What's the hardest part of my job, you wonder? Coming up with a sentence or two to intro these listings every week. Sometimes I just don't have anything to say.
Tuesday, April 21
Greatest Jam on Earth @ Blues Saloon
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
Nomfusi @ Cedar Cultural Center
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Loondale, Love Squad, Jesus Was a Commie, Boomdagger @ Green Room
Old Timey Music Session @ Padraigs
Hexneurotica, Noxious Ghoul, Powerdam @ Pilllar Forum
Explosion Big Band @ Jazz Central
Steve Haskin Ensemble, Anthony Titus @ Metronome Brewery
River City Jazz @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
April Conspiracy Series featuring the Infernos, MEOWIHOLICS @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Adam Kiesling @ 331 Club
The Reasonable Doubts, Rhythm Appeal @ Turf Club
The New Havoline Supremes @ White Squirrel
Sparrowhawk, Nancy Gross, Unattractive Giant Monster @ 331 Club
Wednesday, April 22
Malevolence and Guilt Trip with Chamber @ Amsterdam
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
The Cherry Pit Open Jam @ Berlin
Jorma Kaukonen, John Hurlbut @ Dakota
Indigo Blues, Henrik, the Tells @ Driftwood Char Bar
Oh Wonder, WRABEL @ Fitzgerald Theater
Lew Apollo, Ashley DuBose @ Hook and Ladder
Maurice Jacox & the We Still R Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Prairie Clamor (Residency) @ Mortimer’s
Slaughter to Prevail, Whitechapel, Attila @ Myth Live
lovergirl x Viscacha with melpome and hercastle @ Pilllar Forum
Connor McRae Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Dopethrone, Year of the Cobra, DUG @ 7th St Entry
David Robinson & the Dedicated Friends @ 331 Club
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Uncle Kenny @ 331 Club
Temptress, Gauze @ Underground Music
Family Dinner with Doug & Sarah @ White Squirrel
Momzilla, Spiderlily, One Big Quilt @ White Squirrel
Modern Wildlife, Echo Pilot, Wish Wash @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, April 23
Deep Fortune, Hospitality Suite, Tom Crawford @ Acadia
Becky Kapell and the Fat 6 @ Animales
The Shanty Boys of Pine County @ Art House North
The Humming Room (Album Release) @ Aster Cafe
Sarah Clausen, Nelson Devereaux @ Berlin
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Mamas Ignite Collective @ Cedar Cultural Center
Grant Hart Tribute @ Cloudland
Salvaging Our Spring: Cabarplay with Dane, Prudence, Jen, and Doug @ Crooners
The Rockin’ Iguanas, Cornell Power Service @ Driftwood Char Bar
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Rochelle Jordan, Chrysalis @ Fine Line
The Jazz Room: A Tribute to Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong @ Granada
- Cornbread’s 99th B-Day Extravaganza @ Hook and Ladder—See Sunday's listings.
North Star Original Revue @ Midway Saloon
Drums of Navarone @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Bob Moses and Cannons, Oxis @ Palace Theatre
Atlanta Rhythm Section @ Parkway
Anita Velveeta, S.L.O.G, Dry Ice, Chemsexx @ Pilllar Forum
Galactic Cowboy Orchestra @ Schooner Tavern
- Grace Ives, Whu Else @ 7th St Entry—“Indie-pop” used to mean jangly guitars and sweet melodies. Now that term is more applicable to young synthwise women crafting more homespun, idiosyncratic variations of the radio hits they grew up singing along to. With her 2022 album Janky Star, Ives established herself as one of the sharpest of the pack; then she relocated from NYC to L.A., got sober, and enlisted production help from Ariel Rechtshaid. Her latest, Girlfriend, opens the door of Ives’s bedroom-pop just a crack, with electronics more densely and invitingly layered than before, and a sound that’s just plain bigger. “Lorde if the antidepressants worked,” one jerk wisely observed on Reddit, and that gets at my one cavil about Ives. She’s still finding her own voice, and I mean that literally—vocally she mimics her influences, which gives Girlfriend more of a pastiche feel than maybe intended. But at her best— when she’s riding a monster synth line on “Trouble,” launching into the blustery ballad “My Mans,” or jacking Basement Jazz on album closer "Stupid Bitches”—you can hear where she’s going next.—Keith Harris
Debbie Briggs Vintage Jazz @ 331 Club
Holy Fuck, Gus Englehorn @ Turf Club
Million.point.Million, Louse, Count Spookula, Drill Pit @ Underground Music
The Ultimate Doors Tribute @ Varsity
Smokdoubt, J-Mo On the Beat & the J-Lighters, Color Chord @ White Squirrel
Poison Ruïn, Cruelster, Laugh Track, Giallo, Citric Dummies @ Zhora Darling
Friday, April 24
Emo Band Tee Night @ Amsterdam
BJ’s Sideshow ft. Billy Johnson and David J Russ @ Animales
Dethklok & Amon Amarth with Castle Rock @ Armory
Frequency Fridays: Ladies Night @ Bazement
Jonah Walt Fusion Quintet @ Berlin
Jimmi & the Band of Souls @ Blues Saloon
Some Shitty Cover Band @ Bunker’s
Back to the Future: 90s & 2000s Hip Hop Party @ Cabooze
Kelly Moran @ Cedar Cultural Center
The Penny Peaches, Rianna Marie, J.R. Wesley @ Cloudland
Naomi Uyama and Jake Sanders @ Crooners
Demitrious Rallis Band, TWINE duo @ Day Block Brewing
Jenny & the Bets, Mill City Caravan @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub
The Right Here, Atomic Lights, Littleton, Little Lebowski Urban Achievers @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon Prom with the Tinglers @ Eagles 34
Hexneurotica, Bong Reaper, Heel @ Flying V
- Oklou, Vickie Cherie @ First Avenue—“What if PinkPantheress was French?” is not a question that I myself would ever ask, but the answer is more beguiling than I’d have expected. On her critically lauded album Choke Enough (a title she lower-cases, of course), Marylou Mayniel crafts the sort of electronic pop that relies more on synth ripples than drums to carry things forward, and though her conservatory training occasionally shows tastefully through, but those flutey keyboards are très charmant if you' re in a sedentary mood. She's less shy than diffident, but if you’re suitably chill, she might even be very glad to meet you.—Keith Harris
Arius: Prism Wasp @ Green Room
Milkfest: MILK Palace, Obadiah Gamble, Carnage the Executioner @ Hook and Ladder
The Long Honeymoon and the de’Lindas with Famous Volcanoes @ Hook and Ladder
Sunpearl (Album Release) @ Icehouse
Manic Focus + Sunsquabi @ The Lyric
Show Me Your Hits @ Mainstreet Bar
Mill City String Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
Brahms Symphony No. 4 @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Gubaidulina, Prokofiev and Mozart @ Ordway
Jeremy Messersmith (Album Release) with anni xo @ Parkway
Mary Jam, Spit Takes, C U Next Tuesday, Jenny Matrix @ Pilllar Forum
Dred I Dread @ Schooner Tavern
Slomosa, the Mainliners @ 7th St Entry
Yeah Doggos, Scott Gagner @ Terminal Bar
Some Shitty Cover Band @ 331 Club
USPOP, Pageant Dress @ 331 Club
Grieves with the Street Sweepers and Cuauhtli @ Turf Club
World I Hate, Giallo, Another Enemy, Enemy of Man, Ethic, By All Means @ Underground Music
Only Echoes, Melpomene, Phase Meridian, ...and i found a way @ Underground Music
Mill CIty Hot Club @ Volstead’s
The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel
Darkling I Listen, Hadori, Desolation Plain @ White Squirrel
Mayfly Moon, Portside Dive, Sunsets Over Flowers, Golden Satellite @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, April 25
Saturday Night Vibes: African Night Afterparty @ Bazemnt
Patrick Adkins/Charlie Bruber/Ben Ehrlich @ Berlin
Riley & the Urban Revival @ Blues Saloon
Shoeless Revolution @ Bunker’s
Strictly R&B: House Party @ Cabooze
Martin Devaney Trio @ Carbone’s
Della Mae with Half Baked @ Cedar Cultural Center
Crush Scene, Holly and the Nice Lions, the Stinkeyes @ Cloudland
Anya Menk and Ted Godbout @ Crooners
Dear Doris: Remembering Doris Day with Maud Hixson and Dan Chouinard @ Crooners
Silk and Soul: The Songs of Boz Scaggs @ Crooners
32 Headshots, Beyond Forever BLS @ Day Block Brewing
The Stretch and Friends @ Driftwood Char Bar
The Casual Chaos Club @ Dusty’s
Arm Armor, Actual Screenshot, ERRL @ Eagles 34
Disco, Always ⏤ A Harry Styles Dance Night @ Fine Line
- Transmission 25 @ First Avenue—Damn, 25 years of Transmission! DJ Jake Rudh’s post-punk/new wave/glam/darkwave/electro/etc./etc. dance night is celebrating the occasion with an anniversary event he says is “shaping up to be one of the greatest gigs of my career…and life.” And seriously, what a tradition—every Wednesday for a quarter-century, Transmission has brought folks together to connect, dance, and listen to some killer tunes together. “The 10-year anniversary at First Ave felt like an amazing reunion of 1,500 friends,” Rudh writes. “I can only imagine what 25 will feel like!”—Em Cassel
Five Iron Frenzy, Something To Do, Space Monkey Mafia @ Green Room
- Cornbread’s 99th B-Day Party CONTINUES @ Hook and Ladder—When Palmer’s Bar shut down last year and James “Cornbread” Harris lost his longstanding weekly Sunday gig, you could have easily excused the elderly gent for cutting back on his schedule some. But hey, if you’re not gonna take it easy at 97, why change when you’re 98? Or 99? Cornbread continues to perform jazz and R&B standards every Sunday at the Schooner Tavern and shows up elsewhere around town regularly as well—it’s not uncommon for him to play more than one gig a day. And after his Thursday night birthday party sold out, he added a second date this afternoon. We’re promised “some very special guests.” Will that include son Jimmy Jam, with whom Cornbread recently reconciled?—Keith Harris
- The Desert Islands 400th Episode Party! feat. JIllian Rae, Sawtooth Witch (Vinyl Release), & Sleeping Jesus @ Hook and Ladder—Every week on KFAI, host Doc makes a mixtape with a local musician or other notable. (I've guested a few times at the end of the year.) Tonight, as you've already read, marks episode 400, and if my math hasn't failed me, this makes for about eight years. Solid local lineup, including Doc's own duo Sawtooth Witch.—Keith Harris
Confluence Big Band @ Jazz Central
SoDown, Evalution, Zoska @ The Loft
70s Magic Sunshine Band @ Mainstreet Bar
The Garrett Jones Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
Ciao Bello (Album Release), Selfish Teammate, Bridal Style, Tim, a DJ @ Mortimer’s
Brahms Symphony No. 4 @ Orchestra Hall
Season Sampler @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Gubaidulina, Prokofiev and Mozart @ Ordway
Jeremy Messersmith (Album Release) with Brian TIghe @ Parkway
Nick Karcher, Spiderlily, Fireside Shadow, Honeygrl, Hot Mess @ Pilllar Forum
Twin Cities Women’s Choir @ Roseville Lutheran Church
Rec Hall, Summerdrive, Greentop @ 7th St Entry
Caribou Gone, Capital Sons, The Grande Machine @ Terminal Bar
Jason Paulson, Mike Gleason, Nate O'Connor @ 318 Cafe
Grim Lot, Model Model Homes, Safety Knife @ 331 CLub
Dead Meadow, Cory Shane @ Turf Club
RiGBY, Agora Bomb, Public Meltdown, Glencircle @ Underground Music
Ingrown, Mask @ Underground Music
Conor Lee, Matt McIntyre, Audrey Q @ White Squirrel
Homeward Bound, Baltic Avenue Neighborhood Watch, Cashmere Beige, Tim Schumann @ White Squirrel
Tomboy Takeover ft. Diane x Caiked Up @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, April 26
The Giantrinsic Cavalcade Bullrush @ Amsterdam
Al Church’s Sunday Service @ Animales
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Washington Express: DK-Sol @ Berlin
MNBS Road to Memphis Challenge @ Blues Saloon
Fresh Squeezed: A Benefit for Juice ft. TC Jammers and Greasy Meal @ Bunker’s
Piss With Style, Razor Daisies, Tree, Safety Knife @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Pretty Boy Thorson & Pals @ Cloudland
Lori Dokken Presents: A Return to Studio 54 @ Crooners
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Purgatory Creek @ Dubliner Pub
Hurricane Harold Trio @ Dubliner Pub
Sunday Trad Session @ Dubliner Pub
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
The Music of Taylor Swift & More for Kids @ First Avenue
Brandon Lake @ Grand Casino Arena
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Hook and Ladder
Obi Original and the Black Atlantics @ Icehouse
Rory Thompson: The Brahms Letters @ Metronome Brewery
Ladyslipper Ensemble @ Metronome Brewery
Season Sampler @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Gubaidulina, Prokofiev and Mozart @ Ordway
Coast to Coast featuring Colin James, Matt Andersen, & Terra Lightfoot @ Parkway Theater
Gossamer, Blucurve, Electric Church, Spud & His Buds @ Pilllar Forum
Church of Cornbread @ Schooner Tavern
Field Medic, Georgia Maq @ 7th St Entry
Marsgarb, Large Marge @ 331 Club
Barns Courtney, Belle and Chain @ Turf Club
Sybyr, Proxoxie, SYM1, Meezy @ Underground Music
Art Vandalay, Cosmoline, Caitlin Robertson, Wildrose Fox @ White Squirrel
Minds on Fire @ White Squirrel
Vice Chair, the Driftless Area, Dread Spells @ White Squirrel
Monday, April 27
Laurels String Quartet (feat. Aby Wolf & Eric Mayson) @ Berlin
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
L.A.’s Monday Nights @ Icehouse
Black Wine, Los Pinches Gueys @ Memory Lanes
Twin Cities Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Jam Society @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Metal Monday @ Schooner Tavern
Open Mic @ Sociable Cider Werks
Kellan Christopher Cragg @ Underground Music
Joyce Manor, Militarie Gun, Teen Mortgage, Combat @ Varsity
