Fashion Week MN, Art in Bloom, Charli XCX: This Week’s Best Events

Welcome to Event Horizon, your weekly roundup of recommended things to do.

MONDAY 4.25

Fashion Week MN

Various Locations

Now that we’re going back to work and leaving the house more often, it’s time to get out of those PJs and athleisure. For inspiration, look no further than Fashion Week MN, a stacked series of events showcasing local looks and trends. Throughout the week there will be a variety of happenings, including runway shows, cocktail parties, talks, and open studios. A few highlights: Native Starlight, a night featuring indigenous designers; Luxe Streetwear, a runway show where seven designers will merge the avant garde with classic silhouettes; a black-and-white gala celebrating Sierra Leone. Some events are free, but most are ticketed. Check out fashionweekmn.com for a complete schedule. Through Saturday–Jessica Armbruster

Lorde 

The Armory 

Lorde’s sophomore album, Melodrama, is already considered a modern coming-of-age masterpiece. Over the years since its 2017 release, the New Zealand superstar must’ve felt pressure to at least match that record’s incandescent blasts of synth-pop perfection. Last August, we discovered that she didn’t really try to. Solar Power is a loose, breezy album that feels fit for nibbling gummies at the beach. “I felt like I could just chill out and flex a little bit,” Lorde, 25, told the New York Times. Critics mostly shrugged, and only the acoustic, Paul Simon-ish title track managed to crack Lorde’s most-played Spotify songs. After achieving a profound artistic statement one album removed from her viral teen debut, the real-life Ella Yelich-O’Connor can be forgiven for lowering the stakes on LP No. 3; she’s too damn talented to keep down for long. Remi Wolf opens. All ages. Tickets are sold out. 6 p.m. 500 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis; find more info here. –Jay Boller

WEDNESDAY 4.27

Big Thief 

Palace Theatre 

Somehow, someway, Big Thief just keep getting better. (And, if you play by our generous parameter-setting, that’s great PR for the local music scene, as singer-songwriter Adrianne Lenker has lived in the Twin Cities on and off throughout her life.) In 2019 her band took their emotionally charged, earthy indie-rock sound to thrilling new heights with two full-length albums: U.F.O.F. and Two Hands. On February’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, Big Thief let their hair down but, unlike Lorde (sorry Lorde), they keep interesting ideas bubbling over its 20 tracks. With her impressionistic songwriting and magical voice, Lenker creates a kaleidoscopic folk-rock dreamworld that doesn’t take itself too seriously. (“Spud Infinity” features prominent jaw harp, for instance.) It’s easy to call Big Thief a band at the height of their powers, but the Brooklyn-launched quartet keeps redefinding what makes them so special. Kara-Lis Coverdale opens. $32-$50. 7 p.m. 17 W. Seventh Place, St. Paul; find more info here. –Jay Boller

THURSDAY 4.28

Art in Bloom

Minneapolis Institute of Art

One great sign of spring? Art in Bloom, an annual event where florists interpret pieces from Mia’s collection as flower arrangements. Fun scheduled throughout the week includes free tours, both offered in-person and online. A morning lecture on Thursday will explore the ways in which flora inspires art, and Saturday’s schedule features flower arrangement demonstrations from Bachman’s. Sunday afternoon is all about kid-friendly fun, including making a May Day flower crown. Tip: While floral pieces will be on display for four days, it’s best to get to the museum earlier than later. Flowers are, after all, one of the most impermanent arts. Most events are free, but many require tickets. Check online for more info. 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis. Through Sunday–Jessica Armbruster

Charli XCX

Palace Theatre

You could make a case that Charli XCX is the ultimate millennial popstar. She started posting songs on Myspace back in 2008, where she was first discovered by a promoter. Her earliest shows were warehouse raves. The XCX in Charli XCX? It stands for “Charli Kiss Charli,” which she took from her MSN Messenger username. I mean. The all-caps and everything! Her songs feel fun and youthful and carefree in the same kind of way—“Boys” could certainly be the transcript of an AIM conversation I had in the early aughts—and that’s as true as ever on her new record Crash, where she jokes about doing witchy stuff with Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek and sings about making out at the airport. With Baby Tate. 18+. $39.50-$80. 8 p.m. 17 W. Seventh Place, St. Paul; more info here. –Em Cassel

FRIDAY 4.29

St. Paul Art Crawl: Schmidt’s Artist Lofts

Schmidt Artists’ Lofts 

For St. Paul’s 2022 Spring Art Crawl, the long-running event is doing things a little differently. They’ll be spacing things out over the course of several weeks rather than hosting the festival over the course of three days. Last week, festivities were concentrated in studios and galleries in the Cathedral neighborhood of St. Paul. This week, the St. Paul Art Collective is focusing on West Seventh Street, with the Schmidt Artists’ Lofts opening its doors for a variety of fun. Over 60 artists will be opening up their studios and inviting folks to check out their work. That includes gorgeous stationary from Lisa Rydin Erickson, intricate (but usable!) ceramic from Brad Menninga, cityscapes and night skies from Lisa Roy Photography, and soaps and candles from Lien’s Light of Lotus. Up next week: the Dow Building and the Midway Triangle Building. Find more info on upcoming events here. 6 to 9 p.m. Friday; noon to 7 p.m. Saturday; noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. 900 - 876 West Seventh St., St. Paul. Through Sunday–Jessica Armbruster

Brad Wenzel

Comedy Corner Underground 

"We went from a charming Black dude to a guy who looks like he was always just upside down" the very funny Wenzel riffed on Obama and Trump during a 2017 Conan set. "It's about time a comedian zinged that guy, somebody had to do it. I'm a hero.” [Takes a single beat.] “I think powdered doughnuts only exist because at some point we had to find out who was eating all the doughnuts..." So goes the zigzagging one-liners delivered by the goofy native Detroiter, who channels Minnesota hero Mitch Hedberg in a slightly more cogent fashion. His act won over Jack White—the rock icon issued Wenzel’s latest album, Sweet Nothings, via his Third Man Records. Local comic Lahiru Samarasinghe opens. $12. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 1501 S. Washington Ave., Minneapolis; more info here.--Jay Boller

SATURDAY 4.30

Minnesota Roller Derby is Back

Roy Wilkins Auditorium

After taking two years off due to COVID-19, Minnesota Roller Derby is back with two bouts this season—the first of which brings flat-track action to Roy Wilkins this weekend. This Spring Roll Out Bout features new and returning skaters on brand-new teams; they used the time off to think hard about their mission of empowering women, non-binary, and gender expansive people to “thrive and build a community around camaraderie and social responsibility.” (You can read more about MNRD’s rebranding and inclusiveness efforts here.) Wanna win a pair of tickets for Saturday? MN Roller Derby is doing a giveaway on Facebook right now. $12-$14. 7 p.m. 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; tickets here. —Em Cassel

SUNDAY 5.1

MayDay Festival 2022

Four Directions Family Center Parking Lot

After taking two years off to restructure, reboot, and, you know, avoid Covid, the MayDay Festival is back. But don’t expect it to look and feel exactly the same this year: “It’s not a parade, it’s a political-cultural festival,” the press release begins. So what exactly is going on this year? A mix of protest, artists’ work on display, and kids’ activities. Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue, an Indigenous learning group that teaches and celebrates Aztec dance, has chosen this year’s themes: immigration and International Workers’ Day. Meanwhile, Native American nonprofit MIGIZI has been working with kids to create puppets for the festival. The afternoon event will also include speeches from activists, poetry performances, and other entertainment onstage. Food trucks will be stopping by, and there will be hands-on fun for kids. 1 to 4 p.m. 1527 E. Lake St., Minneapolis.--Jessica Armbruster

Anthony Green, Laura Jane Grace, and Tim Kasher

Fine Line

Baffled by that string of names? Then this show’s probably not for you! But consider reframing it this way: Circa Survive, Against Me!, and Cursive. Green, Grace, and Kasher respectively lead those beloved post-hardcore, punk, and emo bands, and they’re forming like a ‘00s rock cerberus on the current “Carousel Tour.” Explains Grace: “We’ve challenged each other to blur the lines and join in on each other’s songs and to bring other players onto the stage with us each night.” They’ve all got more recent solo careers, but expect to hear plenty of jams from your mall-punk youth, including Circa Survive’s “Get Out,” which still sounds like Geddy Lee on Vagrant Records; Against Me!’s shout-along sellout anthem “Thrash Unreal”; and Cursive’s “The Recluse,” which beautifully incorporated cello into the most aggressive variation of the Saddle Creek sound. Mikey Erg of the the Ergs! opens. $25-$45. 7 p.m. 318 N. First Ave., Minneapolis; more info here.--Jay Boller