Some great local music on tap for this weekend, including a band I hadn't heard of a week ago and a musician who's been rocking since the '90s.
Tuesday, February 13
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Plain White T’s with Pollyanna @ Fine Line
Daphne Jane (Residency) with Yonder, Jillian Rae, Harlow @ Green Room
Cedar Avenue Big Band @ Jazz Central
Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Timeless Tuesdays: Mothers and Friends @ Mortimer's
Winter Sensory-Friendly Concert @ Orchestra Hall
The Brass Messengers & Brasszilla's Mardi Gras 2024 @ Palmer's
All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge
HEART BEATS feat Dazegxd with DAZZLE and echo @ 7th St Entry
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
- Willi Carlisle with Pop Wagner @ Turf Club—Damn straight we lefties could use some real battle songs, and on his latest album, Critterland, Carlisle is happy to oblige. “A queer and a Communist” ready to enlist “in the war that's ragin' between the haves and have-nots,” as he puts it on the title track, this folkie looks the contemporary world dead in the eye and refuses to blink, though he might occasionally give a wink and a smile. There’s real darkness here—a friend’s suicide letter that “used too many long words” and baffled the cops, the self-medicated look at mortality “When the Pills Wear Off,” and the seven-minute closer “The Money Grows on Trees,” a true crime ballad about peddling weed with police protection. But there’s hope too: If Carlisle’s ambivalent about the death of his father (“It’s still sad when bad men die”), he looks back on his humble ancestors and declares, “I won’t waste a single moment of the work that brought me here.” Me either, Willi.
Worker’s Playtime: Craig & Edie @ 331 Club
February Conspiracy Series featuring Robin Kyle, Nate Wittenberg, Ben Hoganson @ 331 Club
- Madonna @ Xcel Energy Center—Admirably if perhaps futilely, Madonna has long refused to become an oldies act. Her tours have stressed her relevance, which is of course questionable, and her artistic vitality, which really isn’t—anyone who released Madame X would have reason to be proud and an understandable desire to perform that music live. So the Celebration Tour is her long-delayed victory lap, glancing back over her shoulder at what she’s accomplished over the past (gosh) 40 years, even if, like most pop stars, the commercial and artistic peaks are frontloaded. As if to remind us she might not be around forever, a serious bacterial infection delayed this tour (this show was originally scheduled for last July). And as dotty or problematic she might seem to online puriteens, she remains incomparable, if only because we’ve quite simply never seen what a 65-year-old dance-pop superstar can do.
Wednesday, February 14
Sophia Shorai & Tommy Barbarella @ Dakota
The Bad Companions! @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Sarah Jarosz with The Ballroom Thieves @ Fine Line
Indigo De Souza with Truth Club @ First Avenue
Garden Street Band with America y los Sentimientos @ KJ's Hideaway
Smiling Cowboys Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Willow Waters with Hemma and Nikki Grossman @ Palmer's
Descend: Valentine's Darkwave Night @ Rok Music Lounge
Connor McRae Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Kxllswxtch and Fat Nick with Kamiyada+ @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Kismet Rendezvous @ 331 Club
I Love Lucy ⏤ Kiss the Tiger Pays Tribute to Lucinda Williams with Marty & Alex @ Turf Club
Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers @ White Squirrel
Driftless Revelers @ White Squirrel
Thursday, February 15
Talisk with The Trials of Cato @ Cedar Cultural Center
No Encore, Powerdam, Small Animal Hospital, Loss Leader @ Cloudland
Kathleen Johnson’s Kat Band Project @ Crooners
The Acme Jazz Company @ Crooners
Zoe Says Go, The Cellar Kings @ Driftwood
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
"Snapped" Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
Joseph Huber with Placaters @ Hook and Ladder
E-rotic: Heartbeats & High Tempos with Ariesfirebomb, Yhante, and SYM1 @ Hook and Ladder
Preston Gunderson with Laura Hugo @ Icehouse
The Prizefighters @ KJ's Hideaway
Michael Gay, Marques Morel, and Emmy Woods @ Palmer's
Silent Thunder Dubstep Pop Up @ ROK Music Lounge
Mubbla Buggs @ Schooner Tavern
- Tkay Maidza with Kwey @ 7th St Entry—The dancey Zimbabwean-born Australian Tkay Maidza has been releasing music for over a decade now, always seeming to be verge of a bigger audience. That she's never quite broken through is good news for you, because you can still check her out at the Entry. And maybe it's good news for her music too—on her 2023 album Sweet Justice, she sounds more relaxed, more at home with her beats, and sings with more personable subtlety.
Cross Pollination: Awful Offal @ 331 Club
Billy Allen + The Pollies with Turn Turn Turn and The Dead Century @ Turf Club
A Sunken Ship Irony with Cap'n Seabeard @ Underground Music Cafe
Terrorize the Midwest @ White Rock Lounge
Devaney & Friends with The International Treasures, Paul Bergen @ White Squirrel
Alonzo with Royce, Willem Dafoe Fan Club @ White Squirrel
Friday, February 16
Eric Bellinger with Zae France @ Amsterdam
The Weeping Covenant + Cassandra Johnson @ Aster Cafe
- Atlantis Quartet @ Berlin—Guitarist Zacc Harris helps break the new North Loop jazz club in by recording a live album over two nights this weekend. The quartet is rounded out by Brandon Wozniak on tenor sax and a rhythm section of Chris Bates and Pete Hennig.
No Limits: The B Sides @ Bunkers
Strongly Disagree, Psychedelic, Tuff Little Mutt @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Vacant, War//Plague, Minus Pig, Ice Everlasting @ Cloudland
Spencer Bradley and His Trustees @ Crooners
Erin Schwab and Jay Fuchs @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Charmin Michelle and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
MMEA All-State Jazz Band with Scotty Barnhart @ Dakota
Glycerin Tears, Gently, Gently @ Driftwood
- True Green (Album Release), with Ahem and LYSS @ Eagles 34—With True Green, novelist Dan Hornsby makes terrific lyric-drunk indie rock, lo-fi and unrushed, with shaky guitars supporting sturdy melodies. My favorite track on My Lost Decade starts "I grew up strong and plucky/On a wolf farm in Kentucky/We shot and skinned and stuffed them/For businessmen and Russians." Ahem will be releasing their first new music in quite a spell this year, and I'm guessing we'll get a bit of a preview here.
Andy Frasco & The U.N. with Melt @ Fine Line
All That ‘90s Party Presents 1994-2004 @ First Avenue
Clare Doyle, She Haws, DJ Rhinestoned, Howdy Partner Dance @ Hook and Ladder
Jeremy Ylvisaker + Patrick Horigan @ Icehouse
The Jorgensens @ KJ's Hideaway
The Samuel John Band @ KJ's Hideaway
BrunchBeatz x Dack Janiels @ The Loft
The Park Cafe @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Ashes Swing @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Haydn’s Salomon Symphony @ Ordway
Dilly Dally Alley, D'Funk & The Grease Monkeys, and Pandelion @ Palmer's
New Confusion, Headwar, Mold, Ode to Autumn @ Pilllar Forum
Taylor's Version @ ROK Music Lounge
Frost Children with Another Heaven, Unstable Shapes, Upright Forms, Radiator Girl @ 7th St Entry
The Crimson Boys, Blood Cookie, Grudd Wallace @ 331 Club
Matthew Sweet with Abe Partridge @ Turf Club
Names Without Numbers @ Underground Music Venue
BIZARRE Dance Party @ Uptown VFW
Night Lovell @ Varsity Theater
Greg Volker and the River @ White Rock Lounge
Prgrphs with Surrounded By Water, Lavalier (Remix EP Release) @ White Squirrel
- Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull, Ricky Martin @ Xcel Energy Center—Three sexy men. One sexy hockey arena.
Saturday, February 17
Thumpasaurus with JAMESG @ Amsterdam
The High 48’s Bluegrass Brunch @ Aster Cafe
A Piano in Every Home with Dark Bunny @ Aster Cafe
- Atlantis Quartet @ Berlin—See Friday's listings.
Dan Ristrom & The Big Throwdown @ Bunkers
Pöng Flower @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Tae & the Neighborly with Beneath Green @ Cedar Cultural Center
The Silent Treatment, Tiny Daggers, Deadly Cyclamates @ Cloudland
Jana Anderson: My Funny Valentine @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Charmin Michelle and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Bruce A. Henry Presents “Watch That Star” @ Dakota
Interceptor, Good Trouble @ Driftwood
The Bill Patten Trio @ Dusty's
All Women's Valentine Dance @ Eagles 34
Manias, The Favorite Things, Brass Elephant, Middle States @ Eagles 34
Y’all presents Cowboys & Angels @ Fine Line
Afterglow — Dreamland @ Granada
Ozone Creations, Tristan Price @ Green Room
Gothess Presents Madonna Tribute @ Hook and Ladder
The Avant Garde Presents: The Vibeout Suite @ Icehouse
Levi Schwartzberg @ Jazz Central
Gypsy Mania Hot Club Quartet @ KJ's Hideaway
Space Monkey Madia and Leslie Vincent @ KJ's Hideaway
Oliverse with J Phelpz and Klown @ The Loft
Jaybee & the Routine @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Assortment Feat. Michael Grey @ Mortimer's
MMEA All-State Choral Concert @ Orchestra Hall
MMEA All-State Instrumental Concert @ Orchestra Hall
Lunar New Year with the Minnesota Orchestra @ Orchestra Hall
Haydn’s Salomon Symphony @ Ordway
Whiskey Rock and Roll Club, Josh Sky, and Threads Electric @ Palmer's
NEIL! Martin Zellar's Tribute to Neil Diamond @ Parkway
Jay Walter & the Rectifiers @ Schooner Tavern
- Christy Costello with Screamin' Cyn Cyn & The Pons, Scrunchies, and Citric Dummies @ 7th St Entry—Christy Costello is a team player. Though she's fronted high profile local bands Ouija Radio and Pink Mink, somehow From the Dark, released last month, is her first solo album. I hate to say something corny like "It was worth the wait!" but, well, it was. Costello's songs crunch with the ballroom stomp of the early U.K. punks, and occasionally feature some postpunk sax, à la the Psychedelic Furs, who she covers. And she's supported by a top-to-bottom great lineup tonight. Show up early and spend the night.
Como Sapiens, Ausgang City @ Terminal Bar
Goodbye Mordecai, Super Flasher, Lifestyle Shakes @ 331 Club
Lostronauts, Earth to Clark, and Cruz Control @ Underground Music Venue
Club '90s Presents 2000s Night @ Varsity
Learning Curve Records Showcase @ White Rock Lounge
The Gated Community & The Beavers @ White Squirrel
Pop Wagner Tavern Trio @ White Squirrel
Altruit & Friends with Andy Fargo, Kiisu, nectar, Wild Dyl & a Sharpened Whisper @ White Squirrel
Sunday, February 18
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Justin Adams and Mauro Durante @ Cedar Cultural Center
Cloudland Jazz Matinee Series @ Cloudland
Sounds of Santana Starring Joe Cruz @ Crooners
All Sweet Things: A Celebration of Black Love @ Dakota
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Twater, Snowshoe, Wish Wash, Super Heater @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Music of Tom Petty + More for Kids @ First Avenue
Anni XO, Rosie, Aesha Minor, Elenorid @ Green Room
The Experience with Darnell Davis Featuring FM2 & Intentional @ Icehouse
Twin Cities Flamenco Collective with Bianca Rodríguez @ Icehouse
Burning Blue Rain with Cornbread Harris @ KJ's Hideaway
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's
West Band Social Club @ Palmer's
Mystery Meat with ROC BARBOZA, Small Animal Hospital, and Jenny Matrix @ 7th St Entry
Deap Vally with Sloppy Jane @ Turf Club
KNOLL with WANDERER, SABOT, & MACE @ Underground Music Venue
Vampires Everywhere @ White Rock Lounge
Music & Poetry: A Sunday Matinee @ White Squirrel
Monday, February 19
Nelson Devereaux + Chris Thompson @ Berlin
The Beatles Re-Imagined @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Squid with Water From Your Eyes @ Fine Line
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Cowaoke with Ben Moooker @ Palmer's
Eddie 9V with Trent Romens Band @ Turf Club
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
Super Special Secret Show @ White Squirrel
Enter the Void Third Monday: A Night of Sets Inspired by Portishead @ White Squirrel
