As you may have gleaned from the ol' headline above, I'll be in New Jersey (by choice) from Thursday through Wednesday. But that won't affect your showgoing. What are you looking forward to this week?
Tuesday, July 29
honeybee, ¿WATCHES?, and Ray Gun Youth @ Amsterdam
Umbrella Bed @ Bryant Square Park
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
St. Anthony Park Community Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Jessie Street Duo @ Father Hennepin Park
Scowl with Glixen, Sleeper Cell, and Mold @ Fine Line
Colonel Mustard’s Mechanical Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Simply Fusion @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Irish Trad Session @ Padraig’s
Will Olsen & The Wild Ones, Kat & The Kodachromes, and Caitlin Angelica @ Palmer’s
Old Mervs with the Dalmatian Club @ 7th St Entry
July Conspiracy Series featuring the Beavers, Jake Manders @ 331 Club
Workers Playtime with Paul Bergen @ 331 Club
Magazine Beach, Horace Greene, & Pity Party @ Underground Music
The New Havoline Supremes @ White Squirrel
Paper Chain (Residency) @ White Squirrel
- MSPAINT with Lip Critic + Pat & The Pissers @ Zhora Darling—With supporting guests from like-minded outfits Militarie Gun to Soul Glo, MSPAINT’s new EP, No Separation, is louder, angrier, and more industrial than ever, as well it should be. Not much to mellow out about these days! Titles like “Wildfire” and “Surveillance” seem to say it all until vocalist DeeDee adds his thoughts. “If this world is falling apart, why don’t we just fall together?” he asks. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I’ve heard worse suggestions, and overall this band’s earnestness is bracing.—Keith Harris
Wednesday, July 30
BAD WEATHER, Los Outsiders, & Next Chapter @ Amsterdam
The Umamies & Sammie Jean Cohen @ Aster Cafe
The Cherry Pit Presents: Bible Study at Berlin @ Berlin
The Buddha Prince @ Cedar Cultural Center
Minnesota State Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Erin Schwab and Emily Villano @ Crooners
Sam Miltich & The Clearwater Hot Club @ Dakota
Way Back Wednesdays @ Day Block Brewing
Nyttu Chongo, Let M. Know @ Driftwood
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Agony in the Living Room, Waxing, Glencircle @ Eagles 34
- Dinosaur Jr., Snail Mail @ Fillmore—Do you like loud music? Do you also like soft music? Well have I got the bill for you. Unlikely as this might have seemed back in the ’90s, once-ejected bassist Lou Barlow has now been thumping along with his formerly estranged mates J. Mascis and Murph in a reunited Dino Jr. for a full two decades. That’s a lot of yowling, squalling, and bashing! Incidentally, a bunch of youngsters are trying to retrofit the band as shoegaze pioneers, what with that subgenre back in style, but that’s really pushing things. Dinosaur Jr.’s last album, Sweep It Into Space, was released in 2021, and it’s been just as long since Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan has put out a full album. Maybe she’ll be previewing some new material here? (She’s also been acting—maybe you saw her in I Saw the TV Glow last year.)—Keith Harris
Other Country Ensemble @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
School of Rock @ Marjorie McNeely Conservatory
Pat Donohue & Friends @ Midway Saloon
Tutus Cabby @ Minnesota Music Cafe
DJ Shannon Blowtorch with Venus DeMars, Lori Barbero, Sophia Eris, and Izzie P @ Palmer’s
J-Dog and the Misfits @ Park Tavern
Heartsick with Static Affliction and Heed the Warning @ Pilllar Forum
Grocer, Drug League, Butter Boys, Mortiholics @ Mortimer’s
BZ3 Organ Trio @ Schooner Tavern
The Brudi Brothers with Buffalo Nichols @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Jimmi Langemo and the Band of Souls @ 331 Club
200 Stab Wounds with Vomit Forth and Weeping @ Turf Club
Conduit Presents Minds on Fire @ White Squirrel
Calavrosa with Glacier, Jessica Jaunich @ White Squirrel
JJ Sweetheart, drey dk, & anothernight @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, July 31
Form Entertainment Takeover @ Abi's
Heartsick, Static Affliction, Heed the Warning, & Better Broken @ Amsterdam
Honeymoon Madness & Living Bloom @ Aster Cafe
HEYARLO’s Shifting Forms (Quartet) @ Berlin
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Marimba Matt @ Can Can Wonderland
Red Planet featuring Kavyesh Kaviraj @ Crooners
Mick and the Stones @ Crooners
Midlife Crisis, Perro Solar @ Driftwood
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
- David Lowery with Dan Israel @ Fine Line—I’m as much a Camper Van Beethoven devotee as anyone who went to college in the ’80s and a quiet champion of Cracker’s post-commercial years (try their 2014 swan song, From Berkeley to Bakersfield). Still I can’t say I dove eagerly into Lowery’s two-disc, 28-track Father, Sons, and Brothers, a sort of memoir-in-song that collects three previous autobiographical albums—I figured this was superfans-only territory. But I’m happy I did, because this helluva aphorist and imagist has become a heckuva storyteller. Mining the expected (belated apologies to women he didn’t do right by and to bandmates he’s since reunited with) and the idiosyncratic (he meets his Air Force dad for the first time as a child and defends his disabled sister from bullies), Lowery tells the story of a working-class guy who wore class-consciousness as a chip on his shoulder in the privileged indie-rock milieu and emerged on the other side of semi-fame a business prof at UGA. (What blanks in his history he leaves he fills in on his Substack.) This life’s summation isn’t Lowery’s defining testament—artistically that’s still CVB, commercially it’s Cracker. But I’ll certainly come back to it, and not just for “Vending Machine” (one of the few rock-star sobriety tales that gets 12-stepping right) or “I Wrote a Song Called ‘Take the Skinheads Bowling.’” P.S. A decade or so ago, folks were calling Lowery a crank for his anti-streaming stance. Times sure have changed. This is a sit-down affair, as I’m sure anyone old enough to be a Lowery fan will appreciate.—Keith Harris
- Mary Strand & The Garage (Album Release) with the Silent Treatment, the Customers, & RuDeGiRL @ Hook and Ladder—Strand has a smaller voice than you’d expect from a garage rocker, and that’s her strength—a song like “I Don’t Need Your Permission” is all the more effective coming from someone who sounds like she once thought she might need your permission. That’s the title track from her new album, which also includes the tale of abuse and injustice “Least of All Her.” I Don’t Need Your Permission features guitar work from Soul Asylee Ryan Smith, whose band the Customers opens along with principled rowdies the Silent Treatment and female Clash tribute act RuDeGiRL.—Keith Harris
- anni xo (Single Release) with EVV, Mouthful, and 26 Bats! @ Icehouse—Local newcomer anni xo is developing her style pretty quickly. What’s Become of Us, the EP she released earlier this year was musically straightforward singer-songwriter fare, strummy and heartfelt at times, piano-rooted and swelling at others. But if her new single, “Daydream,” isn’t a new direction, it’s quite a departure, an indie-disco track about learning when not to answer your phone, and also, maybe, that a good beat helps you get over a bad ex. Some great local support acts as well: I highly recommend
26 Bats!’ recent singlethe recent single from 26 Bats!, “TV Head,” with Bailey Cogan emoting with theatrical aplomb as Karl Remus’s guitar gets suitably ominous.—Keith Harris
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar
Salsa Del Soul with Alma Andina @ Mears Park
The Almost August Jazz Trio feat. Joan Hutton @ Metronome Brewery
Yo Jimbo Jazz @ Minnehaha Bandstand
No Limits: The B Side @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Grand Piano Spectacular @ Orchestra Hall
- Pixies with Kurt Vile and The Violators @ Palace Theatre—This two-night run of legacy indie rock comes with important rules, so please pay attention. On Thursday, alt-rock greats Pixies will perform 1990's Bossanova and 1991's Trompe le Monde in their entirety. (I’m a Doolittle guy, personally, but frontman Frank Black didn’t ask me for tour input.) The following night, Black & Co. (minus eternally cool bassist Kim Deal, who quit in 2013) will play what’s being billed as a “classic” set. Longtime local fans of the band surely remember that, in 2004, the Pixies reunited at the Fine Line following an 11-year hiatus; “This is so weird,” Deal reported mid-set. These days, they’re touring in support of last fall’s The Night the Zombies Came which, apologies, I’m just learning exists (reviews were generally warm). Opening both nights is super-chill rocker Kurt Vile, who just this past weekend released an EP and chilled, porch-style, with punk god Ian MacKaye.—Jay Boller
Larrikins, Queen Jeanne, and Part-Time Ex's @ Palmer’s
Scott Allen & the List, Fever Pitch @ Schooner Tavern
Charlotte Lawrence with Sam Short @ 7th St Entry
The Holy North, Jillian Rae and The Foxgloves @ Turf Club
An Ebonized Evening @ Underground Music
Vaguely Yours with Head Honcho & Lawn Chair Dads @ White Squirrel
DeBlitzed, Velahsa, & Vice Chair @ Zhora Darling
Friday, August 1
The Marías with Julie @ Armory
The New Entangled Particles @ Aster Cafe
Mike Wolter/Matt Peterson/Pete Hennig @ Berlin
DJ D-Mil and Some Shitty Cover Band @ Boardwalk
The Makeouts, the Sparks, and Lydia @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Carbone’s Music Fest @ Carbone’s
Vibes: The Outdoor Function @ Cabooze
School of Rock St. Paul- Youth Road Crew @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Pat Donohue’s Guitar Summit with Phil Heywood and Tim Sparks @ Crooners
Modern Chanteuse: Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, and Regina Spektor @ Crooners
Lighter Co and Dylan Salfer @ Day Block Brewing
Mark Ross, 318, Skedydah! @ Driftwood
Heavy Metal Brass Band, MVRROW, M.A.Y. @ Eagles 34
- Malamiko, ¿Watches?, Critterthing, Soul Circuits @ Eagles 34—¿Watches? is a band that leaves it all on the stage. I’ve caught the guitar/drums duo live a couple times since they relocated here from Ashville, NC, and I’ve stepped away grinning every time. They gig pretty regularly—you can catch them earlier this week on Tuesday opening for Kansas City’s Honeybee—but they pair off nicely with the headlining band, good old fashioned power trio Malamiko, whose praises I’ve sung before. And we all love the Eagles Club, right?—Keith Harris
Beemer & Matthew Smith @ 50th & France
Ron Zuchora and Jake @ Ginkgo Coffee
Keith Secola with Opliam @ Granada
A Jersey and Sneakers Party @ Green Room
Mango Jam & ELnO with Apollo Cobra @ Hook and Ladder
GOTHESS Fundraiser for Lea Reed (DJ PRSHPNE) @ Hook and Ladder
About To Run: Celebration of the PHISH Universe @ Icehouse
Dakota Andersen Quintet @ Jazz Central
Yam Haus @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Aidan Buck Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
Hippies & Cowboys @ Midway Saloon
The Rockin’ Iguanas @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Johnnie Brown Experience @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Accused A.D., Vacant, War//Plague, Deathwish, Re-Tox AD @ Mortimer’s
Parker, Grieg, and Dvořák @ Orchestra Hall
- Pixies with Kurt Vile and The Violators @ Palace Theatre—see Thursday's listings.
Modern Wildlife, Val Son, Dot Operator, Wish Wash, Ditch Pigeon, and Guest @ Palmer’s
RiGBY with Quail and Soul Flower @ Pilllar Forum
The Stella Vees, Hurricane Harold, Dan Schwalbe @ Schooner Tavern
Julie Eddy with Hailey James @ 7th St Entry
Sonic Affliction, Economic Headwinds, Kylie Krick @ Terminal Bar
Lovely Dark, StoLyette, Finesse @ 331 Club
Careful Gaze, Vacant Voice, Sonic Sea Turtles, VIN, & Lucius @ Underground Music
record box 01 • tanzklub @ Uptown VFW
Kaitlin Cassaday @ White Squirrel
Hellseher with Threads Electric, King Caesar @ White Squirrel
Jonny Darko, Dad Bod, & Nastradame @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, August 2
Morgan Turner Quartet @ Berlin
Jumpsuit: Funk and Disco Dance Party @ Black Hart
DJ Ys and Good for Gary @ Boardwalk
Carbone’s Music Fest @ Carbone’s
Open Streets NE @ Central Avenue
Prudence Johnson & the Halcyon Jazz Quartet @ Crooners
Everybody Loves Dean @ Crooners
Clovers Daughter with Bloodline and Conzemius @ Day Block Brewing
Em & the Gems, the Jury @ Driftwood
12th Annual Backyard Blues Festival @ Dual Citizen
Catfish Seagull, Nectarous, Stressica @ Dusty's
T.S. Idiot, Other Stars, The Deeper Kind @ Eagles 34
- Nershfest @ 56 Brewing—What is a Nersh and why are we festing it? Well, sounds like somebody (me) doesn’t know as much as they should about the String Cheese Incident. Bill Nershi plays guitar for the Incident, and 13 years ago some Minneapolis pals threw a backyard party that they named for him as a goof. As Nershfest grew, it expanded from backyards and expanded to breweries, and this is its first year at 56 Brewing. There will be bands: China Rider, the Orange Goodness, Saltydog, Heatbox & the Power Ups, and headliners Gully Boys, who just announced their new self-titled album is out this October. Kham Fu Dee, Brick Oven Bus, and Purple People Feeder are the food trucks on site this year, and there will also be Nersh merch (mersh?). Finally, this year’s new brew is “Nersheast Nectar” an Italian pilsner (hey, I just learned about those) that pours “at a certified ‘crushable’ status of 5% ABV.” Crush away, I guess!—Keith Harris
Fitz and the Tantrums with Ax and the Hatchetmen @ First Avenue
- Mr. Keillor’s Birthday Show ft. Richard Dworsky and Heather Masse @ Fitzgerald Theater—Gross. The handsy kitsch-peddler has emerged from his tomb to groan yet one more lullaby to his following. In a rare bit of self-reflection, he recently did acknowledge that everyone younger and poorer than him has reasons to be dissatisfied with New York City in 2025, and that it’s time for his generation to exit stage left. Somehow, though, I doubt that means we’ll never hear from him again. I just hope he doesn’t weigh in on the Minneapolis mayoral election.—Keith Harris
Aurelio Voltaire with Stranger Gallery @ Hook and Ladder
FarFarAway with Anslem, Underground Til' Sundown, & stop.drop.rewind @ Hook and Ladder
Stephen Kellogg and Will Hoge @ Icehouse
Summertime Quartet @ Jazz Central
PRGRPHS @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Original Westside Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Upright Forms, Disasteratti, Laugh Track @ Mortimer’s
Union Suits, Little Fevers, Jack Klatt, Holiday, Nikki Grossman, and Nallo @ Palmer’s
ABBAsolutely Fab @ Parkway Theater
The Value of Human Life with Drug League, Dog Gamn, Weald @ Pilllar Forum
Rondo Block Party @ Rondo Commemorative Plaza
Becky Kapell & the Fat 6 @ Schooner Tavern
Chatham Rise (Album Release) with Real Numbers, Lumari, and Basement Apartment @ 7th St Entry
Sierra Ferrell @ Surly Brewing Festival Field
Jeff Becker, Lexi Modica, Robert Dixon @ Terminal Bar
Money Bones, Admiral Fox, Big Big Brain, Emerson Island @ 331 Club
The Strangers, Distress, Tolerance @ Time Traveler’s Public House
Jerry Day⏤Celebrating 60 Years of The Grateful Dead @ Turf Club
askysoblack, Peeler, 12th House Sun, & Missing Life @ Underground Music
80s New Wave Prom @ Uptown VFW
Sanctuary Strings @ Water Works
Mississippi Valley Orchestra @ White Squirrel
Jon Elconnin Quartet with Nephilim, Third Date, & One Big Quilt @ White Squirrel
Ragefuture Chrome II @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, August 3
Heartsick Heroine with Lilac & Lotus, Phase Meridian, Plague of Stars @ Amsterdam
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Ted Olsen & Friends: Joyfire @ Berlin
Monthly Bluegrass Jam @ Caydence Records and Coffee
The Okmoniks with Mad Mojo Jett and High Tiny Hairs @ Cloudland
Twin Cities Show Chorus @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Beasley’s Big Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Three Voices… Sound Like One @ Crooners
Jalan Crossland’s Long-Unanticipated Fingerstyle Guitar & Banjo Recital @ Crooners
Jearlyn Steele and Patty Peterson @ Dakota
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
- Joan of Profile (Single Release) with Clayton Ryan, TARIAS & The Sound, and Stone Ark @ Green Room—I’m not a big “explain the band name” guy (usually the mystery is more interesting than the backstory) but I’m a little curious about the origins of “Joan of Profile.” Regardless, Kaity Joan’s songwriting has steadily sharpened over a string of singles, right up to tonight’s release, “Fortune Teller,” about trying to play it cool around a crush (and failing, needless to say).—Keith Harris
Kush & Culture Presents: Diesel Js and Smokin On the Runway Anniversary @ Hook and Ladder
Almas Unidas by Twin Cities Flamenco Collective & Zorongo Flamenco @ Icehouse
Night Shift Dance Party @ Icehouse
Issho 5 @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Minnesota Freedom Jazz @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Rainbow Kitten Surprise with Medium Build @ Ledge Ampitheater
Frankie Beverly & Maze Tribute @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Drift: A Night of Vinyl @ Mortimer’s
The Australian Pink Floyd Show @ Mystic Lake
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer’s
The Preludes to a Blizzard @ 331 Club
Joe Savage @ 331 Club
Guitar-O-Rama: Kirk Sivernail, Joe Nicola, Steve Liska, Rockabilly Mayhem @ White Squirrel
Sophie Javna Combo & The Gentlemen's Anti-Temperance League @ White Squirrel
Dermot with Allison Dyg, Slytempo @ White Squirrel
Veaux & Fox Royale @ Zhora Darling
Monday, August 4
Glass Animals with Ora Gartland @ Armory
Doolin’ @ Cedar Cultural Center
Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Larry McDonough Quintet feat. Richard Terrill @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
She Keeps Bees with Bryn Battani @ Icehouse
The Way Way Back Friend @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Cowaoke with Ben Moooker @ Palmer’s
Seafoam Green Tangerine with Quarter-Past-Half-Time and Quarter Moon @ Pilllar Forum
- The Deslondes with Sabine McCalla @ 7th St Entry—This Louisiana quintet has been loping along reliably for 15 years now, and their 2024 album, Roll It Out, gives you a good taste of what they’re been up to all this time. We’re talking four-part harmonies, easygoing tempos, and a commitment to not being rushed even when they pick up the pace; at their best, they channel a bit of the vibe of Workingman’s Dead with less jamming and better singing. Natalie Weiner, one of my most trusted country tipsters, calls’em “the best country band you’re not listening to,” and while I’d have to do some homework to feel comfortable cosigning, I totally understand if you agree with her.—Keith Harris
Disney Descendants/Zombies: Worlds Collide Tour @ Target Center
