron Wright @ Icehouse
Peace of Cake @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Pat Donahue and Friends @ Midway Saloon
Cowboy Rogue @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Toto, Christopher Cross, the Romantics @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Seafoam Green Tangerine, Carhearts, Postcards @ Pilllar Forum
BZ3 Organ Trio @ Schooner Tavern
New Diplomat, shadingthesun, Conzemius @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Erin McCawley’s Harrison Street Band @ 331 Club
Family Dinner with Doug & Sarah @ White Squirrel
Breathe Eazy Ent. Presents Battle of the Bands 2026 @ White Squirrel
The Violet Ghost, Osenya, Mach Fox, & Color in Reverse @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, August 27
Gods vs. Goddesses: A Toga Takeover @ Abi’s
Tori Evans, Hibah Hassan, Mike Rafferty, Jazicality @ Acadia
State Fair: Free and Easy @ The Bazaar
A Container: JT Bates & Friends @ Berlin
Crates: Big Science by Laurie Anderson @ Berlin
Jaybee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Red Meat, Bad Idea, Laugh Track @ Cloudland
Erin Livingston and Linda Peterson @ Crooners
The Music of Rufus and Chaka Khan @ Crooners
Spud & His Buds, Sonic Sea Turtles, Fiona Hayes @ Day Block Brewing
City of Lakes Chorus @ Dock & Paddle
Dad Joke, Gonzo’s Planet @ Driftwood Char Bar
Palomino Breeze @ Dubliner Pub
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
August Ouest & Watchmen, Grateful Zed @ Eagles 34
Nino Paid, 1up Tee @ Fine Line
- State Fair: Bonnie Raitt with Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monste Gentlemen @ Grandstand—If your Raitt familiarity starts with her Grammy-winning 1989 comeback Nick of Time, you’re in for a treat—her run of ’70s albums, where she explored a warmer and folkier version of the blues than was being warped into hard rock and metal elsewhere at the time, stacks up against the work of just about any of your faves, especially the white ones. And if you stopped listening sometime in the ’90s when “Longing in Their Hearts” and its ilk suggested she’d committed the rest of her years to VH1 adult mush, you’re missing out too. In fact 2022’s Just Like That… (not to be confused with the similarly titled Sex and the City sequel), her most recent album, is the kind of ace collection of songs that seems so easy to put together till you realize how few others do. Helps that she still plays killer slide guitar and retains a voice that made her sound mature back when she was a kid.—Keith Harris
Snapz Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
Cornbread’s 99 1/3 B-Day Party Extravaganza @ Hook and Ladder
State Fair: Vertical Horizon @ Luther Auto Bandshell
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar
Ozone Creations, Bakkwooddrift, and Gifted Handz @ Mia
The Get Up Mondays @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Drums of Navarone, DJ Sheleena @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Santana, the Doobie Brothers @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Deep Purple, Kansas @ Mystic Lake Casino
A Tribute to Neil Young @ Parkway Theater
Lake Davi, Eldest Daughter, Deletist @ Pilllar Forum
Crowd Pleaser Thursdays @ Red Sea
State Fair: Nur-D @ Schilling Amphitheater
Scott Allen & the List, Self Neglecters @ Schooner Tavern
Slow Magic, Shrimpnose @ 7th St Entry
Debbie Briggs Vintage Jazz @ 331 Club
Trish Toledo, Rudy De Anda @ Turf Club
Lipstinger, Dirty 930, Duck Bomb @ White Squirrel
Friday, August 28
Rachel Bearinger, Dead North @ Aster Cafe
State Fair: Free and Easy @ The Bazaar
Human Earth, Shehrzad @ Berlin
Jay Walker & the Rectifiers @ Blues Saloon
Good for Gary with DJ D-Mil @ Boardwalk
Real Numbers, Absolutely Yours, Shady Cover @ Cloudland
Jezebel Sweet, Scraps, Averdale @ Day Block Brewing
The Quantum Mechanics @ Dock & Paddle
Freezerburn, the Paramedics @ Driftwood Char Bar
Salsa Dancing with Capi @ Dual Citizen
Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub
Chicky Rooster, Tim Casey & the Martyrs @ Eagles 34
Colin Bracewell, Mira Babal @ 50th & France
Internet Kids ⏤ Hyperpop Dance Party ft. PiNKII @ Fine Line
12 Gauge Autopsy, Nyhilist, Taste of Vervain, Echoes of Regret, Sonata @ Flying V
State Fair: “Weird Al” Yankovic, Puddles Pity Party @ Grandstand
Promiscuous: A 2000s Club Bangers Throwback Party @ Green Room
Brass Funkadelic, Emerson Avenue, Amie Austin & the Rumble @ Hook and Ladder
Gradience, Milwaukee Deep, Social Pariah, Dumb N Evil @ Hook and Ladder
Meghan Kreidler + Diane Miller @ Icehouse
The Tyler Lustek Confluence @ Jazz Central
The Undergroove @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Zillionaires @ Minnehaha Bandstand
A Classic Tribute to Smokey Robinson @ Minnesota Music Cafe
State Fair: Vertical Horizon @ Luther Auto Bandshell
Please Return, Calla Mae, Issy @ Pilllar Forum
State Fair: Nur-D @ Schilling Amphitheater
Ovrfwrd, Twin Citizen @ Schooner Tavern
Alabama Shakes @ Surly Brewing Festival Field
- Tame Impala @ Target Center—People who once took Kevin Parker way too serious now give him way too much grief, and ain’t that just how it goes. On his latest, Deadbeat, Mr. Impala sounds, as ever, unpushy and slightly stoned. He’s made enough industry connections that Blackpink’s Jennie hopped on a remix of “Dracula,” and now he’s playing big ol’ sports arenas. Sure the lyrics are often willfully mundane, maybe a little dippier, but the songs are still pretty catchy. And isn’t that the point?—Keith Harris
Man Down, Justin Payne, Larrkins @ Terminal Bar
Ghost Mouth, Muun Bato, Pew Pew @ 331 Club
Mill City Hot Club @ Volstead’s
The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel
4th Annual SummerSlam of Tribute Bands @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, August 29
Tabah, Society Green @ The Arthouse
State Fair: Good for Gary @ The Bazaar
Arman Sangalang Quartet @ Berlin
Miracle Debt, Pleasure Cube, Diaphine, Adam @ Eagles 34
Afromatic feat. Sam Opoku @ Cabooze
Capri Big Band @ Capri Theater
Couch Potato Massacre, Lipstick Homicide, The Punchlines, Dingus @ Cloudland
Lee Engele and Jesse Mueller @ Crooners
Andra Suchy & The Cat Ladies with Molly Brandt & Eric Julio Carranza @ Crooners
Twin Cities Flamenco Collective and Ryan Picone Quartet with Ben Abrahamson @ Crooners
China Ryder @ Day Block Brewing
Stonewalker, the Wildermen, and the Boot R&B @ Day Block Brewing
Mischke, Malone, Michael, & Chris @ Dock & Paddle
The Handsome Devils @ Driftwood Char Bar
The Silverteens, Scott Allen & the List @ Dusty’s
DJ Patio Party @ Fulton Brewing
Skyla Tylaa, Kei x Tolzy @ Gidi
Cody Johnson @ Grand Casino Arena
- State Fair: Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis @ Grandstand—The Minneapolis Sound that the Flyte Tyme duo helped pioneer extended far beyond Minnesota, and tonight’s special guests reflect that legacy. Sure you get hometown heroes like the Time’s Morris Day & Jerome Benton, Ann Nesby & Sounds of Blackness, and—the big news—Stokley reunited with the full Mint Condition crew. But they’ll be joined by New Editioners Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant, New Kid Jordan Knight (whose 1999 Jam/Lewis production “Give It to You” smoked most of his younger teenpop rivals), along with Yolanda Adams, Ruben Studdard, and Shanice Wilson. To paraphrase a Jam/Lewis collaborator who will not be in the house, this should be quite an escapade.—Keith Harris
Daikaiju, Christy & the CC Club, Scrunchies, Grumpys
Indigo Room with DJ Ibaby, DJ KP, DJ Rae @ Hook and Ladder
Leslie Perez, JonCarlos + Gabriella @ Icehouse
The Roundabouts @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
- State Fair: Margo Price @ Luther Auto Bandshell—This summer, Price released a fiery half-hour of music titled Days of Unrest, including Woody Guthrie’s all-too-timeless “Deportee,” Blaze Foley’s “Oval Room” (“He’s the president, but I don’t care”), Charlie Daniels’s “Long Haired Country Boy” (appropriately gender-swapped), and Dylan’s still-kickin’ “Maggie’s Farm.” Her proud rural leftism is sure to piss off a few of those in attendance. As for the “Luther Auto Bandshell”... well, that’s the new and (sorry!) inferior name of the stage we’d come to know as the Leinie Lodge. This is the sort of thing that the dead-enders who want to bring back the old racist state flag should be protesting.—Keith Harris
Shatter, Major Malfunction, Damage Case, Human/Nature @ Memory Lanes
A Classic Tribute to Smokey Robinson @ Minnesota Music Cafe
DJ Bryan Angeles @ Modist Brewing
Suicideboys @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Deorro and 3BALLMTY @ Myth Live
- St. Paul Get Down @ Raspberry Island—All summer long, local hip-hop hopefuls from ages 14–24 have been working with mentors on their craft. Now they’ll get to show off their stuff while sharing the stage with some real pros. Headliners Chali 2na and Cut Chemist will be joined by locals Juice Lord, Big Zach, Student 1, and the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Band.—Keith Harris
State Fair: The Honeydogs @ Schilling Amphitheater
Jon Sullivan Band @ Schooner Tavern
Alabama Shakes @ Surly Brewing Festival Field
Fighting the Urge, Scarlet Tangerines @ Terminal Bar
- A Tribute to Shania Twain @ Turf Club—When Twain was hitting her commercial peak in 1997 or so, the idea of the Turf Club hosting a tribute to the pop-country star would have been as unthinkable as… well, as First Avenue owning the Turf. But times change, and not always for the worse. Tonight, in what has become a late summer tradition, a panoply of local singer-songwriters will belt the hits they grew up with, and you’ll know all the words. So color your hair. Do what you dare. The lineup: Molly Brandt, Kathy Callahan (of Gully Boys), Rachel Calvert (of Barbaro and Triple Fiddle), Maria Coyne (of Maria and the Coins), Laura Hugo, Emma Jeanne (of Sallyforth), Raffaella, Jillian Rae, and Leslie Vincent, all backed as always by the (just slightly movie-misquoting) A Little Too Short To Be Stormtroopers band.—Keith Harris
4th Annual 80s New Wave Prom @ Uptown VFW
Sanctuary Strings @ Water Works
Danger Bad, Robots From The Future, Naptaker @ White Squirrel
Crazy Clyde Presents: The Return of MC Pirate Pants @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, August 30
Pøstcards, Free Candy, Quarter Moon, Quarter-Past-Halftime @ Acadia
End of Summer Party @ Animales
Sunday Swing Brunch @ Aster Cafe
State Fair: Good for Gary @ The Bazaar
Communion Season 20:03 @ Cabooze
Shangjaru @ Cedar Cultural Center
Another Heaven, Virginia Creeper, Cowboy Thoughts @ Cloudland
A Billy Joel State of Mind with Mick Sterling @ Crooners
Brass Messengers, the Real Chuck NORAD @ Crooners
Como Pops Ensemble @ Dock & Paddle
Junior & the Jukes @ Dock & Paddle
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Mary K & the Realistix @ Dubliner Pub
Sunday Trad Session @ Dubliner Pub
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Candlelight: Tribute to Fleetwood Mac @ Granada
State Fair: Sierra Ferrell, Tanya Tucker @ Grandstand
ABBAsolutely Fab @ Hewing Hotel
Obi Original and the Black Atlantics @ Icehouse
Matty & the Subtle Validation @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Long Honeymoon @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
State Fair: Margo Price @ Luther Auto Bandshell
Nolan Mancl-Saxon Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
Ray LaMontagne @ Orpheum Theatre
Awake for the Fall, Crimson Soul, Duck Bomb @ Pilllar Forum
State Fair: The Honeydogs @ Schilling Amphitheater
Church of Cornbread @ Schooner Tavern
Venus Yevu, Bunny Blaze, Maggie Black, Aly Meier @ White Squirrel
Naked Eye, The Lamellas, The Dirty Pretty, Bev @ Zhora Darling
Monday, August 31
State Fair: The Fabulous Armadillos @ The Bazaar
Massive Mondays Reggae @ Cabooze
Jennifers Rule the World @ Crooners
Dorothy Doring and Ted Godbout @ Crooners
Celebration Brass Quintet @ Dock & Paddle
Candlelight: Tribute to Adele @ Granada
State Fair: Tommy James and the Shondells, Herman’s Hermits @ Grandstand
Johnny Table All-Stars @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
State Fair: Sugar Hill Band with Melle Mel and Scorpio @ Luther Auto Bandshell
Second Breakfast String Band @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Monday Jam @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Dave Matthews Band @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
State Fair: Keith Secola and the Rangers, Gary Farmer @ Schilling Amphitheater
Open Mic @ Sociable Cider Werks
MikelParis of O.A.R. @ Turf Club
Lucas Kurmis, One Big Quilt, Emerson Island @ White Squirrel
