It's cooling off and (more to the point) getting real dark out there, and it's time for you to make a decision. Are you gonna start hibernating already or are you gonna get out there to some gigs?
Tuesday, November 18
Gasoline Lollipops, the Placaters @ Amsterdam
Justin Spenner Presents B-Sides @ Barely Brothers
Greatest Jam on Earth @ Blues Saloon
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Karaoke @ Eagles 34
Minus the Bear, Into It. Over It. @ First Avenue
Rage for the Raise with Splendid, Collective Fate, Busey, Fear the Dark, Rakuyo @ Flying V
Chameleon, Grub Time, Peony Park, Sidewalk Diamonds @ Green Room
Explosion Big Band @ Jazz Central
River City Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Grooves feat. DJ Jen-E @ Mortimer’s
Old TImey Music Session @ Padraig’s
Venturer, Agony in the Living Room, Waterworks @ Pilllar Forum
Bernadette Spray @ 7th St Entry
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
Ingested, Ov Sulfur, Distant, Crucifixion, Cell @ 318 Cafe
Jumbos, Alpine Shepard Boy, Emerson Island, Ditch Pigeon @ Terminal Bar
November Conspiracy Series featuring mike munson @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with David Huckfelt @ 331 Club
- Danny Brown @ Uptown Theater—Good news: Danny Brown is still alive. The nasal Detroit rapper’s latest album, Stardust, is the first he’s made fully sober, and like most former addicts in the first flush of their new lives, he’s brimming with gratitude, positive vibes, and earnestness. No, that doesn’t always make for the sharpest rap lyrics, though “What You See” vividly voices regrets for Brown’s days as a horny, manipulative dirtbag. And the beats he rides are more multidimensional than ever: Brown worked with a series of hyperpop producers this time out—folks with names like Quadeca and Femtanyl—and their abrasive neon glitchiness suits his acerbic cadence. Stardust feels like a transitional pink cloud of an album, understandably preoccupied with what it’s like not to die. Next time let’s hope Brown is ready to remember what it’s like to live. After all, how many rappers get to start over again at 44?
The New Havoline Supremes @ White Squirrel
Third Date (Residency) @ White Squirrel
Neva Dinova & TABAH @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, November 19
- Hayes Carll @ Amsterdam—Often-sardonic troubadour Carll opens his heart up wide on his latest, We're Only Human, and the title track is genuinely inspirational in its modest way. I of course prefer him at his less earnest, as on "Progress of Man (Bitcoin & Cattle)," a rambling examination of how human excess is murdering the planet—I admit I can't resist the way he rhymes “Dolores”/”rainforest”/”divor-ess.” Snarky or sincere though, he's one of the good guys.
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
Velvet Revolutions: Pieta Brown ft. The Open Field Ensemble @ Berlin
The Cherry Pit Open Jam @ Berlin
Entheos, Fallujah, The Zenith Passage, Tracheotomy @ Cabooze
1 Mic, 1 Cable, 30 Minutes @ Carbone’s
Alune Wade @ Cedar Cultural Center
Strange Lot, Magic Castles, Squinny @ Cloudland
Kitchen Patrol and Joe @ Day Block Brewing
TC Jazz Fest Benefit @ Driftwood
Tom Dahill and Ginny Johnson @ Dubliner Pub
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong with Dizgo @ Fine Line
Open Mic with Neal Dimick @ Ginkgo Coffee
TRSH, Sports, Thoughts on Bowling, Kerosene Heights @ Green Room
Tofte Lake Center Presents: Echoes from the Lake @ Icehouse
Pat Donohue and Friends @ Midway Saloon
Ghazz Reed Karaoke Blast @ Minnesota Music Cafe
SJ with Fiona Hayes and MONARCH @ Pilllar Forum
Swamp Poppas @ Schooner Tavern
Wine Lips with Mr.Phylzzz @ 7th St Entry
Freak of the Week @ Terminal Bar
Molly Maher and Jeff Ray @ 318 Cafe
The Gentlemen’s Anti-Temperance League @ 331 Club
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Mississippi Hot Club @ 331 Club
Larrikins, SOF, baddiver, Mulch Men @ Underground Music
St. Paul Mudsteppers @ White Squirrel
Venturer, Peeler, Mild Manner @ White Squirrel
Vice Chair, Velahsa, Customers @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, November 20
False Start, Paul Kinkade @ Acadia
Mayfly Moon, Toadstool, & Bad Weather @ Amsterdam
Renae Gage, Said Kelley @ Aster Cafe
Velvet Revolutions: Pieta Brown ft. Dream #9 @ Berlin
Velvet Revolutions: Sylvee & The Sea @ Berlin
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Dazzling Killmen, Vaz, Arctic Universe @ Cloudland
Connie Evingson Sings the Beatles @ Dakota
The Outcats, Drew Sudbury @ Driftwood Char Bar
Mary Cutrufello @ Dubliner Pub
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Karaoke @ Eagles 34
Snörkler, Constant Insult, Hot Pursuit, Rubberman @ Eagles 34
Steam Machine, Fiddlin' AJ Srubas and Friends @ Eagles 34
The Castellows with Hayden Blount @ Fine Line
Rodney Crowell with The Secret Sisters @ Fitzgerald Theater
Candlelight: Best of Hip-Hop on Strings @ Granada
Hurrey and Waite @ Ginkgo Coffee
Candlelight: A Tribute to Taylor Swift @ Granada
Pentatonix @ Grand Casino Arena
Snapped Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
The Front Porch Swingin’ Liquor Pigs with Cornbread @ Hook and Ladder
Dahlia Jones + Grant Vague @ Icehouse
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
The Monsterful Wonder Band @ Metronome Brewery
Curtiss A @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Young Relics @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Father Paranoia, Donny Thrax, Skelly666, Killery Kiy, Bluntwitch @ Pilllar Forum
2428, Rodents @ Schooner Tavern
Winyah with Edgehill @ 7th St Entry
Cross Pollination: Knife Emoji, Greater Goods @ 331 Club
- Rhett Miller @ Turf Club—For more than two decades, the breathlessly quavery Old 97’s frontman has maintained a solid if unflashy solo career on the side, and that means a lot of time on the road. Miller’s latest, A Lifetime of Riding by Night, both documents and transmutes into fiction the strain such a career can inflict on family life. We can assume “All For You” is autobiographical and “Ellie on the Wharf” pure imagination, but only Miller and his wife can tell you how much truth there is in a terrific line like “Tonight I will be lonely in the arms of someone else.” The album was recorded last year just before Miller underwent career-endangering surgery to remove a cyst from his vocal cords, which may explain the emotional directness here. He’s fine now (whew) but that’s one more reminder of how tenuous the career of an aging musician can be. I’m Miller’s age, don’t have to travel for work, and I sympathize with the grind. It’s a situation rendered more acute by the recent death of a guy who couldn’t afford to quit touring, the brilliant singer-songwriter Todd Snider, just a few years our senior and celebrated posthumously by Miller with the heartfelt “Song for Todd Snider.” The loneliness of life on the road was once a boring rock star cliche; now it’s a labor issue.
Mareyes, Terran Baretta, Cottonwood Shivers, Def Sonic @ Underground Music
Slime Monsters from Outer Space, PXSSVM, Art of Amoeba @ Underground Music
Devaney & Friends with Aaron James @ White Squirrel
The Hell and the Quiet, Stone Arch Rivals, the Symptones @ Zhora Darling
Friday, November 21
Mila Vocal Ensemble, Traki @ Amsterdam
Spiritbox with Periphery + Honey Revenge @ Armory
Michael Shynes and DGS @ Aster House
Kinetic Presents: Haute Carl @ Berlin
Karaoke in the Lounge @ Black Hart
DJ Scriblz, Junk FM @ Boardwalk
Dan Ristrom & the Big Throwdown @ Bunker’s
Brown Sugar: An R&B Experience @ Cabooze
Local Dope $#%T @ Can Can Wonderland
Lutheran Heat, Tight Whips, Night Job @ Cloudland
Colleen Raye and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
The Shabby Road Orchestra @ Crooners
Stringdingers with Bentley, Blake, and Haskin @ Day Block Brewing
The Strolling Clones, Manual Transmission @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub
Dabbler Creek Hobby Farm presents Autumn Almanac @ Eagles 34
Grande Machine, Miss Georgia Peach, Challenger Disaster @ Eagles 34
Cassandra Johnson @ 56 Brewing
Portugal. The Man, La Luz @ First Avenue
Samara Joy @ Fitzgerald Theater
Candlelight: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons @ Granada
Candlelight: The Best of Hans Zimmer @ Granada
Larry Carpenter and John Seymour @ Ginkgo Coffee
Pearcy DeMartini Performing the Music of Ratt @ Hinckley Grand Casino
Rangers (Album Release) @ Hook and Ladder
Hipshaker MPLS @ Hook and Ladder
Hayden Pedigo with Jens Kuross @ Icehouse
LENT, The Lamellas, Alpine Shepherd Boy @ Klash Coffee
Trick Shift @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
Funktion Junction @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Daniel O’Donnell @ Mystic Lake
Søndergård Conducts Brahms Requiem @ Orchestra Hall
Mississippi Hot Club @ Padraig’s
Of The Orchard with Joey Bonner and Nick Rivers @ Pilllar Forum
The New Feral Cats @ Schooner Tavern
K-Winterland⏤Top KPOP Hits Night @ 7th St Entry
Caribou Gone, Capital Sons @ Terminal Bar
King James Version, Danser, Mishi Mega @ 331 Club
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band @ Turf Club
Nico Play, Lily Blue @ Underground Music
Yelawolf, J Michael Phillips, Jt Loux @ Uptown Theater
Erik Koskinen with LaPlant Road @ Uptown VFW
Chris Holm & Friends @ White Squirrel
Dumpster Juice, Rad Enhancer, Nott, & WILBUR @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, November 22
Cave Canary, Eldest Daughter, Juliet Catherine @ Acadia
Stranger Things: The Dance Party @ Amsterdam
Tape B with ALLEYCVT, MPH @ Armory
New Prescriptions Benefit Concert for HCMC @ Aster Cafe
The Willie August Project @ Berlin
Transcendence Cabaret @ Black Hart
Reverend Raven and the Chain Smokin' Altar Boys featuring Westside Andy @ Blues Saloon
Crescent Moon X Big Trouble @ Bryant Lake Bowl
The Good the Bad & the Funky @ Bunker’s
Jada LaFrance, Oceanographer, Joan of Profile @ Can Can Wonderland
Doug Collins & the Receptionists @ Carbone’s
Brighde Chaimbeul with Sara Pajunen @ Cedar Cultural Center
Syko Friend, Queerth, Nona Invie @ Cloudland
Colleen Raye and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Patty Peterson and Friends @ Crooners
The Flaming Double Wides, the Rockin’ Iguanas @ Driftwood Char Bar
Spud & His Buds, Orchid Club, Calavrosa, Otto Van @ Dusty’s
Sweet Pea, Good Morning Midnight @ Eagles 34
The Murder City Devils with Buildings @ Fine Line
DEBÍ TIRAR MÁS FIESTAS @ First Avenue
Bleached Cross, Valeska Suratt, Death Rattle, Loum, Spinal Fluid, Darkling I Listen @ Flying V
Tommy Bentz Band @ Gambit Brewing
Candlelight: Best of Hip-Hop on Strings @ Granada
GRRRL SCOUT Presents: Mature Content @ Icehouse
Jeffrey Merrill @ Jazz Central
Jacuzzi Puma @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
Jess Burns’s Birthday Show @ Memory Lanes
Slovczech, Soul Trouvere @ Metronome Brewery
High & Mighty @ Minnesota Music Cafe
DJ Bryan Angeles @ Modist Brewing
64th Annual Marching Band Indoor Concert @ Northrop
Søndergård Conducts Brahms Requiem @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite @ Ordway
Gypsy Mania Hot Club @ Padraig’s
- The Beths with Phoebe Rings @ Palace Theatre—I’d never have pegged Elizabeth Stokes as a fellow depressive. Though she sings her share of bummers, this New Zealand quartet’s front-Beth comes across as a relatively even-keeled person—maybe it’s just the accent. In fact, Stokes wrote the songs for the band’s latest album, Straight Line Was a Lie, after filling her first SSRI scrip. It’s no insult to say there’s nothing here as brilliant as the title track from 2022’s Expert in a Dying Field—I’d say the same about most albums released in 2025, and few of them have a song that comes as close as “Metal” (“So you need the metal in your blood to keep you alive/And you read the compass in your eyes so you can stay right/So you surf the earth's magnetic core to keep you aligned”). And I’d be hard-pressed to find a more lovely sentiment to share with an old friend than “Never change, unless you do/Unless you want to.” They were wonderful when I saw them at First Ave in 2023, and I expect nothing less this time around.
Mama Digdown's Brass Band with Yazmin & Beat Zero ft. Havana Quartet @ Parkway Theater
Joshua David & the Midwestern Bells, Uncle Muskrat, Highland Grove @ Pilllar Forum
Thunderheads @ Schooner Tavern
Vandlux with Rules @ 7th St Entry
The Bored @ Sociable Cider Werks
Pearl Monkey, Menagerie @ Terminal Bar
Mullet, Shrimp Olympics, the Anesthetics @ 331 Club
Ha Ha Tonka, clovers daughter @ Turf Club
Rada K & The Cicadas, Clean Plate Club, Mikey Marget x Band @ Underground Music
T La Shawn, Arvell Genius, Minnesota Vice, Catrina Lamore, Sole2dotz @ Uptown VFW
Giant Valley String Band with Blue Groove @ White Squirrel
13 Howell, Steph Was & The Secret Izz, TH3 @ White Squirrel
Sunday, November 23
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
A Cabaret of Gratitude: Presented by Lori Dokken @ Crooners
Swing Harvest with BluLuna @ Crooners
Davina and the Vagabonds @ Dakota
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Emerson Woodshed Collective @ Dual Citizen
Twin Prop Plane @ Dubliner Pub
Sunday Trad Session @ Dubliner Pub
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Kitchen Dwellers with Them Coulee Boys @ Fine Line
The Figments Show @ Green Room
Lea Kalisch & Her Shtetl Cabaret with Jewbalaya @ Hook and Ladder
Rory Thompson: The Brahms Letters @ Metronome Brewery
Almost a Band @ Metronome Brewery
Friends in Recovery Music Festival @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Pursuit, Caustic Abyss, Bare Knuckle Brawl, Major Malfunction @ Pilllar Forum
Church of Cornbread @ Schooner Tavern
Graham Barham with Highway Home @ 7th St Entry
The Real Chuck NORAD @ 331 Club
Open Jazz Jam with Ethan Ostrow @ Volstead’s
The Stress of Her Regard @ White Squirrel
The Jeff Becker Band @ White Squirrel
Bryan & The Haggards, Jump Loop, The American Songbook @ White Squirrel
Atomic Lights, Rat Fight, PSA, Skulpture @ Zhora Darling
Monday, November 24
Massive Mondays Reggae @ Cabooze
Karaoke Night @ Driftwood Char Bar
Resist!: A Group Sing Event @ Dubliner Pub
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Candlelight: The Best of Hans Zimmer @ Granada
MN Hard Bop Collective Feat. Ian Duerr and Abebi Stafford @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Honey Grl, Gossamer, Spiderlily, Flicer @ Pilllar Forum
Metal Monday @ Schooner Tavern
