You've got two great two-day local music showcases to choose from next weekend: Palmfest at Palmer's and the Underground Music Festival at the Underground Music Venue. Actually, the Underground fest runs from Friday to Saturday, and Palmfest from Saturday to Sunday, so if you're feeling adventurous you could make a three-day romp out of both.
Tuesday, July 25
Colin Bracewell @ Bryant Square Park
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
- Lucinda Williams @ Dakota—This intimate five-night stand will give Williams an opportunity to share a little insight into her life and music, and since the alt-country queen has Minnesota ties—she met her longtime manager/collaborator (and eventual husband) Tom Overby when he was working at a Minneapolis Best Buy, and the couple got married onstage at First Avenue in 2009—so expect a little bit of local color. And you can probably also expect the new song "Hum's Liquor," about Bob Stinson and featuring his half-brother Tommy. That's one of the darker moments on Williams latest, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart, which, as the title suggests, rocks out with less fuss than she has in recent years.
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Jarad Miles & The Ancient Waves @ Father Hennepin Bluff Park
- Gogol Bordello with Puzzled Panther @ First Avenue—Eugene Hutz’s manically cartoonish frontman routine has always belied a certain political earnestness. His breakneck Roma-punk fusion championed cultural impurity as a vision of the future, and the way he centered immigrants as key figures in the erasure of borders allowed him to embrace a kind of anarchy far beyond hardcore thrashers who fell back on regimented musical styles. On Gogol Bordello’s latest, Solidaritine, his music takes on a new urgency—you may have read a thing or two about what’s going on in Ukraine, Hutz’s birthplace (from which his family fled when he was a child), and things ain’t looking too great over here in his adopted country, either. To prove he’s not playing with you, Hutz fires up Fugazi’s “Blueprint” done as a halftime Roma raveup, and he enlists Bad Brains’ H.R. to help him declare this “The Era of the End of Eras.” (“And it’s just begun,” he adds.) And, as all of us had better, he recognizes the limits of radical individualism too: “Look at us all/Pining for what can be done in unity.”
Mother Banjo + Megan Bee @ Icehouse
The Gifted Handz Experience @ Icehouse
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra Open Rehearsal @ Jazz Central
Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Dave Mason with the Outlaws @ Pantages Theatre
Flower Vase Cut, Temporal Riff, Bite Back @ Pilllar
Jake Giller with Kelvino, ROC BARBOZA, Zateb @ 7th St Entry
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
Worker’s Playtime with Charlie Parr @ 331 Club
July Conspiracy Series featuring The Beavers, Big Cat & Treehouse @ 331 Club
Des Rocs with King Falcon @ Turf Club
Trevor McSpadden & Mary Cutrufello @ White Squirrel
Egg Girl Girl (Tuesday Night Residency) with SASS, Lake Davi, DJ Mommy Long Legs @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, July 26
Theo Langason, CB., and Sophia Deutsch @ Cedar Cultural Center
Mid-Seral featuring Sammie Jean Cohen @ The Commons
The Flamin' Oh's @ Como Park Conservatory
Maggie's Wednesdays: Mia Dorr @ Crooners
- Lucinda Williams @ Dakota—See Tuesday's listings.
KYM and Orthe & Mighty Missoula @ Driftwood
Gueriella Poubelle, Arms Aloft, The Slow Death @ Eagles 34
Runaway Ricochet, Space Monkey Mafia, Dial Tone @ Green Room
Marvelous + Soulflower + _TheLovingLight + Bear in the Forest @ Icehouse
Harbor & Home @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Maurice Jacox with the We Still R Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
BZ3 Organ Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Dad Bod, Odd Prospect, Anita Velveeta, and In Lieu @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Rich Lewis Band @ 331 Club
The Arcadian Wild with Jac Thompson @ Turf Club
The Knotties, Scorched Waves, & Joe Bartel @ Underground Music Venue
Nights With Tim @ White Squirrel
Thursday, July 27
Brooke Elizabeth with Samuel Ketcham @ Aster Cafe
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunkers
Billy McLaughlin with Nathan Wilson @ Crooners
Charanga Tropical with Yolanda "Yuya" Rodriguezl @ Crooners
Tim O'Brien Bluegrass Band @ Dakota
The Golden Toad, Empires of Delirium @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
WHUT/Ice Everlasting/Agony Reigns/Blodwar @ Eagles 34
Zaq Baker Birthday Bash with Kate Malanaphy, and Delicate Friend @ Green Room
Sugaray Rayford + Blood Brothers with Lightnin’ Malcolm @ Hook and Ladder
Discus, the Supermodels, Yellow Ostrich @ Icehouse
Friend Dog with Collapsing Stars + Spine Stealers @ Icehouse
Twin Cities Mobile Jazz @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Drums of Navarone @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs @ Palmer's
Say She She with Abby Jeanne @ 7th St Entry
The Appleseed Cast & Muscle Worship @ Underground Music Venue
Airship Caravan with Pullstring, Green @ White Squirrel
Thomas Rhett @ Xcel Energy Center
Friday, July 28
NATL PARK SRVC with 12th House Sun, OKNICE, & Zophia Dadlez @ Amsterdam
Shakey Graves and Lucius @ Bauhaus
Kashimana with ShaVunda Brown @ Cedar Cultural Center
Doug Anderson and Lori Dokken @ Crooners
Jim Caruso's Cast Party @ Crooners
Sherwin Linton: The Johnny Cash Story @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Colleen Raye and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
- Lucinda Williams @ Dakota—See Tuesday's listings.
Michael Quinn & the Bourbon Kings @ Driftwood
The Minor Setbacks, Nosio @ Driftwood
Stomachache, Forms in Nature, Efface, Martha Fisher, Baltic Furs, Juhyo @ Eagles 34
Verdin Brothers, Squinny, Matt Sowell @ Eagles 34
Matt Watson with Ben Beal @ Fine Line
Hot in Herre ⏤ 2000s Dance Party @ First Avenue
Airlands, Ylvisaker, PRINTS @ Green Room
Laura Alaina with David J and Monique Smaz @ Hilde Performance Center
Jon Sullivan Band and People Brothers Band with Twine Duo @ Hook and Ladder
The Pop Wagner Tavern Trio @ Icehouse
Dylan Safer Band & Friends @ Icehouse
Amateur with Cosmic Orphan @ KJ’s Hideaway
MN Sinfonia @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Charlie Doesn't Surf @ Loring Park
Capri Big Band @ Minnehaha Bandstand
The Original Westside Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Super Flasher, Clidesfeld and Rat Castle Jazz Ensemble @ Palmer's
Luke Callen and Humbird @ Palmer's
Antibuddies, Rat Bath, Party Foul, RiGBY @ Pilllar
Renegade System X David Forbes X Ganesh @ Studio B
SYFN/Fauna Sauna/Grag Volker @ Terminal Bar
Gentleman Speaker, Valors, Loon Booster @ 331 Club
GA-20 with Jack Klatt @ Turf Club
- Underground Music Festival @ Underground Music Venue—Two days of great local music at a North Loop venue you've maybe been meaning to check out for a while. On Friday, headliners Heart of Gold are supported by the likes of playful goofs the Miami Dolphins and rap-rockers Killusonline. Saturday's headliners, miloe, are joined by a slew of bands that includes clever shoegazers Spaceport and the magnetic performer Huhroon.
Two Peace Suite @ Water Works
The Collaboratory 4th Fridays @ White Squirrel
Saturday, July 29
GRAVEZIG, Die Ghost, VVolf Mask, Echoes of the Fallen, & Cretin Avenue Hop @ Amsterdam
The Sudden Lovelies @ Aster Cafe
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunkers
Mick Sterling Presents The Songs of Hall and Oates @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Geoff Jones and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
- Lucinda Williams @ Dakota—See Tuesday's listings.
The Real Imaginary Numbers @ Driftwood
Goatroper and Friends, Scott & Odie @ Driftwood
Tiny Daggers, Nemesissy @ Dusty's
Battery Eyes, Time Room, Dear Mr. Watterson, and Skulpture @ Eagles 34
Infuriate, Arid, Infantile Disease, Flower Vase @ Eagles 34
Red Bull BC One @ First Avenue
Social Animals with Colin Bracewell @ Green Room
Andy Grammer with Devon Cole and Anna Graves @ Hilde Performance Center
Frogleg (Album Release) with Brotherhood of Birds & Qlivia @ Hook and Ladder
Aesha Minor (EP Release) with Minigolf and Tacklebox @ Icehouse
Dean Magraw and Davu Seru @ Jazz Central
Wayne Baker Brooks @ KJ’s Hideaway
Cody Steinmann Trio + Bryan Murray with Thomas Woytko Sextet @ KJ's Hideaway
Minneapolis POPs @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Johnnie Brown Experience @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Sleeping Jesus, DI Ivories, The Dead Bolts, Muun Bato @ Mortimer's
- Palmfest 2023 @ Palmer's—The West Bank dive's annual two-day summer fest kicks off on Saturday with over 12 hours of music, beginning outside at 1 p.m. with the Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs, finishing sometime early the next morning inside with Goo Goo Mucks, and featuring sets from Cindy Lawson, River Sinclaire, the Black Widows, and a whole lot more in between. Sunday kicks off again at 1 p.m., with 96-year-old treasure Cornbread Harris followed by another stacked lineup that includes Pit Stop and Theyself. Drink specials, including ones on pick-me-up bloodies, are promised; grub from The Angry Line Cook Food Truck (purveyors of the one of the best smash burgers in the city) and Wrecktangle Pizza (purveyors of the country’s best pizza) will be for sale on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
REMIXER with DJ JEN-E @ Palmer's
Javier Trejo @ Schooner Tavern
binki with ernest rareberrg @ 7th St Entry
Avenged Sevenfold with Alexisonfire and Kim Dracula @ Target Center
Splimit / Alley Mattress / DJ Nercronancer / MC Comedian James Thomas @ Terminal Bar
Unattractive Giant Monster. Jacket, C.N.S.P. S/O/L/O @ 331 Club
L’Éclair with sunking @ Turf Club
- Underground Music Festival @ Underground Music Venue—See Friday's listings.
Dirty South Dance Party @ Uptown VFW
Feels So Close: An EDM Golden Era Dance Party @ Varsity
Saturday is Instrumental with Big Trouble and Bill Caperton @ White Squirrel
Taylor James Donskey, Hana Fleur, Bob Frey @ White Squirrel
Sunday, July 30
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
John Magnuson Trio with Tom Lieberman @ Aster Cafe
The Glory Of Love with Dorothy Doring @ Crooners
A Night at the Theatre: A Tribute to Queen @ Crooners
Craft Organ: Featuring Dylan Salfer and Katie Gearty @ Crooners
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Katey Belleville & Those SOBs @ Icehouse
Erin Rogue @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Minneapolis POPs @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Monkey Temple & the Connection, Ramos & Santoshflow @ Minnesota Music Cafe
- Palmfest 2023 @ Palmer's—See Saturday's listings.
Permanent Record: Siamese Dream 30th Anniversary Tribute @ Parkway Theater
Thomas Mac with Hailey James @ 7th St Entry
Emmy Woods, Kaylee Kitzman, Luke Lynell @ White Squirrel
Danger Pins with Rebecca Fritz, Danny Sigelman @ White Squirrel
Monday, July 31
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Goth Babe with Husbands @ First Avenue
- Billy Woods and Kenny Segal @ Green Room—Woods released two terrific albums last year, Aethiopes and Church, that showcased how his use of dense, allusive rhymes had crystalized into an unignorable style. Turns out that was only a warm-up. On Maps, a collaboration with producer Kenny Segal, the New York rapper flaunts his idiosyncratic ability to combine the abstract and the hyper-specific, rapping bout “smokin’ alone in a cardigan” at his desk while overhearing the commotion after a Carti show empties out, singing the praises of "NYC Tapwater," and wrapping things up with a verse about pondering his mortality while watching his kid play on the jungle gym that's striking in its directness.
- Brandon Commodore (Monday Residency) with L.A. Buckner Trio and Omar Abdulkarim Quintet @ Icehouse—Cross-genre drummer Commodore (Sounds of Blackness, Mint Condition) closes out his monthlong residency at Icehouse by selecting two great young local bandleaders. Buckner is a hard-hitting but nuanced drummer with gospel-funk roots who's knocked me out whenever I've seen him. I haven't caught trumpeter/flugelhornist Abdulkarim with his own band yet, but he shone with MMYYKK at the Dakota in June (with Buckner drumming).
No Limits the B-Side Band @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Graveslave, Defiled Sacrament, BLOODGEON, and Nekrotisk @ 7th St Entry
The Roe Family Singers @ 331 Club
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
