St. Patrick's Weekend looms on the horizon in this week's calendar, but there are plenty of non-green-dyed shows to check out as well.
Tuesday, March 12
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
BabyTron with Certified Trapper @ First Avenue
- RISE + REPAIR: Climate Rally Concert featuring Annie Humphrey, David Huckfelt, & Jeremy Ylvisaker @ Hook and Ladder—The official after-party for the day's climate rally at the Capitol is also a fundraiser for Rise + Repair, an Indigenous rights/climate justice org.
- Horse Lords with Ka Baird @ Icehouse—An avant-garde instrumental rock band for folks a little leery of the excesses the tag “avant-garde instrumental rock” suggests—and also for folks a little apprehensive of the austerity with which minimalists can overcompensate for their chops-happy peers’ excesses. OK, maybe those are just my hangups, but this Baltimore quartet really knows how to balance their pattern repetition against their freeform excursions for an exhilarating tension; their music is taut but elastic. They’re calling their latest release, As It Happened: Horse Lords Live, which was culled from a series of European live performances, “a mediated, sometimes obviously edited presentation of a live performance that strives for a certain level of idealization,” so maybe don’t take that as a literal representation of what you’re in store for. But you can hear the essentials: Owen Gardner’s guitar is sometimes as spiky as African desert blues (hold the blues) and sometimes more rockishly (pardon me, but it’s true) angular; Andrew Bernstein’s saxophone flaunts a brusque tone as his improvisations turn inward; Sam Haberman sets the parameters with his subtle but never delicate drumming; and bassist Max Eilbacher sometimes hews to the rhythms, sometimes works against them, and sometimes makes funny noises on his computer. Heck, you might even be able to dance to it, if a little awkwardly. But I won’t judge you if you don’t judge me.
Cedar Avenue Big Band @ Jazz Central
Nova Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge
Mihali with Push & Turn @ 7th St Entry
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
Worker’s Playtime: Mike Munson @ 331 Club
February Conspiracy Series feat. The Pistol Whippin’ Party Penguins @ 331 Club
Waylon Jennings Tribute with The DL4, Bill Litzau @ White Squirrel
Mothobsidian (Residency) with Dog Gamn, Pure Shifter @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, March 13
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
Right in the Eye: Live Movie Concert @ Cedar Cultural Center
Maggie's Wednesday: Andrew Crowley @ Crooners
- Luna with Sam Blasucci and Chatham Rise @ Fine Line—Quite simply, Luna shreds. Stepping aside from the dreamy college rock of Galaxie 500 at the end of the ’80s, Dean Wareham formed one the great guitar bands of the ’90s—which is to say, given the prominence of that instrument in that decade, one of the great guitar bands period. Luna could still be plenty dreamy on occasion, but Wareham’s mordant wit (”Heading for Tacoma/And driving too fast/Nixon's in a coma/And I hope it's gonna last”) and sharp knack for a melody kept them from drifting off. And you gotta catch them live. I’m not saying I’d rather listen to Luna Penthouse Live (recorded in San Francisco in 2017 and released in 2022) instead of the career highlight album that it reproduces in full. But I am saying that I wish I was there. And that I’ll be here tonight, especially since they’ve been copping to their influences recently by studding their setlists with songs from the Velvet Underground and Television. (Wareham wrote a nice reminiscence of Tom Verlaine here.) They’ve occasionally been closing with “Marquee Moon.” Fingers crossed.
Bombay Bicycle Club with Mustard Service @ First Avenue
Candlelight Classic Rock with Strings @ Granada
Lighter Co. (Residency) with Big Delicious + Dalmatian Club + The Cameras @ Icehouse
Big Woods Brass @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Chelsea Cutler with Yoke Lore @ Palace Theatre
Willow Waters (Residency) with Carlisle Evens Peck and Lulu & The Shoe @ Palmer's
Soul Flower, The Eli Brunelle Trio, Rose, Tarias and The Sound @ Pilllar
Damn Phibian, Bird Bass, Weeklong Weekend @ ROK Music Lounge
Connor McRae Band @ Schooner Tavern
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Greg Cheech Hall @ 331 Club
Fox and Bones with Mind Out of Time, Daniel Bonespur @ Underground Music Venue
Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers @ White Squirrel
Jeremy & the Lords of the Universe with Clash Mike Rockers, Linus @ White Squirrel
Thursday, March 14
Sarah Curruchich @ Cedar Cultural Center
Motion Mosaic, Solshade, Vin, Pop Star @ Cloudland
Judy Niemack and John DiMartino @ Crooners
The Robert Everest Expedition World Music Ensemble @ Crooners
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
- Colin Bracewell (EP Release) with Chutes, creeping charlie and Pit Stop @ Fine Line—I met Bracewell's mom at First Ave's Best New Bands show in January and she was very nice! But that's not why I'm spotlighting this gig. I'm really into the singer-songwriter's new single "Julia" (from the new EP, Cozy), which shows off his winning falsetto and features a nicely trick horn arrangement.
Candlelight Tribute to Adele @ Granada
Radical Denominators @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs @ Palmer's
D.C. Leonhardt, Peter Hayward, Luke Lynell @ ROK Music Lounge
Dan Israel Band, Edie Rae and Craig Duo @ Schooner Tavern
Post Sex Nachos with Fox Royale and Silver Warehouse @ 7th St Entry
Cole Diamond, Marc Ridge, and Mickyle James @ Underground Music Venue
Small Animal Hospital, New Confusion, Luddgang @ White Rock Lounge
A Jason Molina Celebration @ White Squirrel
Selfish Teammate with Stressica, The Controversial New ‘Skinny Pill’, VISA カード@ White Squirrel
Speakeazie (Single Release) @ Zhora Darling
Friday, March 15
- Hurray For The Riff Raff w. NNAMDÏ @ Amsterdam—Aging punks still awaiting the second coming of Joe Strummer probably weren’t expecting a queer Puerto Rican non-dude from the Bronx with an acoustic guitar to come closer to fitting the bill than any mere man, but it ain’t 1977 no more, pal. Not to saddle Alynda Segarra, very much their own artist, with that sort of baggage, but Segarra does embrace rock heroics and political purpose with a verve few younger songwriters dare today. On Hurray for the Riff Raff’s latest The Past Is Still Alive, released last month, the folk-punk visionary bolsters their scope and intensity with sharp-eyed details from life on the road, of hopping trains and sleeping on buses, graffitiing oil cans and shoplifting dinner. At 36, Segarra is old enough to mourn lost acquaintances and old enough to fret that other friends might join them, namechecking Narcan while noting “a war on the people” that has her peers ODing on fentanyl. She’s even old enough to worry about her own path forward, singing “I'm becoming the kind of girl/That they warned me about.” Or was that how they once felt in the past? Maybe both. The achievement of The Past Is Still Alive is to live up to its name, capturing our present tense as an accumulation of memory and experience. Absolutely come early for the tremendous experimental pop/R&B artist NNAMDÏ.
Echoes At Midnight + The Farewell Season @ Aster Cafe
The Good, the Bad, & the Funky @ Bunkers
Screaming Orphans @ Capri Theater
Ratliff, LVNDSCVPES, Armarock, Fair!e @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Cedar-Riverside Time Machine: Part 1 @ Cedar Cultural Center
The Songs of Grant Hart @ Cloudland
Charmin Michelle and the Wolverines Trio @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Colleen Raye and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
RIVER: The Music of Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon @ Crooners
Swingin' on a Star + Miss Shannon's Dance Lessons @ Eagles 34
The Paper Kites with Boy Golden @ Fine Line
Arlo Parks with Chloe George @ First Avenue
Video Game Music and Art @ The Garage
Pleezer, Trompe Le Monde, Smile Like You Mean It @ Green Room
The Park Cafe @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Express Concert: Bach’s Double Violin Concerto @ Ordway
Grouplove with Bully (solo) @ Palace Theatre
Spit Takes, Butter Boys, Mary Jam and GWEN @ Palmer's
Mark Mallman with DJ Jake Rudh @ The Parkway
DESCEND: THE MUATAS & Darkwave DJ Night @ ROK Music Lounge
Mia Dorr & the Funkin' Bluesers @ Schooner Tavern
Mike Mains & The Branches with Druzy Rose and Tricksy @ 7th St Entry
Lovely Dark, Aesha Minor, Lazenlow @ 331 Club
The Ike Reilly Assassination with Molly Maher @ Turf Club
Caster Volor, KOBB, For Your Entertainment @ Underground Music Venue
The Bad Companions with Railroad Island @ White Squirrel
- Olivia Rodrigo @ Xcel Energy Center—What I love most about Rodrigo and her second album, Guts, is the way her self-awareness never undercuts her impulsiveness, but never justifies it either. On “Bad Idea, Right?” and “Get Him Back!” she’s hilariously analytical about her bad decisions, sometimes even before she makes them. She autopsies past relationships unsparingly on “Vampire” and “Logical,” and she understands stardom from the inside (“Teenage Dream”) and out ( “All-American Bitch”). And she does this all with the “let’s try this” confidence of a star making the most of her moment. I’m not sold on some of the ballads, which aren’t meant for me anyway, but I suspect a full-arena singalong might demolish my reservations. No one in 2023 is transmuting heartbreak, jealousy, insecurity, and angst into pure pop pleasure anywhere near on her level
- Monica LaPlante, Unstable Shapes, Müllet, Total Gaze @ Zhora Darling—Have you checked out a show at the new NE hotspot yet? (I haven't.) This one should rock a-plenty.
Saturday, March 16
The High 48's Bluegrass Brunch @ Aster Cafe
Teague & the Paddy Wagon @ Aster Cafe
The Good, the Bad, & the Funky @ Bunkers
Finick @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Grosse Isle with Morcava @ Cedar Cultural Center
Scrunchies, Boy Tyler, Buio Omega, Jumbos @ Cloudland
The Oscar Song Sing-Along with Dan Chouinard @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Colleen Raye and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
The Bill Patten Trio @ Dusty's
Blank Human, Morp Gorp, and New Age Karen @ Eagles 34
NC Kenny Elementary Fundraiser @ Eagles 34
The Paper Kites with Boy Golden @ Fine Line
Mclusky with Ganser @ First Avenue
Ryan Picone and Ben Abraham @ Granada
Flatfoot 56, Koffin Kats, Supportive Parents, and Loss Leader @ Hook and Ladder
Áit Ait, Superior Siren, and Anothernight @ Hook and Ladder
Jaybee & the Routine @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Assortment feat. Michael Gray @ Mortimer's
Express Concert: Bach’s Double Violin Concerto @ Ordway
Ladies R&B Kickback Concert with Next @ Orpheum Theatre
Rich Mattson & The Northstars with Tiny Daggers @ Palmer's
Tiger Blue, Stay at Home Astronaut, Fate and Chaos @ Pilllar Forum
HyperAlt Dance Party: SYM1, Serenity, butangel420, 3125 @ ROK Music Lounge
Erin McCawley's Harrison Street @ Schooner Tavern
fish narc and Horse Head with Zubin @ 7th St Entry
YEAH Doggos, MY BUDDY ERIC, The Hazy Phase @ Terminal Bar
Savage Aural Hotbed @ 331 Club
Harbor & Home with Russ Parrish & The Lone Oaks and Faith Boblett @ Turf Club
Video Age with Sean Nicholas Savage & Despondent @ Underground Music Venue
Feed the Dog's Shamrock Shakedown: Day One @ Uptown VFW
Avant Joik: Katarina Barruk, Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, and Matti Aikio @ Walker Art Center
Pop Wagner Tavern Trio @ White Squirrel
Jailbreak!: A Thin Lizzy Tribute @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, March 17
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Dave Power’s March Madness: Damage Controller with Pat Keen and Kate Saiorse @ Berlin
Blarney! with Erin Schwab, Dan Chouinard, and Dane Stauffer @ Crooners
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
The Paul Stewart Show @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Daði Freyr with Blusher @ Fine Line
KMFDM with Cyanotic @ First Avenue
Easeupkid with Amateur Hour, Jonny Darko, Mary Jam, Squirm @ Green Room
Gospel Brunch: The Experience with Tonia Hughes Kendrick @ Icehouse
Twin Cities Flamenco Collective with Vicente Griego & La Gracia @ Icehouse
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer's
Josiah and the Bonnevilles with Mon Rovîa @ 7th St Entry
Feed the Dog's Shamrock Shakedown: Day Two @ Uptown VFW
Dorian Electra @ Varsity Theater
St. Paddy's Day @ White Squirrel
Monday, March 18
Dylan Gosset with Ole 60 @ Amsterdam
Goldings/Bernstein/Stewart Organ Trio @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Other Country Ensemble @ Eagles 34
Monday Nights with JT Bates ft. Solo Act by Eri Isomura @ Icehouse
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Cowaoke with Ben Moooker @ Palmer's
Sir Chloe with Daffo @ 7th St Entry
Morgan Kavanagh + Riley Skinner @ 331 Club
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
Donna Missal with Banoffee @ Turf Club
Gnaw, Security Footage, Sleeper Cell, Bad Supremacy @ White Rock Lounge
Enter the Void Third Monday: A Night of Sets Inspired by Grouper @ White Squirrel
