Welcome to Event Horizon, your weekly roundup of recommended things to do.
MONDAY 4.11
Adia Victoria
Turf Club
Born in South Carolina and based in Nashville for more than a decade, Adia Victoria is at the forefront of a group (too loosely aligned to call a movement) of Black artists reclaiming American roots music—and Southern identity more broadly—as their birthright. On her third full-length album, A Southern Gothic, the singer channels a moody past that’s still more than present, less to revisit familiar historical nightmares than to access a tradition’s depth of feeling. T Bone Burnett’s production prickles with fewer disorienting details than Aaron Dessner summoned up on her previous album, Silences. Zone out and you might even occasionally mistake this album for more atmospheric Americana. Listen as close as you should and you’ll hear a supple singer being given the space she needs to tease unexpected resonance from a simple word like “magnolia.” With Lizzie No. 21+. $18 advance/$20 doors. 7 p.m. 1601 University Ave. W., St. Paul; more info here. —Keith Harris
WEDNESDAY 4.13
Solomon Georgio
Acme Comedy Co.
"I want to start off by letting you know that I am gay as hell,” Solomon Georgio opens his standup set. “I'm great at it, I do a great job. I was sitting there being Black, and I was like, 'Ya know what! Give me another thing.'” Flashy and six-foot-five, the 40-year-old comic is hard to miss when he appears on Conan or HBO. As a writer, he’s worked on Shrill, Adam Ruins Everything, and the High Fidelity reboot. And because every comic needs a podcast, Georgio recently launched The Juice, an extremely fun gossip show, with the backing of Conan’s Team Coco production company. His larger-than-life persona should really pop on Acme’s basement stage. $18-$37. 8 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday; 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 708 N. First St., Minneapolis; find more info here. –Jay Boller
THURSDAY 4.14
Olivia Rodrigo
Armory
Could the biggest new pop star of 2021 have filled a sports arena? Probably. But why take chances when she can also make bank by packing this smaller venue at three-figure ticket prices. Yes, but is she worth that much? Well. Sour is a front-to-end delight, and as someone lucky enough to have seen Billie Eilish pull a similar ploy just after she broke big, the open space of the Armory concentrates teen enthusiasm into an unforgettable rush. The floor will shake when “Brutal” kicks in; the unison “I still fuckin’ love you” of “Drivers License” will deafen chaperones. And if the artificial scarcity imposed by the smaller room and the inflated ticket cost leave many of her fans shut out, it’s you, the worst mom or dad ever, who’ll get blamed, not Olivia. Anyway, giving the teens whose angst her popularity relies on another reason to seethe or sulk ain’t bad business either. With Gracie Abrams. All ages. $500+ (lol). 8 p.m. 500 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis; find more info here. –Keith Harris
FRIDAY 4.15
‘90s Adult Prom
Minneapolis Cider Company
The thing about high school is that it’s a lot more fun in hindsight, when there’s a decade or more separating you from the homework, 7 a.m. classes, and socio-stressful hierarchies. Enter ’90s Adult Prom at Minneapolis Cider company, where the food is delicious (thank you Breizh Kitchen), the punch is spiked on purpose, and you don’t have to buy your dress at a store called 1 3 5. Glittery hairspray and decade-appropriate attire are encouraged, and if you think you have what it takes to be prom king or queen now that there’s a little distance between you and your high school self, you can submit your name and campaign during the party. (Don’t worry: There absolutely will be professional photos—your mom doesn’t have to snap the pics this time around.) 21+. $19. 8 p.m. 701 SE Ninth St., Minneapolis; find tickets here. –Em Cassel
Fortune Feimster
Pantages Theatre
Over the past decade, Feimster has quietly built a powerhouse comedy career. The North Carolianian began as a panelist on Chelsea Lately, broke out with a three-season role on The Mindy Project, and now, at 41, she’s headlining theaters. And hosting a daily show/podcast on Sirius XM (What A Joke with Papa and Fortune). And developing (separate) projects with Tina Fey and Steven Spielberg's production company. And starring in her own Netflix comedy special, 2002’s Sweet & Salty, where the gregarious southerner drawls through animated longform bits about growing up gay, the many charms of Hooters, and her slow rise to Hollywood stardom. $34.50-$59.50. 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 9:30 p.m. Saturday. 710 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; find more info here. –Jay Boller
SATURDAY 4.16
Rachel Collier: Field Moves
Hair + Nails
Minneapolis-based artist Rachel Collier works in “not quites.” Her pieces are not quite sculptures, not quite paintings, and not quite textiles. A rug might come with an accompanying painting. A graffiti work is folded, accordion-style, to create a partition of sorts. A piece of nylon had been taped and molded to give the piece a “chunky” texture. Collier celebrates these in-betweens. Here she plays with the subconscious, a part of the mind that is infinitely unknowable. "My paintings and textile works are ecstatic visual analogues of spaces that I believe populate our shared consciousness,” she says of her artwork. Think typography of the mind, with ever-changing possibilities. See her latest work at Hair + Nails. There will be a public reception on Saturday, April 16, from 7-10 p.m. 2222 1⁄2 E. 35th St., Minneapolis. Through May 15 –Jessica Armbruster
Magnetic Fields
Fitzgerald Theater
The problem with masterpieces is that they tend to reduce everything an artist does afterward, no matter how excellent, to a footnote. But though you’ll show up to hear whichever of the 69 Love Songs makes you swoon, weep, giggle, or tingle, Stephin Merritt’s chamber-pop outfit isn’t purely a nostalgia act. Their/his 2020 album, Quickies, offered 28 doses of concentrated smarts, and its immediate predecessor, 50 Song Memoir, which proffered a song for each year of the first half-century of Merritt’s life, was at least 50/69ths as good as the aforementioned masterpiece. For this theater tour, they’ll be drawing from the depths of Merritt’s three-decade songbook, and the night will be droll, clever, arch, moving, clever, tuneful, oh and did I mention clever? With Jake Xerxes Fussell. All ages. $39.50 and up. 8 p.m. 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul; find more info here. –Keith Harris
Neon Nightmares
Artspace Jackson Flats
Neon art demands your attention, and you will give it to “Neon Nightmares,” a gallery show featuring electric art that either has to be plugged in, requires batteries, or just uses hella bright paint. Here neon will fuck you up. It will attack your eyes, turn your stomach, and haunt your dreams. Ten visual artists have contributed pieces for the show. There’s Erik Anarchie, who has repurposed animal skulls, framing them with cool blue neon tubes. Meanwhile, Anna Hoover paints mind-melting artworks that feature purple swamped graveyards filled with crumbling tombstones and oozing skeletons. This is the kind of stuff you put on skateboards, train graffiti, wicked tattoo back pieces, and old school arcade art. Rad. See it in natural lighting first, followed by a turning down of the lights and a DJ set from SYM1 midway through the evening. Free; $10 suggested donation. 7 p.m. 901 18th ½ St. NE, Minneapolis. –Jessica Armbruster
