Plenty to pick from in this week's gigs—the massive two-day Yacht Club alt-retro roundup for those of you who think you miss the '90s, BTS (not that BTS) and YLT for those of you who really do, two big shows at DIY space Flying V, and a weekend stacked with local release shows.
Tuesday, July 15
Actor Observer with Sonic Sea Turtles, Tom’s Foolery, & Crush Card @ Amsterdam
Honey Please @ Bryant Square Park
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
Maryna Krut with Red Thread @ Cedar Cultural Center
North Star Chorus & Parade of Quartets @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Matt Hannah @ Father Hennepin Park
Igor & the Red Elvises with Black Widows @ Hook and Ladder
Sam Breckinridge @ Metronome Brewery
River City Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Grooves ft. DJ Jen-E @ Mortimer’s
Old Timey Music Session @ Padraig’s
- Built to Spill and Yo La Tengo @ Palace Theatre—Really, what is there to say about this show? If you want to see a Built to Spill/Yo La Tengo double bill in 2025, you know exactly who you are. These two bands of indie lifers don’t even have new albums to plug. But BTS guitarslinger Doug Martsch has a great new (and young) rhythm section in Melanie Radford on bass and drummer Teresa Esguerra. They rocked the hell out of First Ave when celebrating the 30th anniversary of There’s Nothing Wrong With Love last year, and they also juiced up Martsch’s best new album in years, When the Wind Forgets Your Name. Yo La Tengo, of course, has had the same three members for over 30 years now. “A Yo La Tengo show has solidified into a tradition without calcifying into a ritual,” I wrote about their 2023 show at First Ave—if you’re on the fence, check out this setlist.
2w33dy, Spiritual Frenzy, Daisy Chains @ Soft Cult Studio
Ditch Pigeon and Friends @ Terminal Bar
July Conspiracy Series featuring the Beavers, Doug Otto and The Getaways @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Jack Klatt @ 331 Club
The New Havoline Supremes @ White Squirrel
Sunny Duchess, Deletist, & Storm Coffee @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, July 16
John Louis & Caitlin Robertson @ Aster Cafe
1 Mic, 1 Cable, 30 Minutes @ Carbone’s
- Yeison Landero @ Cedar Cultural Center—The grandson of Colombia’s “King of Cumbia," Andrés Landero, Yeison L. has been dubbed “the heir of Cumbia”—quite a claim considering how that elastic genre’s family tree has branched out so in so many directions. But where his contemporaries have pushed cumbia into rock, hip-hop, and electronic styles, Landero the younger hews closer to his grandpa’s folkier sound. To hear him pump away on his accordion outside on the Cedar Plaza seems like an excellent way to while away an early evening in July.
Time Room, American Cream Band, Fend @ Cloudland
Jazz on the Prairie Big Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Kitchen Patrol and Joe @ Day Block Brewing
Michael Grooves Band @ Driftwood
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Grant Peeples, with Mary Rancone @ Ginkgo Coffee
Atomic Beat @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Jack Knife and the Sharps @ Marjorie McNeely Conservatory
JazzWire Twin Cities Summit Show @ Metronome Brewery
Karaoke Blast with Chazz @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Mortiholics, Jack Swagger, Moonlit Mushroom, Chad Erickson @ Mortimer’s
101.1 K102 Secret Show @ Myth Live
The Swell Season @ Orpheum Theatre
Mary Cutrufello’s the New Havoline Supremes @ Palmer’s
Todd Rundgren @ Pantages Theatre
Jennifer Lyn and the Groove Revival @ Parkway Theater
Oceanographer with National Park Svc and Finick @ Pilllar Forum
Blue Ox, In the Company of Serpents, Cache, and Lungs @ 7th St Entry
Tower, CHEMSEXX, Texture Freq @ Seward Cafe
Swamp Poppas @ Schooner Tavern
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Sweet Magnolia @ 331 Club
Hans Halstead, J'Mere. YG Solo, Rawtwhylah @ Underground Music Venue
St. Paul Mudsteppers @ White Squirrel
Flicker with Lent & Bright Young Things @ White Squirrel
Zeta, Quail, & Popstar @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, July 17
Jaspar Lepak & Zippy Laske @ Aster Cafe
Dave Sewelson/Matt Hollenberg/Steve Hirsh @ Berlin
Echo Trail @ Bryant Square Park
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Shamarr Allen @ Cedar Cultural Center
Real Numbers, Tom Henry, Quinn A. Robinson @ Cloudland
Storytellers: The Great Songs of Billy Joel, Paul Simon, and Jim Croce @ Crooners
The Kenny Reichert Quartet @ Crooners
The Belfast Cowboys @ Crooners
Guys Who Used to Work Together, Chris Davies and the Afterparty @ Driftwood
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Perv Goggles, DeBlitzed, Vice Chair @ Eagles 34
3BallMTY with DJ Cristian Baca @ First Avenue
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Brit Taylor @ Fitzgerald Theater
- Haywire, Dose, Identity Crisis, Sleeper Cell, SuckerPunch, Bound By Unity @ Flying V—As you may have read here, Flying V in northeast Minneapolis is quickly becoming a focal point for local hardcore. And now touring bands are noticing, with Boston’s Haywire making a stop as part of their mammoth 71-date (!) tour, supported by a slew of fierce Minnesota bands.
Bug Hunter and the Narcissist Cookbook @ Granada
Snapped Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
Greenway Buskers @ Ginkgo Coffee
Grain Trio feat. Kevin Gastonguay and Aby Wolf @ Icehouse
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar
Annie and the Bang Bang with Maria and the Coins @ Mears Park
Jessie Street Band @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Dark Click with Curtiss A @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Young Relics @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone @ Orchestra Hall
Riddim Driven with DJ I Roach @ Palmer’s
American Bootleg @ Park Tavern
Heavy Diamond Ring with Dot Operator @ Pilllar Forum
2428, Danser @ Schooner Tavern
Radiochurch with Emily Rhea and Juliet Farmer @ 7th St Entry
Cross Pollination with Knife Emoji, Plumstar, Lion Or Gazelle @ 331 Club
Emery with Have Mercy and Good Terms @ Turf Club
SYFN, Weeklong Weekend, and Silent Monday @ Underground Music
Dale Watson and His Lone Stars @ Uptown VFW
Devaney & Friends @ White Squirrel
Crush Scene with Sylvia Dieken @ White Squirrel
Little Man, Savage Moods, & Silverteens @ Zhora Darling
Friday, July 18
- 7L with Joogornot, Wyfy, Nothingxhurts, Optns, Kat Von Dutchess @ Abi’s—Did you know Abi’s has DJ nights now? Every week the Salvadoran restaurant holds an event called Takeover Thursdays, and this week is no exception (see Thursday’s listings above). But they've got a special event for tonight with dubstep duo 7L—not the hip-hop producer who worked alongside Esoteric, my fellow Czarface fans, but "a destructive force when summoned into the Earth Realm." Hey, that's where I live! I’ve been a fan of Abi's food since they were still located near Lake and Bloomington, and I’ve been a little concerned about how easy it can be to get a table, so I'm glad they're cementing their place in the community.
90s Dance Party with DJ Dimitry Killstorm @ Amsterdam
Follow the Firefly @ Aster Cafe
Charlie Bruber & Jack Barrett @ Berlin
Anderson Daniels, DJ D-Mil, the White Keys @ Boardwalk
Billy Johnson & the Hill Cats with Coolidge @ Bunker’s
Local Dope $#%T @ Can Can Wonderland
- Scared of Chaka, Greg Wheeler and the Plly Mall Cops, Bermuda Squares @ Cloudland—None more Gen X named, Scared of Chaka are Albuquerque punks from the ’90s who worked on the garage side of the punk street and influenced a messload of younger scrappers to follow their path. Once they split up, singer Dave Hernandez wound up playing bass on and off in the Shins, but now they’re back on the road with something they’re hesitant to call a reunion tour. On each of their two nights at Cloudland, they're supported by fellow garageophiles (Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops from Des Moines tonight, Chinese Telephones outta Milwaukee tomorrow) and killer local bands (tonight Bermuda Squares, who specialize in "clever pop for dumdums," and tomorrow Makin’ Out, whose Living in a Glass House is one of my favorite local 2025 releases).
Reid Kennedy Trio ft. Rachel Holder @ Crooners
Emo Daycare (Reunion) with *Splash* and Ditch Pigeon @ Day Block Brewing
Leviathan, Blank Slate Gossamer @ Driftwood
Phase Meridian, Intrinsic, Doppelganger, And I Found a Way @ Eagles 34
Rich Larson & Friends, Clara Rose @ 50th and France
WUB CLUB: Vol. 2 - SCHMUX @ Green Room
Chastity Brown with Anna Devine @ Hook and Ladder
Hipshaker MPLS @ Hook and Ladder
- XINA (Album Release) with Freaque @ Icehouse—“I want to take you deep into presence, into reflection, into the world of IRON X, the Spiritual Awakening of the Self-Identified,” is how XINA speaks of this multimedia show, with typically allusive grandeur. More prosaically, this is a release party for XINA’s new EP, IRON X, 20 minutes of shapeshifting vocals writhing around squelchy beats ideal for those of us who find FKA Twigs too delicate. There will be dance. There will be film. There will be A Lot.
The Court Revelers @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Wicked Garden @ Mainstreet Bar
Fat Chance Jug Band @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Ray Covington @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Rujen, Good Doom, Ciao Bello, Embahn @ Mortimer’s
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone @ Orchestra Hall
Donell Jones, Keke Wyatt, & Carl Thomas @ Orpheum Theatre
Bonnie Drunken Lad @ Padraig’s
Ameen Taahir, QT?, Lil Tank, Solana, JustHANO, RZ Shahid, and DJ Minnie Blanco @ Palmer’s
Miracle Blood with Baumgardner, Strange Fuzz, and Small Animal Hospital @ Pilllar Forum
Jimmi and the Band of Souls @ Schooner Tavern
Laney Jones and the Spirits @ 7th St Entry
INAARA, Gauze, Echo Signal @ Terminal Bar
Jon Garon & The Prairie Ferrets with Richard Kriehn @ 318 Cafe
third date, Bunny Blood, Dog Gamn @ 331 Club
SIFYN, Odds of an Afterthought @ Underground Music
Chris Holm & Friends @ White Squirrel
Pretty Pretty Please with Sammie Jean Cohen & Allison Dig @ White Squirrel
ExactlyNo, Tender Comrade, Too Late, But Still, & Align @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, July 19
Unattractive Giant Monster @ Acadia
The Falisafe with VIA, The Modern Era, & The Montoya Machine @ Amsterdam
Raspberry Festival Rooftop DJ @ Bear Cave Brewing
Patrick Adkins & Ryan Garmoe @ Berlin
Abebi Stafford (Album Release) @ Berlin
Hipshaker Presents Worldwide Discotheque @ Black Hart
The Good, the Bad, and the Funky @ Bunker’s
- Scared of Chaka, Chinese Telephones, Makin’ Out @ Cloudland—See Friday’s listings.
Endless Summer with Maud Hixson @ Crooners
Dizzy feat. Tommy Barbarella @ Crooners
One World: A Tribute to Sting and the Police @ Crooners
The Fabulous Hackmasters, Calavro @ Driftwood
The Bill Platten Trio @ Dusty’s
Towering Abomination, Frontal Assault, Glutton for Punishment @ Eagles 34
Can't Feel My Face: 2010s Dance Party @ Fine Line
Murder by Death with Laura Jane Grace @ First Avenue
BED BY 10PM - 30+Daytime Clubbing @ Green Room
- Minnesota Yacht Club @ Harriet Island—Do you remember the ‘90s? Festival bookers are betting big that the generation with the most disposable income (or, failing that, the most torpedoed dreams of saving for home ownership) have love for Clinton-era music, because that’s the dominating trend for fests like the second-annual Yacht Club. This year promoter C3 Presents (Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits) deviated from the format with the top-of-bill acts for opening day, the inexplicably popular Hozier and the appropriately popular Alabama Shakes, followed by Train (yeesh!), Sheryl Crow (sure!), and Father John Misty (new album, Mahashmashana, rocks). Saturday brings headliners Fall Out Boy and Weezer, two deathless holdouts from rock’s last commercially viable period, and then you’ve got O.A.R., Remi Wolf, Cory Wong, Silversun Pickups, and Minneapolis-launched synthy emo stars Motion City Soundtrack. Finally, on Sunday, the reliably rocking Green Day co-headline with Sublime, which is now fronted by the surviving son of the original frontman, Bradley Nowell; 311, Garbage, Beach Bunny, the Beaches, and Blind Melon round out perhaps the fest’s deepest day. Among the locals scattered throughout Minnesota Yacht Club: Mike Kota, Maygen & the Birdwatcher, Raffaella, Laamar, and Landon Conrath.—Jay Boller
Our House: The Music Of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with Taming The Tiger @ Hook and Ladder
Mareyes, CB., and TJD @ Icehouse
Louie Schurrer and Gary Denbow @ Jazz Central
Codd Dubz with Sqishi @ The Loft
Rolling Stoners @ Mainstreet Bar
Jaybee and the Routine @ Minnesota Music Cafe
DJ Bryan Angeles @ Modist Brewing
Tannins, Curve, Zero Place, Vinyl with The Drift @ Mortimers
Joshua Schmidt Duo @ Mystic Lake
2025 Tour Lao-Hmong @ Myth Live
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone @ Orchestra Hall
WRRC, Loss Leader, Atomic Lights, Rad Owl, Lutheran Heat, the Strait A’s @ Palmer’s
Twin Cities Trans Mutual Aid with Gothess, Dana Kazuko, DJ Dazzle, Serotinous @ Pilllar Forum
Erin McCawley’s Harrison Street Band @ Schooner Tavern
- Mati (Album Release) with Orlando & the Rumors and Morgan McCarthy @ 7th St Entry—Some Can Relate, out this week, may be this Ethiopian-born Minnesotan's full-length debut, but his preceding EP's were hardly slapdash. Still, you can hear his tuneful flow maturing on his characteristically introspective advance tracks "Different" and "Say." Smooth R&B throwbacks Orlando & the Rumors and singer/rapper Morgan McCarthy round out a solid local lineup.
Storm Coffee, New Age Phonograph, Chief Opossum @ Terminal Bar
The Crimson Boys, Porch Knights @ 331 Club
Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the Marshall Tucker Band @ Treasure Island Amphitheater
Corsair, Lapse of Fate, The Lamellas @ Underground Music
Lucinda Williams Tribute with Carolyn Young & The East Lake Jazz Workshop @ White Squirrel
Jeff Becker Band @ White Squirrel
Boozewa with Husband Lost At Sea & new confusion @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, July 20
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Ella Grace (feat. Kenny Reichert) @ Berlin
Noise Party Vol. 11 @ Cedar Cultural Center
Stan Big Bone Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Feeling Groovy: Simon & Garfunkel Tribute @ Crooners
The Zacc Harris Group @ Crooners
Cate Fierro Performs Sade @ Crooners
Greats Gone 2 Soon Presents: The Men of Motown @ Dakota
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Sam Barber with barrett @ First Avenue
- KillUsOnline (Album Release), Falling with Scissors, Sunny Mondays, Sustained Critical Injury @ Flying V—Two Flying V shows in one week! Just wanted to note that this is a very cool place for a band with I guess you could call "mainstream scene rep" (i.e., the Current knows who they are) to have a release show at a DIY space. On What You Get Away With, these rap-rock revivalists continue to rage against machines (no word on whether they publish zines), and they reliably bring in the noise and bring in the funk live. This doubles as a 30th birthday for “Anna B,” and though I’m not acquainted I congratulate her on aging out of her 20s.
- Minnesota Yacht Club @ Harriet Island—See Saturday’s listings.
A Night of Classic Soul @ Hewing Rooftop
The Bong Show 8.0 @ Hook and Ladder
JazzWire Summit Finale Concert @ Icehouse
Night Shift Dance Party @ Icehouse
Overdressed Duo @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Minneapolis Pops @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Ghost Kitchen, Kurt Russell's Muscles, Fumbler @ Mortimer’s
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone @ Orchestra Hall
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer’s
The Okee Dokee Brothers @ The R.O.C.
Ace Monroe with Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg @ 7th St Entry
American Aquarium with Kristina Murray @ Turf Club
On Hiatus and January @ Underground Music
Railroad Earth and Yonder Mountain String Band @ Utepils Brewing
The F*all, God Came From Space, VVolf Mask @ Zhora Darling
Monday, July 21
Andy Green, Brandon Jordahl @ Acadia
Twin Cities Trumpet Ensemble @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Queer Contra Dancing @ Eagles 34
Ryan Picone Quartet @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Cowaoke with Ben Moooker @ Palmer’s
“Womenfolk Presents” Kelley Smith, Megan Bee, and Mother Banjo @ 331 Club
- Oso Oso @ Underground Music—Long Island Jade Lilitri is eternally beloved by Pitchfork, particularly critic Ian Cohen, who tells us that last year’s Life Till Bones is a “darker” addition to the Oso Oso catalogue. From my less-immersed vantage point, I hear choruses about ordinary relationship difficulties (“I got a lot to apologize for”) expressed simply but memorably, though it’s true that Lilitri does confess “I can’t be happy every day.” The horror!
