Sorry this is a little late—that'll teach me to take a three-day weekend, right?
Tuesday, September 2
Monarch with Afters & Sunsets Over Flowers @ Amsterdam
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Agony in the Living Room, Clung Tight, The Cameras, & The Daily Norm @ Green Room
Bill Simenson Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Red Planet @ Metronome Brewery
Bluewater Kings @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Contact Haiii with Byzarra @ Mortimer’s
Palmer’s Songwriter’s Showcase @ Palmer’s
Hudson Freeman with Anna Devine and Ana Levy @ Pilllar Forum
Glitterfox with Jillian Rae @ 7th St Entry
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
September Conspiracy Series featuring We Are the Willows with True Green @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Heat Dome @ 331 Club
The New Havoline Supremes @ White Squirrel
Kneeland & Moreno (Residency) with Ritika & Shinjan, Marti Moreno @ White Squirrel
Academy Order, LOUM, Velour Tomb, & The Dead Electrics @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, September 3
The Cherry Pit Presents: Bible Study Open Jam @ Berlin
Agony In the Living Room, Gauze, and Fiona Hayes @ Amsterdam
Tim, Dave, and Mike @ Carbone’s
Legacy @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Ahmed & the Creators: A Tribute to Miles Davis @ Crooners
The Beatles Reimagined @ Dakota
Michael Grooves Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Open Mic with Neal Dimick @ Ginkgo Coffee
Pat Donohue & Friends @ Midway Saloon
Tytus Canby @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Mommy Log Balls (Residency) @ Mortimer’s
- PUP and Jeff Rosenstock with Ekko Astral @ Palace Theatre—Well, this sure looks like the pop-punk event of the summer. The latest from the Canadian malcontents in PUP, Who Will Look After the Dogs?, is less conceptually bloated than its predecessor, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand. I don’t come to PUP for ideas—at least not beyond “I suck but so do you.” That’s not a real PUP lyric (at least not that I know of) but rest assured the new record is chockful of lines that you can’t believe they haven’t used already like “If you give me another chance/I'm probably gonna fuck it up anyway” and “Fuck everyone on this planet/Except for you.” Who knew there were so many hilarious ways of reminding the world that you’re a self-loathing loser. And speaking of self-loathing losers… well, actually, Jeff Rosenstock seems more at peace than ever on his latest, 2023’s HELLMODE. Which is not to say it doesn’t bop: “LIKED U BETTER” and “FUTURE IS DUMB” (boy is it) are vintage Rosenstock, they’re just paired with more reserved tracks like “HEALMODE.”—Keith Harris
Karaoke Crime Scene @ Palmer’s
Connor McRae Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Open Mic with Grant Dawson @ 318 Cafe
Bosso Poetry Company @ 331 Club
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Maurice Jacox and Friends @ 331 Club
Ghostmade Cellophane, Nocturnal Villains, In the Distance, Accepting Fate @ Underground Music
Your Arms Are My Cocoon, Hey ILY, Haze Gazer @ Underground Music
The Second Stringers @ White Squirrel
Hunny Bear (Residency) with Astronomy Town, Heliocene @ White Squirrel
Thursday, September 4
Golden Valley String Band @ Acadia
Cass & Rachel with Dakota Andersen @ Aster Cafe
MVO Crewtets @ Bauhaus Brew Labs
Alex Koi x Kirin McElwain with Mikey Marget @ Berlin
The Rose Academy of Burlesque: Roses & Thorns @ Black Hart
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
- Kaitlin Cassady (Album Release) with Emmy Woods and Lexie Modica @ Cedar Cultural Center—Cassady’s new album, North Star, is often just voice and piano, with occasional harmonies and backing instrumentation that can be barely perceptible, and it doesn’t need more. For a taste of her particular strain of sadness, try the album’s first single “Melancholy Daydreams”; she never sulks or, but instead transforms her darker moods into quite lovely stuff.—Keith Harris
The Kevin Gamble Quartet @ Crooners
Kyle Gray Young, Tommy Knox, Griffin @ Driftwood Char Bar
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Blacklighter and Guests @ Eagles 34
Finn Wolfhard with the Snaps @ Fine Line
Fever Candlelight: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons @ Granada
Fever Candlelight: The Best of Hans Zimmer @ Granada
Papersleeves and Freddy Fresh @ Indeed
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
Dr. Mambo’s Combo, BZ3 Organ Trio @ Mears Park
Megastellar Open Mic @ Midway Saloon
Lowdown Dirty Fools @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Young Relics @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Throwback Thursday with DJ Bootsy Ballins @ Palmer’s
- Loudon Wainwright III @ Parkway—The onetime bad boy of folk-rock (what a distinction, huh?) comes to town on the eve of his 79th birthday, which I mention primarily because he’s been making old age his subject for more than a decade, most recently on his latest studio album, Lifetime Achievement. As Wainwright puts it, “Almost all the songs I write, somehow pertain to me,” and his setlist these days includes not just seriocomic plights of the elderly like “I Remember Sex” but older vignettes about his career as a less-than-ideal father including “I Knew Your Mother” (“When love was the means, and you were the end”) and “Rufus is a Tit Man,” written before the younger Wainwright turned out very much not to be. At least that’s what I gather from Loudon Live in London, which dropped this past January—III’s fifth live collection, by my count, not counting two bootlegs that were later officially released, which is a lot of live albums for any folkie. But hey, he is old.—Keith Harris
Dean Sibinski with Loon Booster, and Sam & J @ Pilllar Forum
Danger Pins, Self Neglectors @ Schooner Tavern
Northeast Invitational @ 331 Club
Water Wave TV Presents: CITY TKOVR VOL. 10 @ Underground Music
SYNASTRY: girlblunt, *67, BEAB, Omari Eternal @ Uptown VFW
Ashtyn Barbaree with Mother Banjo @ White Squirrel
Clementine Was Right with the Favorite Things & Choke Cherry @ White Squirrel
The Over Unders, Two Weeks Past Never, & Garden Glow @ Zhora Darling
Friday, September 5
The Neighborhood Quartet @ Aster Cafe
Hans Fuerst/Jonah Walt @ Berlin
Selam "Selamino" Seyoum Woldemariam @ Berlin
2 Dykes Walk Into a Bar @ Black Hart
Some Shitty Cover Band @ Bunker’s
- Marc Ribot @ Cedar Cultural Center—As a bandleader, Marc Ribot has adapted his spiky guitar lines to Cuban montuno and John Zorn compositions over the years; he’s also taken on plenty of gigs as a sideman. (You may have heard him on Tom Waits or Elvis Costello records without knowing his name.) His last time through town was at the Dakota, fronting an organ trio called the Jazz-Bins. He’s even fronted what’s almost a conventional rock band by his standards, Ceramic Dog. But he’s not much for the standard singer-songwriter thing, so the new Map of a Blue City is a bit of a departure even for a guy whose entire career is a series of departures. Many of the album’s songs were written in the ’90s, and in addition Ribot performs the Carter Family’s “When the World’s on Fire” and sets Allen Ginsberg’s “Sometime Jailhouse Blues” to music. Tonight he’ll be joined by multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, the much-sought-after sideman who plays bass in Ceramic Dog.—Keith Harris
Two Harbors, Pink Nightmare, Lazenlow @ Cloudland
Wayne Anthony Jazz Ensemble @ Crooners
PK Mayo Acoustic Trio @ Crooners
The Here Afters @ Day Block Brewing
Lost Evidence, Tiny Traces @ Driftwood Char Bar
Katia & the Upswing @ Eagles 34
The Teardowns, Zahra Wiedmann @ 50th and France
- Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley & Stephen Marley @ Fillmore—The heir to his daddy’s vocal and moral authority, Damian seemed poised to arise as Bob’s clear successor in 2005 (whatever that meant a quarter-century after the legend’s death). Acknowledging hip-hop without wavering from reggae, Welcome to Jamrock was a commercial and artistic breakthrough, with standout production from co-headliner and half-brother Stephen. This latest tour doesn’t appear to officially celebrate the 20th anniversary of that album, but let’s face it, Damian did little to build off that achievement (aside from the 2010 collaboration with Nas, Distant Relatives, which I probably like more than you do) and neither did Stephen. But that doesn’t make it any less of an achievement.—Keith Harris
Swing Youth, Tearaway, Sleepercell, Stepback @ Flying V
Clouds So Swift @ Gambit Brewing
Man’s Best Party: A Sabrina Carpenter Night @ Green Room
Battle of the Bands @ Hinkley Grand Casino
MN String Gathering 2.0 @ Hook & Ladder
Nils Westdal Trio @ Jazz Central
Sweettooth x DMZ News Official @ The Loft
Drink 182 @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
The Customers with El Drifte @ Memory Lanes
The Blue Velvet Quarter @ Metronome Brewery
Sabin Rai and the Pharaoh @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Vishal and Sheykar @ Orpheum Theatre
Loud Sun, Katy Pinky @ Palmer’s
Maurice Jacox & We Still R @ Schooner Tavern
Caskey with ClicKlak @ 7th St Entry
TV for Dogs, Battery Eyes, Orchid Club @ 331 Club
- A Tribute to Shania Twain @ Turf Club—Everyone but fun-haters, folkie dead-enders, and sexists (lotta overlap there) now acknowledges Shania as a major country artist, and this annual tribute is the event she deserves. Last year’s iteration was one of the most fun shows I went to in 2024, and I can guarantee that this will be one of the most fun shows I’ll attend in 2025. In addition to ringleader Faith Boblett, this year’s Shanias include Andrina Brogden, Laura Hugo, Jillian Rae, Leslie Vincent, Molly Brandt, Clare Doyle, Sarah Morris, and Siri Undlin. All will be capably backed by ace cover band A Little Too Short To Be Stormtroopers. And if you’re not careful, someone will teach you how to line dance—or, in my case, try to.—Keith Harris
Jed Harrelson @ Underground Music
Crimes Against Ravers @ Uptown VFW
The Scarlet Goodbye @ White Squirrel
Johnny Sincerely Orchestra with the Gentlemen's Anti-Temperance League @ White Squirrel
Suffering Hour, Gates of Dawn, & Kostnatěni @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, September 6
The Black Keys, the Heavy Heavy @ Armory
Tim Sparks/Tom Lieberman/Ben Abrahamson @ Berlin
Selam "Selamino" Seyoum Woldemariam @ Berlin
Bad September @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Mikel Wright & the Wrongs @ Bunker’s
The Dirty Pretty, Primitive Broadcast Service, Watches @ Can Can Wonderland
Brian Halverson and Friends @ Carbone’s
- The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis with Yr Knives @ Cedar Cultural Center—On their own, the Messthetics—the rhythm section from Fugazi, teamed with guitar whiz Anthony Pirog—already have more jam than most rockers gone improv. So it was exciting to hear that the trio had teamed up with one of the most ambitious young saxophonists in jazz (early 40s still counts as young in this context). Lewis has long shown himself to be one of those guys sharp enough to know that the choice between trad and avant is a false one. His sound is big and inviting without pandering, and he slides into the Messthetics’ groove so neatly you’d think he was a regular. If you missed them at the Turf Club last year—well, you shouldn’t have, but here’s a second chance.—Keith Harris
Full Catholic (Album Release), Oyster World, Lily Blue @ Cloudland
Lodge, Coolidge @ Driftwood Char Bar
Edith Heads, Valors, Danser @ Dusty’s
Tombstoner, Infuriate, Bare Knuckle Brawl, Major Malfunction @ Flying V
Gidipolis: Dj Hyfa x Dj Guy @ Gidi
Late Night Take Out @ Green Room
Pete Quirsfield Trio @ Jazz Central
Hostage Situation with Mile32, Fraxure, Big Blok @ The Loft
Maddcat Melby @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
Troy Kittinger, Sammie Jean, the Old Smugglers @ Memory Lanes
The David Mitchell Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
Virgo Party featuring Special Edition with Jaybee @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Carrellee with Stranger Gallery, Speakeazie & Chrome Coda @ Mortimer’s
- City Country Fest @ Palmer’s—No, this is not the untimely end of Palmer’s Bar—that’s happening next week. This all-day live music blowout is just a reminder of what we’re losing when Palmer’s, a goddamn Minneapolis institution if there ever was one, closes after a 119-year run. Twelve rootin’/tootin’ local bands are slated for City Country Fest 3, which’ll begin on the patio and head inside when it gets late. Headlining (more or less) outside are Racket-approved country ace Molly Brandt and outlaw guitar-slinger Cole Diamond (aka Ryan Otte), with intriguing "emo/alt-country" outfit the Hilltop Pines closing things down in the bar. Click here to see the full lineup.—Jay Boller
Agora Bomb with Anita Velveeta, Scrunchies, and Mary Jam @ Pilllar Forum
Thunderheads @ Schooner Tavern
Strings And Heart with ISLY @ 7th St Entry
White Crosses with Beyond Forever, Dead By 50, Impossible Prom Kings @ Studio B
Pat Frederick & Notorious Rebel Fiddle @ 318 Cafe
The Broken Buckles, Witch Tree, Sigcell @ 331 Club
UFAudio, Woolly Mack and Joe & The Mechanics @ Underground Music
Milkshake: A 2000s Dance Party @ Uptown VFW
Yeah Yeah Fine with Hebbajebba @ White Squirrel
The Ballroom Surfers with Chickaboom & Troglodyte @ White Squirrel
The Del-Viles with Bury ‘Em Deep, One Big Quilt @ White Squirrel
Jason Aldean @ Xcel Energy Center
Clovers Daughter, Stoney Point, & Pity Party @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, September 7
Scarlet Rivera & Chris Mulkey @ Aster Cafe
Effy + Kwey Present: Off Wax (feat. SoulFlower) @ Berlin
Monthly Bluegrass Jam @ Caydence Records and Coffee
Cafe Accordion Orchestra @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Phine and Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
The Long Honeymoon @ Dual Citizen
- Dusty's Daze @ Dusty's—The Northeast dive’s fifth annual festival gathers Dusty’s regulars like the Bill Patten Trio and Whiskey Rock and Roll Club, flashy performers like Grammas Boyfriend and Mark Mallman, and Instrumental jazz groups Room3 and the Riffin' Trio. And all for $10!—Keith Harris
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Madison Ryann Ward @ Fine Line
The Jazz Room: Tribute to Soul @ Granada
- The Front Row Project @ Hook and Ladder—The Suburbs had to withdraw from this fundraiser, it’s true, but we still get the Shackletons and a jam led by an actual member of Foghat, not to mention Loki’s Folly, Devon Worley Band, the Melismatics, Sleeping Jesus, Products, Oister Boy and Yonder. Proceeds will go to the Project, which provides grants and studio time in honor of two much-missed local music fixtures: mega-fan Paul Engebretsen and musician Ed Ackerson.—Keith Harris
The Drift: A Night of Vinyl @ Mortimer’s
The Doobie Brothers @ Mystic Lake
Christopher David Hanson Band @ Mystic Lake
- Clipse @ Myth Live—For a solid decade, the brothers Thornton, Pusha T, and Malice, made every other dope boy on the corner obsolete, riding Neptunes beats that were so hard that even moralizing twits like me, the kind who don’t think crack dealing and automatic weapons are the best things to happen to rap or humanity, had to take notice. Their 2025 reunion, Let God Sort Them Out, starts pointedly with “The Birds Don’t Sing,” about their dead parents, with John Legend lending histrionic gravitas—sure they’ll cop to having feelings, but they’re gonna take care of that straight off so they can get back to the grimy shit ASAP. Push and Malice don’t sound as hungry as they did 15 years ago, and they now fall back on terse tough guy-isms rather than spinning hard-boiled narratives. What’s more, Pharrell’s beats don’t hit as hard as they did before his life story was told onscreen via Legos. But the duo has still got the pure bile and the skill to back it up, and you don’t get a cosign from one of the world’s biggest toy companies if you don’t know a little something about hooks. That they’ve downsized from the Armory to Myth does make me wonder how much cash this tour is pulling in, but if you doubt Clipse’s commitment to their bank accounts, well, how many street rappers would be financially savvy enough to follow up “E.B.I.T.A.” with “F.I.C.O.”?—Keith Harris
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer’s
Telula with T3LULA @ 7th St Entry
Saliva with Earshot, The Founder with Austin J. Winkler, and LYLVC @ Studio B
The Get Up Mondays with Rockabilly Mayhem @ White Squirrel
Tin Can Telephone with Roady Tate @ White Squirrel
Nako with Fierro & Waar Party @ White Squirrel
Monday, September 8
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Queer Contra Dancing @ Eagles 34
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Will They Kiss with Oceanographer and Ditch Pigeon @ Pilllar Forum
Open Mic Mpls @ Sociable Cider Werks
Nikki & the Ruemates @ 331 Club
Fu Manchu with Year of the Cobra @ Turf Club
Mumblin’ Drew’s Oldfangled Orchestrators @ White Squirrel
Silver Or Lead with Somewhere Nice, Someday & Redeemer Shane Louis & Yvonne B @ White Squirrel
