My dilemma this week: Homeboy Sandman or Mike on Saturday night?
Tuesday, April 23
Royal Otes with Girl and Girl @ Amsterdam
Sum 41 with The Interrupters, Joey Valence, and Brae @ Armory
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
A Night of Classic Rock @ Dakota
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Rich Amiri with jaydes @ Fine Line
- Obi Original & The Black Atlantics (Residency) feat. Miloe and Klon Rose @ Green Room—Nigerian-born singer, guitarist, and bandleader Obi Original is as much at home with West African highlife as he is with modern Afrobeats, not to mention good old American funk, and he's lined up some terrific local acts for this five-week residency. Night night four brings us Miloe and Klon Rose, while inishing things off on April 30 will be Bouchet Boyz and Bigg Kiaa. Good stuff.
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Pop Punk Princess @ Mortimer's
All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge
The Ries Brothers with The Holy North @ 7th St Entry
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
Worker’s Playtime: Adam Kiesling @ 331 Club
April Conspiracy Series feat. Dan Schwartz and Nick Salisbury @ 331 Club
Silvertung & the Almas @ Underground Music Venue
Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening @ Uptown Theater
The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel
Lulu & the Shoe (Residency) with Plumstar, Emery Snow & the Flakes @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, April 24
Enterprise Earth with Inferi, Crown Magnetar, & Tracheotomy @ Amsterdam
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
Maggie's Wednesday: Mia Dorr @ Crooners
Twin Cities Hot Club @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34
- Madison Beer @ Fillmore—I think about this photo all the time.
Marty O'Reilly, Clare Doyle @ Green Room
Erik Koskinen (Album Release/Residency) with Pieta Brown @ Icehouse
Korpiklaani with Visions of Atlantis and Illumishade @ The Lyric
The Mortiholics, the Side Effects, Speed Riders, Super Flasher, Cowboy Thoughts @ Mortimer's
Madeleine Peyroux (Album Release) with Jill Sobule @ The Parkway
Weeklong Weekend, Homunculus Rex, Bird Bass @ Pilllar Forum
Down on Curfew @ ROK Music Lounge
BZ3 Organ Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Johnny Manchild and The Poor Bastards with Holdfast. @ 7th St Entry
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai @ State Theatre
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Steam Machine @ 331 Club
Dead On A Sunday with The Funeral Portrait and NITE @ Turf Club
Shauna Dean Cokeland & Brye with Second Spring @ Underground Music Venue
Sarah Morris and the Sometimes Guys @ White Squirrel
Nights with Tim @ White Squirrel
Thursday, April 25
Dustin Lynch with Skeez @ Armory
Luke Callen + Mckain Lakey @ Aster Cafe
Jaybee & the Routine @ Bunkers
Christy Costello, Con Shoal, Hutchie, Slow Death @ Cloudland
Leslie Ball and Gary Rue @ Crooners
Tres Femme: Katie Finn, Katie Gearty, and Rachel Holder @ Crooners
T. Mychael Rambo & Johnnie Brown @ Dakota
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Snowshoe, Lilac Forest, and the Very Bad Days @ Eagles 34
BLACK KRAY AKA SICKBOYRARI with AOK AKA Bootychaaain, Hunned Mill, and Kane Grocerys @ Fine Line
- Jeremy Messersmith, MAKR AN ERIS, and KC Rae @ Fitzgerald Theater—Looks like somebody made an offer on Mr. Messersmith's wonderful little house!
The Elderberries @ Ginkgo Coffee
Keep For Cheap with Big Delicious and Hazel Creak @ Green Room
- Cornbread’s 97th B-Day Party Extravaganza @ Hook and Ladder—Somebody oughta write a damn book about James Samuel "Cornbread" Harris Sr.—and, in fact, somebody has. Former City Pages music editor Andrea Swensson’s Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris is due out this summer. The one-man Minnesota music institution is, remarkably, still tearing up local stages with regularity (this very weekend he'll perform at both Icehouse and Palmer's) and tonight he’ll do what he does best while surrounded by friends, collaborators, and well-wishers. If you’re reading this far and are somehow unfamiliar with Cornbread, you should know that he’s credited with co-writing our state’s first rock ‘n’ roll recording (1955’s "Hi Yo Silver," with Augie Garcia), basically inventing the storied West Bank blues/jazz scene, and fathering another local legend (James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III). I saw Mr. Harris perform in the heat last summer at the State Fair amid the hunky firemen, and can confirm he has still got it.—Jay Boller
Rachel Kilgour (Album Release) @ Icehouse
Drums of Navarone @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Daniel Hope and Simon Crawford-Phillips @ Ordway
Tightwire, Rational Anthem, and No Encore @ Palmer's
Money Bones, Buckaroux Banshees, Trip Wire @ ROK Music Lounge
Scott Allen & the List, Tom Mason @ Schooner Tavern
- Sheer Mag with Dusk and Citric Dummies @ 7th St Entry—You get just what you expect from this Philly band's third full-length, Playing Favorites: more lo-fi hard rock '70s revivalism that's actually punchier and catchier than most of what you actually heard in the '70s. (It's like if punk had happened before Kiss formed.) Nuggets include the title track (about digging the life of a road band) and "Eat It and Beat It" ("Enjoy your last meal," Tina Halladay tells some loser before she kicks him outta bed).
Elliot Moss with Carlile @ Turf Club
Animals on LSD & Hockey Smile @ Underground Music Venue
BongReaper, Deadfoot, Madam Driver @ White Rock Lounge
Phantom Fields with The Hilltop Pines @ White Squirrel
Self Evident, Electric Hawk, The Great Went @ Zhora Darling
Friday, April 26
Pat Keen/Joe Strachan @ Berlin
Luke Polipnick Organ Trio @ Berlin
Shoeless Revolution, Funk Metropolis @ Bunkers
Honey Tree, Call Me Fritz, Tin Whiskers, Sidedoors @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Peter Mulvey & Susan Werner @ Cedar Cultural Center
The Reds, Pinks & Purples @ Cloudland
Hit Songs That Lost at the Oscars @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Rick Carlson and Charmin Michelle @ Crooners
Sigcell, Dashed, Valors, Modern Wildlife @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon's 4th Friday Sock Hop with the Southside Aces @ Eagles 34
Wakaan with Liquid Stranger @ Fillmore
Landon Conrath with Aiden Intro and 3leaf @ Fine Line
- Sierra Ferrell with Cat Clyde @ First Avenue—I get why Americanamaniacs are so smitten with Ferrell's new Trail of Flowers. Her voice is plucky and rangy, occasionally deploying a plaintive catch that's never quite forlorn, and her music is full of fiddles and whatnot without being too creakily trad. Me, I wish her songwriting was a little sharper, but I admire her spirit and am myself fairly smitten with not just "Dollar Bill Bar" but her song about chitlins.
Kaushiki and Ambi @ Fitzgerald Theater
Local Acoustic Showcase @ The Garage
Old Country Buffet & Trailer Trash @ Green Room
Kung Fu Hippies, Lolo’s Ghost, Tom Freund, Mark Joseph @ Hook and Ladder
Bryan Nichols & Zacc Harris @ Icehouse
Josh Henderson's One More Night @ Jazz Central
The Maxx Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Daniel Hope and Simon Crawford-Phillips @ Ordway
Schubert's Fifth Symphony @ Ordway
Unattractive Giant Monster, Mary Jam, and The Challenger Disaster Conspiracy @ Palmer's
The Skatalites with DJ General Moses & The Prizefighters @ The Parkway
Squinny, Kangaroo Court, Lunar Moth @ Pilllar Forum
Whiskey Burn, Cain & Co, About A Boat @ ROK Music Lounge
Hot Pastrami! @ Schooner Tavern
Dead Poet Society with Silly Goose @ 7th St Entry
Muscle Fork, Chandler’s House, Elour @ 331 Club
Daniel Romano's Outfit with Carson McHone and The Dead Century @ Turf Club
Headwar, Small Animal Hospital, Daisycutter, Slut Intent @ Underground Music Venue
Bizarre Dance Party @ Uptown VFW
Red Bull Directions with Coco & Breezy @ Varsity Theater
Odds of an Afterthought @ White Rock Lounge
The Collaboratory 4th Fridays @ White Squirrel
DJ Disco Dance Party with Michael Grey and Shannon Blowtorch @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, April 27
- Homeboy Sandman feat. E-Turn with Carnage, Medium Zach @ Amsterdam—“I drop a monumental album every couple of months,” boasts 43-year-old Queens rapper Angel Del Villar on I Can't Sell These Either, the most recent of his three 2023 releases. (He also put out an album, Rich, that clocked in under a half hour, and a holiday record, 12 Days of Christmas & Dia de Los Reyes that maybe I’ll get to this December if I’m not distracted by the other material Homeboy Sandman will certainly send our way before then.) If anything, rappers are too prolific these days—Future and Metro Boomin released over 150 minutes of music this month, in two playlisty slabs, and surely that’s at least, oh, 10 to 15 minutes too much? But Homeboy exercises quality control, and he works small-scale; where so much mainstream rap feels like someone just turned the content spigot to full blast, his EPs and brief full-lengths feel like short, insightful dispatches from a friend. If he’s got too much to say for his output to ever be flawless he’s too level-headed to ever feel less than welcome; in the skills department, it helps that he’s in it for the rhymes as much as for the self-expression. And he does drop a monumental album every couple of years. (Not months, but you know how rappers exaggerate.)
Liam Gerard + Estefania & co + Madameblu @ Aster Cafe
Pat Keen/Dean Granros @ Berlin
Mikel Wright & the Wrongs, Zaker, Gastonguay, Baarspul Trio @ Bunkers
The Dirty Pretty, Silent Halo, Ardina @ Caydence Records & Coffee
The Reds, Pinks & Purples @ Cloudland
Thomasina Petrus and the Selby Avenue Brass Band @ Crooners
Joyce Lyons and the Phil Aaron Trio @ Crooners
It Takes Two More: Broadway's Greatest Duets @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Judy Vinar and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Alejandro Escovedo with James Mastro @ Dakota
Spit Takes, Delicious Monsters, Visual Learner, Jumbos @ Dusty's
Coast Madrone, Pyrrhic Victories, Rabeca @ Eagles 34
Larry Wish + Rupert Angeleyes (Double Album Release) @ Eagles 34
12 Rods with Launder @ Fine Line
STRFKR with Ruth Radelet and happy sad face @ First Avenue
Joy Zimmerman and Ryan Dugan @ Ginkgo Coffee
- Bbymutha @ Green Room—Chattanooga-gone-Atlanta Gucci Mane fan Brittnee Moore recorded her new album, Sleep Paralysis, in the U.K., and you can hear it in the doomy bass and jungle breakbeats, but she did it without surrendering her Southern rap roots or her own voice.
Strung Out, the Casualties, Venomous Pinks @ Hook and Ladder
Joey Van Phillips Trio @ Icehouse
Lil Texas, Dionysus, and Dead x @ The Loft
High & MIghty @ Minnesota Music Cafe
DJ Sammy Figs @ Modist Brewing
2024-25 Minnesota Orchestra Season Sampler @ Orchestra Hall
Tricksy, Greentop, and Civil Decline @ Palmer's
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams @ The Parkway
TIMISAROCKER, The 1947, Until Apocalypse @ ROK Music Lounge
Becky Kapell & the Fat 6 @ Schooner Tavern
Canaan Cox with Clayton Ryan @ 7th St Entry
Through Fire, Keith Wallen, and Messer @ Studio B
- Nicki Minaj with Monica @ Target Center—With her ever-shifting array of daffy personae, her refusal to distinguish between pop and rap, and her giddy delight in world domination, Nicki Minaj redefined the possibilities for women in hip-hop a decade and a half ago. That’s just a fact. Too much social media drama and too many petty beefs with other equally deserving women later, that can be hard to remember, and despite its memory-jogging title, her latest album, Pink Friday 2, doesn’t quite recall the glory days of its 2010 predecessor. Tracks swipe hooks whole from (in decreasing order of effectiveness) Junior Senior, Lumidee, Rick James, Blondie, and Cyndi Lauper; her references are dated (Christopher Reeve and Kelly Bundy are mentioned on the same track, and on one of the good ones, too). But when she simply prances past the haters, rather than trading bitter barbs (barbz?), or looks back at her childhood, or forward to her son’s, that’s when you’ll remember the old Nicki. She may no longer be the aspirational figure she first emerged as, but I bet she still puts on a hell of a show.
Derek Johnson, Cactus Hat @ Terminal Bar
Turbo Pastel, Bethany Larson & The Bee’s Knees, Hannah Rey Dunda @ 331 Club
Augustana with verygently @ Turf Club
- Mike with 454, Niontay, & El Cousteau @ Underground Music Cafe—What a night for underground hip-hop, eh? If anything the prosaically named Mike is even more of a miniaturist than Homeboy Sandman. The New York rapper’s March 2024 album, Pinball, recorded with producer Tony Seltzer, wedges 11 tracks into 21 minutes, but never feels rushed or incomplete. Even better was Mike’s late 2023 full-album collab with Wiki and The Alchemist, highlighted by “Mayor’s a Cop,” which cut through Eric Adams’s absurdist sideshow to express the essential truth about him. (And really, what mayor isn’t a cop?) Like his kindred spirit and sometimes collaborator, Earl Sweatshirt, Mike’s not always big on articulation, but he gets his point across, and he’s not into forced tough guy routines either. He just demands that you meet him on his turf.
Infuriate, Skimask, Ice Everlasting @ White Rock Lounge
Cole Diamond Band @ White Squirrel
Celebration of Life for Bill Malachway @ White Squirrel
Saturday is Instrumental with Big Trouble @ White Squirrel
Curve (Album Release) @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, April 28
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Liz Draper/Bryan Murray/Mike Vasich @ Berlin
Kiernan, Baby Tooth, Canary Room @ Cloudland
The Beatles Reimagined @ Crooners
Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials @ Dakota
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Tyler Braden with Matt Koziol @ Fine Line
Carlos Ballarta @ First Avenue
Anna Graves. Leonard Sumner, Kelly Bado, Colin Bracewell @ Green Room
The Burnside Kimbrough Experience with Mike Gunther @ Hook and Ladder
Bill Simenson Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's
The Neighborhood Quartet (Album Release) with Dylan Hicks & Small Screens @ The Parkway
Gustaf with Ganser and MURF @ 7th St Entry
The Real Chuck NORAD @ 331 Club
Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers with Miles Nielsen & The Rusted Hearts @ Turf Club
Jenny Don’t and the Spurs with Cole Diamond @ Uptown VFW
St. Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel
Monday, April 29
Call it Anything Vinyl DJ Night with Sam Cassidy and James Taylor @ Berlin
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Citizen Soldier with Icon For Hire and HALOCENE @ Fine Line
Burning Blue Rain with Nate Walker & Friends and Kevin Gamble Quartet @ Green Room
Doug Haining Quintet @ Jazz Central
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Aidan Bissett with Stevie Bill @ 7th St Entry
The Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
Enter the Void: Further with Not All Things and Larry Wish @ White Squirrel
