Lotta big names in this week's listings. Personally, I'll be hitting the Paul Simon show tonight (look for a review tomorrow) and I'm waiting to find out if I get to review Charli XCX on Saturday. Part of me would honestly rather catch Tyshawn Sorey at the Walker, but a job's a job, right?
Tuesday, April 22
John Splithoff with Evann McIntosh @ Amsterdam
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Pattie Gonia Presents SAVE HER! @ First Avenue
New Band Night with Ergot, Pretty Pretty Please, The Grieving Pines, & Too Snoozed @ Green Room
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Pop Punk Princess DJ Hot Topic Fanclub + DJ Dimitry Killstorm @ Mortimers
- Paul Simon @ Orpheum Theatre—Simon’s farewell tour ended seven years ago, but some guys just don’t settle into retirement so easily. This tour is dubbed “A Quiet Celebration,” and the 83-year-old bard has suffered severe hearing loss so he’s chosen “intimate venues with optimal acoustics”—hence the Orpheum. Since his premature finale, Simon has released Seven Psalms, a song cycle that will take up a half hour or so of this show; depending on my mood, I find it unobtrusively slight, pretentiously overdone, or gently moving. He’ll return to the oldies for a second set, giving fans one last chance (for real this time?) to hear the romantic realist of the ’70s, the reborn middle-aged tourist who made Graceland, and the better half of & Garfunkel. Anyone who’s considered hitting multiple nights should be aware that he’s apparently sticking to the same setlist each evening.—Keith Harris
BoyWithUke with Ethan Bortnick @ Palace Theatre
Ragefuture Open Mic @ Palmer’s
Vlad Holiday with New Translations @ 7th St Entry
April Conspiracy Series featuring Eldest Daughter, DC Leonhardt, Tennessee Stiffs @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Adam Kiesling @ 331 Club
Smoking Popes and Off With Their Heads with Mary Jam @ Turf Club
Geoff Tate’s Operation Mindcrime @ Varsity
Ali Grey’s Country Jamboree @ White Squirrel
Unattractive Giant Monster (Residency) with Dado Set, Big Into @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, April 23
Shady Babies Open Mic @ Acadia
Miya Folick, Olivia Kaplan @ Amsterdam
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
The Cherry Pit Presents: Bible Study @ Berlin
Bob: The Music of Dylan @ Crooners
Jenny & the Bets, Pencil Neck @ Driftwood
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
THE BROWNING with SWARM & The Defect @ Green Room
Marijuana Death Squads @ Icehouse
Maurice Jacox and the We Still R Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Mortiholics Residency @ Mortimer’s
- Paul Simon @ Orpheum Theatre—See Wednesday.
The Matt Arthur Contraption @ Palmer’s
The Silos with Jonathan Rundman @ Parkway
Parasota Trio @ Schooner Tavern
- Jane Remover with Dazegxd and d0llywood1 @ 7th St Entry—This critically acclaimed digital anarchist sits near the top of my list of my “am I so out of touch?” artists. Their new album Revengeseekerz ups the mayhem level to create what Pitchfork calls “an inferno of raw thoughts that pushes everything—rap, pop, voice, their artistic persona—to the breaking point.” Oh my! My aged ears hear noise as an outward manifestation of internalized confusion, which is a familiar enough avant-pop M.O. and always a thrill when it jibes with your sensibility. So no, not my thing, but I credit for putting in the work.—Keith Harris
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Twin Town Strings @ 331 Club
Vincent Neil Emerson with Leon Majcen @ Turf Club
Normal Bias, Burning, E.T., & Darkling I Listen @ Underground Music Venue
Sarah Morris and the Sometimes Guys @ White Squirrel
Nights With Tim @ White Squirrel
King Caesar, Curve, & Blacklighter @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, April 24
Ryan Lee Jones and Jeremy Elijah @ Aster Cafe
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Shrimp Olympics, Minka, Controversial New Skinny Pill @ Cloudland
Switchgrass, Baseline Bad, Waxing @ Driftwood
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
NIIS with POLLYANNA & Surly Grrly @ Hook and Ladder
Love with Johnny Echols with Baby Lemonade @ Hook and Ladder
Drums of Navarone @ Minnesota Music Cafe
ZODIAC with DJ Shannon Blowtorch + DJ Dimitry Killstorm @ Mortimer’s
Ursa Minor, Murder Curious, and Eastern River Cooters @ Palmer’s
The Favorite Things with Lutheran Heat and the Hilltop Pines @ Pilllar Forum
Scott Allen & the List, Wandering Suns @ Schooner Tavern
Cryogeyser with Flooding @ 7th St Entry
The Daily Norm, Joe Kelly, Ambient Toad @ 331 Club
Deep Sea Diver with Byland @ Turf Club
Winterforever, Couch Potato Massacre @ Underground Music Venue
Riverboat Gamblers with Fret Rattles, Visual Learner @ Uptown VFW
Root River Jam @ White Squirrel
Phantom Fields @ White Squirrel
Oister Boy, Pullstring, & Golden Satellite @ Zhora Darling
Friday, April 25
Big Wiz/Mike the Martyr @ Acadia
Bad Bad Hats, Gully Boys, Kiss the Tiger, and Lighter Co. @ Amsterdam
LSZEE with Zingara, Vincent Antone, and jordnmoody @ Armory
Larry McDonough Quartet (Album Release) @ Aster Cafe
Stephanie/Charlie/Ben @ Berlin
Andrew Broder and Friends @ Berlin
2 Dykes Walk Into Bar @ Black Hart
Some Shitty Cover Band @ Bunker’s
Strictly R&B: Spring Bling Edition @ Cabooze
The Anti-Queens, the Venomous Wire, Tightwire @ Cloudland
Arne Fogel with Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Dave Bennett Quartet @ Crooners
Our House: Tribute to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young @ Crooners
The Great Northern, Bring Your Mom @ Driftwood
Second Chance Prom @ Dudley Riggs Theatre
Miss Shannon's Sock Hop featuring: Twin Cities Hot Club @ Eagles 34
Yukimi (of Little Dragon) @ Fine Line
The Powerpop Girls ⏤ Sabrina + Chappell + Charli @ First Avenue
Tim Goodwin with Tom Mobry @ Ginkgo Coffee
Daft Disco: A French House & Disko Party @ Granada
Anna Devine (EP Release) with Kiernan, Ava Levy, and Lily Blue @ Green Room
Aaron Hedenstrom Quartet @ Jazz Central
The Blue Velvet Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
Cellar Dwellers @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Metal Joe Metal Show @ Modist Brewing
Søndergård Conducts Future Classics @ Orchestra Hall
Jasmine Choi Plays Mozart’s Second Flute Concerto @ Ordway
NANOBASH 3! With DJ Nanobyte, Student 1, Gonkama, Shy Ex, Jayso Creative @ Palmer’s
Usurp Synapse with Missouri Executive Order 44 @ Pilllar Forum
Jiggs Lee Invasion @ Schooner Tavern
Murs with Platinum Max, Noa James, and 3rd Wrld @ 7th St Entry
Manifest Brutality, Half Step, Hits & the Mrs., Duck Bomb @ Terminal Bar
Courtney Yasmineh, Ira Haze, Stony River @ 331 Club
Them Coulee Boys with Janakey @ Turf Club
River City Rejects @ Underground Music Venue
Feral Dance Prom Night @ Uptown VFW
Twin Tribes & the Chameleons @ Varsity
The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel
Glass-Eyed Brother, The Montys, D. Santos @ White Squirrel
Saturday, April 26
LSZEE with Levity, Artifakts, + Sortof Vague @ Armory
Fever Field and Dude Lagoon @ Aster Cafe
Berhanu/Carpel/Ostrow @ Berlin
Paul Hecht’s Pyrography @ Berlin
Andrews Broder and Friends @ Berlin
Lord of the Fundraiser @ Black Hart
The Response: A National Poetry Month Concert ft. Locksmith @ Cabooze
The Dirty Pretty, Letters, the Customers @ Can Can Wonderland
Excellence Festival @ Capri Theater
Corey Medina & Brothers with Midnite Express @ Cedar Cultural Center
Corine, Johnny Dynamite and the Bloodsuckers, Darkling I Listen @ Cloudland
Arne Fogel with Rick Carlson @ Crooners
UW-Eau Claire Jazz Ensemble One @ Crooners
Stone Ark with Monarch and Toadstool @ Day Block Brewing
Lodge, Em & the Gems @ Driftwood
Tomboyy, Wilbur, and DJ Ian Rans @ Dusty’s
Leslie Rich and Rocket Soul Choir, Other Stars, The Latchkey Party @ Eagles 34
- Denzel Curry @ Fillmore—Curry put out an excellent mixtape last year, King of the Mischievous South, Vol. 2 that he later expanded into an even better “real” album King of the Mischievous South. (What is an album anymore even?) But those offer just a taste of what the Miami rapper, a ferocious live performer, is like onstage.—Keith Harris
Chloe Moriondo with Sex Week @ Fine Line
Ethereal Tomb, Fleshless Body @ Flying V
The Modern Era, The Skinny Lovers, Clayton Ryan, J Bell & The Lazy Susan Band @ Green Room
Trench Size Trio @ Jazz Central
Nicholas David and Demitrious Rallis @ Icehouse
Trench Size Trio @ Jazz Central
Mad Dubz with Rane & Fieldz @ The Loft
Metronome Youth Jazz Orchestra @ Metronome Brewery
High & Mighty @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Birth Order + In Lieu + Müllet + DJ Cumstain @ Mortimer’s
La Maquinaria Norteña y Mi Banda El Mexicano @ Myth
Circus Symphonique @ Orchestra Hall
Jasmine Choi Plays Mozart’s Second Flute Concerto @ Ordway
Art Beagle’s Backup Band @ Padraigs
Djo with Post Animal @ Palace Theatre
Tumbling Daisies, Paul Bergen & Boozewater, and Nathan Griner & Matthew Probst @ Palmer’s
The Special Consensus + Monroe Crossing @ Parkway
Quietchild with Flowtus and HighQ @ Pilllar Forum
Hurricane Harold’s All Star Revue @ Schooner Tavern
The Bright Light Social Hour with TABAH @ 7th St Entry
- Charli XCX @ Target Center—As Brat goes, I stand by my year-end verdict: “The 32-year-old-est album ever made.” Also the coolest album of 2024, if that even needs saying, with all the pleasures and limitations that superlative entails, from a too-pure bitchy attitude to dubious taste in scene girls (Julia Fox OK fine, Dasha Nekrasova zzzzz). Far from expressing invulnerability, Charli’s “don’t you wish you were me” is the last gasp of a 360 party girl fessing up to everyday doubts, less trenchant when she bemoans the perils of fame (regular jobs suck too, lady) than when she frets that Lorde thinks she’s a pseud, considers motherhood, and bids farewell to late hyperpop genius Sophie. (Best party girl anthem? The bonus track where Billie Eilish eats her out.) Her state-of-the-art pop will sound great and boomy in an arena as 32-year-olds of all ages cling defiantly to their bratty youth.—Keith Harris
J Streitz and the Long Odds, The Union Suits @ Terminal Bar
Matthew Thomas & Wounded Wing, Wailing Loons, Ancient Waves @ 331 Club
All Kinds of Heavy @ TRXX WRHS
Jeremy Messersmith with The Nunnery @ Turf Club
Popstar, Smoke Free Home @ Underground Music Venue
The Limns, Push and Turn, Izzy Cruz @ Uptown VFW
- Tyshawn Sorey Trio & Greg Osby @ Walker Art Center—Drummer Tyshawn Sorey is the kind of figure contemporary jazz always requires: deeply familiar with the music’s history yet never weighed down by the demands of tradition. Sorey has celebrated his elders—Adagio (for Wadada Leo Smith) snagged him a Pulitzer last year, and he’s composed a song cycle for Josephine Baker, Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine—but he’s also followed the music where it leads him. Most recently, he’s focused on the trio he appears with tonight, rounded out by pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Harish Raghavan; for the first set, they’ll draw from their two albums together, Mesmerism (2022) and Continuing (2024). Sax veteran Greg Osby sits in on the later set, and for a taste of where that might go, sample The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism, a live album that Sorey’s trio recorded with Osby at the Jazz Gallery in New York. $25 for each set.—Keith Harris
- Wandering Leaf Brewing 2nd Anniversary Party @ Wandering Leaf Brewing Co.—When Wandering Leaf opened in 2023, none other than Racket described the plant-heavy St. Paul brewery as “a conservatory all year round… a 16-tap oasis on West Seventh.” Now, as the place turns two, it’s time to party. Wandering Leaf enlisted a killer fleet of food trucks for its big b-day bash, including: (Racket fav) Wrecktangle Pizza, (Racket fav) MN Dairy Lab, Amazing Momo, Burger Fundamentals, and Tried and True Confections. Tunes-wise, you’ll get live sets from the Bugle Boys, Little Fevers, and (Racket fav) Monica LaPlante, whose last name, it must be stated, summons the many green guys littering the taproom. There’ll be activities for all ages (a bounce house, cornhole, giant Jenga), special beer releases, and “DOGS!” Write organizers: “Last year we captured photos of over 20 dogs. Let’s beat our record this year! Make sure to ask our beertenders for a dog treat!” Sounds like a plan.—Jay Boller
Emmy Woods with Courtney Yasmineh @ White Squirrel
Big Trouble @ White Squirrel
Alexander Natalie, Halfway Down, Labrador Wild @ White Squirrel
Good Morning Midnight, Disaster Kid, Dot Operator, Full Catholic @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, April 27
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
StoLyette Sundays (feat. Maggie Morrison) @ Berlin
Frail Talk + Canary Room @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Dream Of The Wild, JoJo Green, The Holy North, and Hot Jupiters @ Cabooze
Noise Party Vol. 10 @ Cedar Cultural Center
By Request! The Great Songs of Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Jim Croce @ Crooners
Room3 (Album Release) @ Dakota
Bawaa Basslines Vol. 1 @ Day Block Brewing
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Emerson Woodshed Collective @ Dual Citizen
Make Ready, Devil Dodger, Seculants @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Pardyalone with Austin George and Jon Wiilde @ Fine Line
Penny & Sparrow with Field Guide @ First Avenue
Jazz Appreciation Month @ Hook and Ladder
Twin Cities Flamenco Collective Presents Feria de Abril @ Icehouse
Night Shift Dance Party @ Icehouse
Aberration @ Metronome Brewery
Jack Schabert @ Metronome Brewery
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer’s
Justin Hayward @ Pantages Theatre
Killed by Kiwis, Admiral Fox, Doll Chaser, and Lee Chenvert @ 7th St Entry
The Real Chuck NORAD @ 331 Club
- Minnesota Qeej and Hmong Arts Festival @ Union Depot—Organizers tout the fourth-annual Minnesota Qeej and Hmong Arts Festival, which comes to Union Depot this weekend, as “the only festival of its kind in Minnesota and likely the entire United States devoted to celebrating the Qeej instrument, Hmong folk arts, and Hmong music and dance.” (The Qeej is a wind instrument made from bamboo that plays a special role in Hmong funeral rituals; you can watch it in action and learn more about it here courtesy of Twin Cities PBS.) The festival will also have crafts and cultural activities for kids, plus food vendors for hungry folks of all ages.—Em Cassel
Calabrese with Zombeast, Vazum, Stranger Gallery @ Uptown VFW
Randy’s Gathering @ White Squirrel
Emma Jane, Joe Kelly, Sandie Magerster,Fairy Boat Music, Devotion, JOWL @ White Squirrel
Monday, April 28
L.S. Dunes with From Indian Lakes and Plague Vendor @ Amsterdam
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
World Music Monday @ Eagles 34
Ben Kweller with Cheese Touch @ Fine Line
AWOLNATION with Bryce Fox @ First Avenue
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Metal Monday @ Schooner Tavern
Savannah Conley with Lucky Kilmartin and Absolutely Yours @ 7th St Entry
Open Mic Mpls @ Sociable Cider Werks
Cause For Concern with Duck Bomb, Threads Electric @ White Squirrel
