Boo, as they say. It's not quite Halloween but folks are still spooking shit up in the clubs.
Tuesday, October 21
Open Mic with DJ Cam Jones @ Acadia
Pixel Grip with Psymon Spine @ Amsterdam
Greatest Jam on Earth @ Blues Saloon
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
Buddy Holly: Oh Boy @ Crooners
Pat Donohue & Prairie All-Stars @ Dakota
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Jack & Jack with Edwin Honoret @ Fine Line
G FLIP with Beth McCarthy @ First Avenue
Elevation Worship & Steven Furtick @ Grand Casino Arena
Explosion Big Band @ Jazz Central
River City Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Grooves ft. DJ JEN-E @ Mortimer’s
Old TImey Music Session @ Padraig’s
Creekside Ruffians with the Hobbled and Sidewalk Diamonds @ Pilllar Forum
Cole Chaney with Wild Horses @ 7th St Entry
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
October Conspiracy Series featuring ditch pigeon, old smugglers, third date @ 331 Club
Workers Playtime with Dave Babb @ 331 Club
The New Havoline Supremes @ White Squirrel
Sammie Jean Cohen (Residency) @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, October 22
South Arcade with Raue @ Amsterdam
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
Love Call (Devin Drobka/Max Bessesen/Ethan Philion) @ Berlin
The Cherry Pit Open Jam @ Berlin
Dee Dee Bridgewater & Bill Charlap @ Dakota
Cal Pflum, August Guest @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Diplomacy @ Dubliner Pub
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Leith Ross with Emma Harner @ Fine Line
The Old 13 String Bandits @ Ginkgo Coffee
Albert Cummings @ Hook and Ladder
Pat Donohue & Friends @ Midway Saloon
Maurice Jacox & the We Still R Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
- Herbie Hancock @ Orpheum Theatre—For 60 years, Herbie Hancock seemed to be at the center of every great musical shift in jazz. In the ’60s, as the pianist for Miles Davis’s second great quintet, he helped adapt post-bop ideas to a small combo setting, while also adding new standards to the jazz catalog as a composer and bandleader on albums like Maiden Voyage. In the ’70s, he took Miles’s complex fusion ideas in more accessible directions, and his landmark recording Head Hunters not only drew from funk and soul but influenced subsequent funk and soul musicians. And when so many serious musicians were dismissing rap as a novelty in the early ’80s Hancock dove right in with “Rockit.” As innovators will do, Hancock has slowed down over the years, though fine late career projects like River: The Joni Letters demonstrated that neither his chops nor his mass sensibility had diminished. Now nearly 84, he won’t be on the road much longer—though I said that last year, and here he is again. If you need one last nudge, he’ll be bringing a helluva band to town with him: Terence Blanchard on trumpet, bassist James Genus, drummer Trevor Lawrence Jr., and guitarist Lionel Loueke.
Connor McRae Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Peel Dream Magazine with Products Band and Real Numbers @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Steam Machine @ 331 Club
Sean Nicholas Savage @ Underground Music
Jervis Campbell & Gable Price @ Varsity Theater
Family Dinner with Doug & Sarah @ White Squirrel
Nights with Tim @ White Squirrel
Thursday, October 23
MILK, Agony in the Living Room, Obadiah Gamble @ Amsterdam
Liz Camozzi (Composey) & Boom & Friends of Rosie Daze @ Aster Cafe
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
The Wildwoods with Emmy Woods @ Cedar Cultural Center
Geoff Jones and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Phillip-Michael Scale @ Crooners
The Outcast, Griffin @ Driftwood Char Bar
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Awake for the Fall, Duck Bomb, Cellar Door, Dirty930 @ Eagles 34
Arcy Drive with Mercury @ Fine Line
Purity Ring with yuniVERSE @ First Avenue
Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics @ Granada
Playboy Carti @ Grand Casino Arena
Snapped Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
Stone Arch Rivals (Album Release) with PaviElle French & Ryan Smith @ Hook and Ladder
Desperate Electric with Hiahli & Matcha Fever @ Hook and Ladder
Pagan Athletes, Ihavenoloveformenlikeyou, Night Market @ Klash Coffee
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
Northstar Original Revue @ Midway Saloon
Drums of Navarone @ Minnesota Music Cafe
- XTC: The Tribute—Senses Working Overtime 10 @ Parkway Theater—Respect to all the cover bands out there stomping through their favorite three-chord rockers, but this is the kind of tribute that takes dedication. These songs are like the quadratic equations of power pop.
Gossamer with Quarter Moon and Ground Flower @ Pilllar Forum
Twin Citizen, Joe Hartly @ Schooner Tavern
Meltt with Jaguar Sun @ 7th St Entry
Bob Frey & the Adaptors @ 318 Cafe
HUNNY BEAR, TH3, BENEATH GREEN @ 331 Club
Pagan Athletes, ihavenoloveformenlikeyou, Nightmarket @ Underground Music
Dwell with Ellie E. @ White Squirrel
Phantom Fields with 241’s @ White Squirrel
Coral Grief, Peeler, Despondent @ Zhora Darling
Friday, October 24
Big Wiz & Tek present TERROR AT ACADIA @ Acadia
By the Thousands with Catsclaw, Inflict, Neck Wrung, Amarak, and Your Last Breath @ Amsterdam
Jon Nath + Kameron Markworth + Suwal Singh @ Berlin
Atlantis Quartet (Album Release) @ Berlin
DJ Amy Pickett B2B Allen Hz @ Berlin
Erin McCawley’s Harrison Street Band @ Blues Saloon
DJ D-Mil + Good for Gary @ Boardwalk
Shoeless Revolution @ Bunker’s
Bitchslap!, Spit Takes, and Warcake! @ Can Can Wonderland
SPCO: Dvořák, Jlin, Moore and Navarro @ Capri Theater
Väsen + The Fretless @ Cedar Cultural Center
Colleen Raye @ Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Bernadette Spray and Friends @ Crooners
The Menagerie, Monarch Halloween @ Day Block Brewing
The Jury, Blue Lake @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub
Miss Shannon’s Sock Hop with the Tinglers @ Eagles 34
J-Mo’s Halloween Tie-In @ Eagles 34
Hallows with Stranger Gathering @ 56 Brewing
All That 90s Party with DJ Dave Paul @ Fine Line
Sir Chloe with Venus & the Flytraps @ First Avenue
Folsom Prison Experience @ Fitzgerald Theater
The O’Keefe Bros. @ Ginkgo Coffee
Kent Burnside + Mark Cameron (Double Album Release) @ Hook and Ladder
Echobass: Nocturnalia @ Hook and Ladder
EssJay TheAfrocentricRatchet @ Icehouse
Tommy Tunes Trio @ Jazz Central
Zeppo @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
Chemistry Set with Fever Pitch @ Memory Lanes
Morpheus @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Paul James Nauman @ Mystic Lake
The Goonies in Concert @ Orchestra Hall
Longview, Say It Ain’t Faux @ Padraig’s
Roc Barboza with Rx Cowboy, Million.Point.Million, and Jonny Darko @ Pilllar Forum
Rooted Through Sound @ Red Sea
Trailer Trash @ Schooner Tavern
Magoo with Buffalo Galaxy @ 7th St Entry
Deathpact with Beastboi, PHRVA @ Skyway Theare
Canadian Girlfriend, the Broken Buckles @ Terminal Bar
Bobby Rethwish, FruitPunchLoverBoy, Juunni @ 331 Club
Under Violet (Album Release) with Shady Cove and Molly Dean @ Turf Club
Blindfolded and Led to the Woods and Volcandra @ Underground Music
Fluid Frequencies Part 2 @ Uptown VFW
Mill City Hot Club @ Volstead’s
The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel
Linus Pop Punk Halloween @ White Squirrel
DPFKS with Ciao Bello & Jacob Mullis @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, October 25
Saturday Night Vibez @ Bazemnt
Atlantis Quartet (Album Release) @ Berlin
DJ Buster Baxter/DJ Greenery @ Berlin
DJ Duo Neeks and Brandt @ Boardwalk
Jenny Klukken Quartet @ Crooners
A Tribute to the LIfe and Music of Janis Joplin @ Crooners
Of the Orchard, Alley Eyes, Pity Party @ Day Block Brewing
The Gems, Zipper Merge @ Driftwood Char Bar
Becky Kapell, Jack Klatt @ Dusty’s
Fief, Mycorrhizae, Nona Invie plays Enya, Desolation Plains @ Eagles 34
Flip Phone XXL Halloween starring Alaska @ First Avenue
Jeremy Messersmith @ Fitzgerald Theater
- shugE (Album Release), Ditch Pigeon, Better Devils, Sadie Maguire @ Flying V—Did you know Flying V is moving? Actually, they've moved. They packed everything up from 1312 Broadway last weekend and are settling into their new home at 4130 Lakeview Ave., up in Robbinsdale. This show will christen the new Flying V.
Sorry For Party Rocking @ Green Room
The Magic Castles, Honeymoon Madness, Despondent @ Hook and Ladder
The People Brothers Band + Saltydog @ Hook and Ladder
- Poliça (Album Release) @ Icehouse—Quoting a press release is a hack move, I know, but in citing their "balance of warmth and detachment," the band's one-sheet for Dreams Go really gets at their essence. Guess you can only read "ethereal" so many times before you take matters into your own hands.
Trench Size Trio @ Jazz Central
Deterioration, Nakay, Necessary Death, Bifid Corpse, Obscure Visions @ Klash Coffee
Tyte Phitt @ Mainstreet Bar & Grill
Prairie Fire Choir @ Metronome Brewery
Mind out of Time @ Midway Saloon
High & Mighty @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Assortment ft. Michael Grey @ Mortimer’s
The Goonies in Concert @ Orchestra Hall
Steve Forbert + Peter Holsapple @ Parkway Theater
Admiral Fox with Doll Chaser, Another Night, and Joe Bartel @ Pilllar Forum
Elour, Annie and the Bang Bang, the Changeups @ Schooner Tavern
Six Foot Blonde with clovers daughter @ 7th St Entry
Big Gigantic, the Sponges @ Skyway Theatre
Pretty Pretty Please, Eldest Daughter, Kaat Walk @ Terminal Bar
Liam St. John with Clayton Ryan @ Turf Club
Baby Tyler Band, Visual Learner, JJ Sweetheart, & Yuasa-Exide @ Underground Music
Transmission Presents Strange Magic @ Uptown VFW
Destin Conrad @ Varsity Theater
Paul Hecht Guitar Trio @ Volstead’s
Wild Residence with 200' Away, Pullstring @ White Squirrel
Deep Fortune with Sunnbather, Planer @ White Squirrel
J. Robbins Plays Burning Airlines with Birdhands & Crash Cuddle @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, October 26
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Larry McDonough Quartet @ Aster Cafe
Old and New Friends with Bryan Nichols: We Are Many + Solo @ Berlin
Noise Party Vol. 12 @ Cedar Cultural Center
Sheridan Zuther and Ted Godbout @ Crooners
Twin Cities Sings: Chart Toppers and Show Stoppers @ Crooners
The Big 70s Singalong @ Crooners
- Johnnie Brown @ Dakota—Born in Mississippi, Brown has been gigging around the Twin Cities for 16 years now, and tonight he'll be paying tribute to gospel-tinged jazz singer Gregory Porter. But what's equally important is that Brown is opening a new venue in Uptown: The Brownstone Jazz Club, at 18th and Hennepin, is set to kick off later this year or early in 2026.
Phine and Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Hurricane Harold Trio @ Dubliner Pub
Sunday Trad Session @ Dubliner Pub
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Urban Wasteland, Buio Omega, American Muscle, Bad Idea @ Eagles 34
DayFunk with Wayne Williams @ Eat Street Crossing
- Kathleen Edwards @ Fine Line—“If this feeling/Were a currency/I would be/A billionaire,” Edwards sings on the title track for her latest album, Billionaire, and though I don't personally think that particular word needs rehabilitating, I appreciate the sentiment. Edwards takes her time: It's been five years since her previous album, Total Freedom, and she took eight years off from recording for personal reasons, before that. Maybe more songwriters should wait to make a record till that have something to say.
Halloween Spectacular @ First Avenue
Traiveon & Candi featuring Imani Waters @ Icehouse
Bryan Schamann & the Sunshapes (Album Release) @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Caps for Sale Premiere @ Orchestra Hall
Stardew Valley: Symphony of Seasons @ Orpheum Theatre
The Life and Music of George Michael @ Pantages Theatre
Church of Cornbread @ Schooner Tavern
Rags and Riches @ 7th St Entry
The Real Chuck NORAD @ 331 Club
Tanner Usrey @ Varsity Theater
Open Jazz Jam with Adam Nussbaum @ Volstead’s
Aaron James with Bury 'Em Deep & UFAudiO @ White Squirrel
Muffleur with Borrowed Time @ White Squirrel
The Dirty Pretty with Witch Syndicate & Hot Press @ White Squirrel
Molly Brandt, Diaphane, & Zander @ Zhora Darling
Monday, October 27
Joy and Melancholy, Crimson Soul, Kaylee Matuszak @ Acadia
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Good Neighbours with Nicky Youre @ Fine Line
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Slime Monsters From Outer Space with ¡Radical Fun Time! and Velvet Ghoul @ Pilllar Forum
Metal Monday @ Schooner Tavern
- Madi Diaz with Clover County @ 7th St Entry—I know, sad songs say so much, but there are also so many of them, and so many lovely voices singing them. So why did Diaz’s latest album, Fatal Optimist, click with me during a recent nighttime drive through western Minnesota? It’s a breakup album rooted in the end of her relationship with Teddy Geiger, and a well-observed one at that, adding “I wanna be someone who doesn’t know your middle name” and “Some ‘I’m sorry’s’ are so selfish” to the big book of heartbreak. And it doesn’t settle for anger or sullenness, but passes through multiple moods. Diaz’s voice hurts in such a resonant way for me, I may just revisit her past albums. OK, maybe not all six of them.
