Yes, it's here for real—outdoor music season. Sure, shows have been braving the iffy spring weather before now, but beginning this week our parks will be engulfed in live music. Though if you'd rather squirrel yourself away inside, that remains an option.
Tuesday, May 26
Greatest Jam on Earth @ Blues Saloon
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
Kurt Rosenwinkel Trio @ Dakota
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon’s Camaraderie @ Eagles 34
Rightful Heirs @ Father Hennepin Park
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Tim Sparks, Tom Lieberman and Ben Abrahamson with Shank Hagedorn Duo @ Metronome Brewery
Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Helen, Ben Vogel, Mega Flower Power @ Pilllar Forum
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
May Conspiracy Series feat. Willow Waters and the Earthtones, Obsidian James @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Jeff Ray @ 331 Club
Old Town Tuesday Night Jam @ Whitey’s
Wednesday, May 27
Second Breakfast String Band @ Acadia
Eat It Up! H.O.T.D.I.S.H. Militia Benefit Show @ Amsterdam
One-Man Shows & Immaculate Flows with L.A. Buckner & Midwest James @ Berlin
The Cherry Pit Open Jam @ Berlin
- Marisa Anderson, Matthew Rahaim @ Cedar Cultural Center—Portland guitarist Anderson didn’t just call her latest release The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music as a clever play off the title of 78 rpm collector Harry Smith’s monumental 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music. A few years back, Anderson wheedled access to a stash of Smith’s holed away in Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center; she began digitizing and learning to play recordings from around the globe. The nine songs on this collection are ”UnAmerican” in an extraterritorial rather than the McCarthyite sense, but they’ve also been chosen because they represent areas the U.S. government has delineated as enemy territory during Anderson’s lifetime: southeast Asia, the U.S.S.R., the Middle East. The mood varies from meditative to ecstatic, augmented occasionally by violin, and when, for instance, Anderson adds bluegrass figures to an Uzbek tune, it’s not a forced fusion of styles, but an exploration of affinities. This is the kind of show the Cedar is made for.—Keith Harris
Honky Tonk Jump with Pop Wagner @ Crooners
- Robert Glasper @ Dakota—Born late enough (1978) to come up on hip-hop and neo-soul, Robert Glasper is probably best known outside of jazz for his keyboard work on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, which was integral in defining that album’s sound. In the past two decades, he has achieved crossover success at Blue Note with his feature-heavy Black Radio releases, the third and most recent of which offered Killer Mike, Jennifer Hudson, Me'Shell Ndegéocello, Q-Tip, Esperanza Spalding, and many, many—many—more guests. It’s tempting to call Glasper’s music “fusion,” but that term implies the forced yoking of disparate styles. Instead, Glasper treats contemporary Black music as a smooth confluence of genres. Glasper is no stranger to the Dakota: He regularly takes over the club for a full weekend. For his latest three-night stand he’s stripping down to a piano trio—which, Glasper being Glasper, also has a DJ.—Keith Harris
Justice Page Guitar Collective, Frannie Crego & Bro @ Driftwood Char Bar
Miss Shannon Presents Charmin Michelle @ Eagles 34
Astronomy Town, One Big Quilt, Audrey Q @ Green Room
Genesis Jazz Orchestra @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Pat Donahue and Friends @ Midway Saloon
Willie B Blues Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
M.A.Y. (Residency) with Jezebel Sweet & Tannins @ Mortimers
Svet, Silent Monday, Aphid @ Pilllar Forum
BZ3 Organ Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Red Hot Django Peppers @ 331 Club
Weird Nightmare (Alex Edkins of METZ) with Agnes Uncaged @ Turf Club
Mildred, Cowboy Thoughts, the Envies @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, May 28
Bob Nordquist, the Eitel Bros @ Acadia
Prince Daddy and the Hyena @ Amsterdam
The Hanson Family Band @ Animales
One-Man Shows & Immaculate Flows with L.A. Buckner & Midwest James @ Berlin
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Heet Death, Din-Din, Hot Press @ Cloudland
- Robert Glasper @ Dakota—see Thursday's listings.
Yes We Are!, Entangled Particles @ Driftwood Char Bar
Ted Hajnasiewicz @ Dubliner Pub
- Bumpy Records Label Showcase @ Eagles 34—The ol' Eagles club hasn't been quite as rockin' since it canning longtime show coordinator Dan Turnlund. But there are still events worth noting, like this Bumpy Records dual release party celebrating Order of the Wire's Because Your Names Are Written in Heaven and the 10th anniversary re-release of Used Condo's American Birthstone. Also performing are labelmates May + the Ladies, alone-a, Purity Olympics, Astrid & Aros, and Rice.
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Claire Rosinkranz, Stevie Bill @ Fine Line
Snapped Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
Stolyette, Pornonono, Leopard Tree Dream @ Icehouse
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar
VGA Gamer's Rhapsody Jam Session Meetup @ Metronome Brewery
South High Community Band @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Drums of Navarone & DJ Sheleena Bonnel @ Minnesota Music Cafe
- Beer Choir @ Modist Brewing—Whether it’s a tipsy gal at karaoke or a crowd of soccer hooligans breaking into song, there’s just no way around it: Having a few bevs makes you want to sing. Embrace that desire with Beer Choir and Northern Lights Chorale, who are teaming up for this evening of songs and suds at Modist. Organizers promise there’s no talent required—just show up ready to sing your little heart out on traditional European drinking songs, popular music, and even some “adventurous” choral numbers. Tonight’s gathering also serves as a fundraiser for the chorale with a silent auction. (We promise, that’s the only silent part of the evening.)—Em Cassel
Zodiac with DJs Shannon Blowtorch & Dimitry Killstorm @ Mortimers
Hindoyan and Rieppel @ Orchestra Hall
My Cameron, Ergot, Lovescare, Suburbica @ Pilllar Forum
Scott Allen & the List, Gini Dodds & the Dahlias @ Schooner Tavern
Ike Dweck, Anna Hamilton @ 7th St Entry
Sarah Morris & Kelley Smith @ 318 Cafe
Friday, May 29
Brit Floyd: The Moon, the Wall, and Beyond @ Allianz Field
Rada K & the Cicadas @ Amsterdam
Joy & Melancholy @ Barely Brothers
Frequency Fridays: ESA Afterparty @ Bazemnt
Josh Granowski/Mike Cramer @ Berlin
Laeton Olaleye + Omar Abdulkarim @ Berlin
Rev. Raven & Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys @ Blues Saloon
Good for Gary, DJ D-Mil @ Boardwalk
Some Shitty Cover Band @ Bunker’s
- American Culture, Identity Crisis, WEEKLONGWEEKEND @ Caydence Records and Coffee—I love that Caydence has two modes: bluegrass and heavy rock. Tonight's bill is the latter, with noisy Denver indie-rockers American Culture, central MN hardcore band Identity Crisis, and Minneapolis emos WEEKLONGWEEKEND.
Ladybird, Lone Rock Bride, the Chair @ Cloudland
Erik Brandt and the Urban HIllbilly Quartet @ Dock & Paddle
Jennifer Eckes and Kevin Werner Hohlstein @ Crooners
Perfect Noise ’26 with the Adi Yeshaya Orchestra feat. Jennifer Grimm @ Crooners
Saxophunk - The Ronny Loew Band @ Crooners
- Robert Glasper @ Dakota—see Thursday's listings.
Mockturnal, Harmony Arcade, Heliocene @ Day Block Brewing
Muffluer, the Dissenters, Always Tired @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub
Aeris and the Piggies @ Eagles 34
All Your Friends — The Indie Party @ Fine Line
The Black Angels, L.A. Witch @ First Avenue
Hosts: A Local Music Song Swap @ Ginkgo Coffee
Turtle Island Voices Rising @ Hook and Ladder
Obadiah Gamble, Bakkwooddrift @ Icehouse
Laura Caviani Trio @ Jazz Central
The Rockin’ Iguanas @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Trio Zenia @ Metronome Brewery
Lena and the Love Kills @ Minnehaha Bandstand
The George Michael Tribute Show @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Gothess Presents: DM Tribute @ Mortimers
Hindoyan and Rieppel @ Orchestra Hall
GB Leighton (Album Release) with Billy Johnson @ Parkway
My Kid Banana, Linus, Maelstrom in the Harbor @ Pilllar Forum
Capitol Sons, Seaweeds @ Schooner Tavern
Emerson Woolf & the Wishbones, Jordan Smart @ 7th St Entry
Dave’s Manual, Of the Orchard @ Terminal Bar
Family Portrait: Bailey, Halia, & Paul Frantzich @ 318 Cafe
Wish Wash, Ray Gun Youth, Steady Range @ 331 Club
Country Tribute Weekend: Killer Country @ Treasure Island
Joshua Ray Walker, Cecilia Castleman @ Turf Club
- Hemlocke Springs @ Varsity Theater—It’s been over three years since “Girlfriend” brought this Dartmouth med student TikTok virality, which is a lifetime or two in internet years. But that was time well spent, as Springs’s first full-length, The Apple Tree Under the Sea, sounds well-crafted but not excessively labored over. The singer deploys an arsenal of gripping voices over a variety of theatrically pop settings, with tracks like the domestic fantasy "w-w-w-w-w" and the manically revving “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Ankles” serving up confections more complex than your average sugar rush. And grand finale “Be the Girl!” is aspirational pop at its most epic, a word I do not use lightly, frequently, or without powerful reservations. Her girlie voice scrunched yet weathered, those pulsing synth ostinatos as propulsive as a treadmill, Springs is well on her way to recapturing her lost, better self even before she gets to the climatic key change.—Keith Harris
Dedicated Enemy, DJ Velvet Vamp, Patrick (Finesse) @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, May 30
VolsungaSaga, UXIA, Pronoya, Red Vinter @ Amsterdam
Matt Wilson & His Orchestra @ Aster Cafe
Crazy Chester @ Barely Brothers
East African Vibes: All White Party @ Bazement
- Trina @ Cabooze—Ain’t a woman repping the Dirty South who doesn’t owe Trina her respect. As part of Trick Daddy’s Miami crew at the turn of the millennium, she held her own against Trick on “Nann N****,” then graduated from opposite-gender foil to equal member on posse cuts like “Take It to da House.” She stepped out on her own with booty-flaunting jams like “Pull Over” (“That ass too fat”—children, some day I will tell you of a time when fat asses were not universally admired) and even when she was duetting with Kelly Rowland she kept it raw. A quarter-century later, she remains "Da Baddest Bitch."—Keith Harris
40th Anniversary Party @ Carbone’s
Sensor Ghost, Miracle Debt, Watches @ Cloudland
Nichole Carey and Jennifer Parker @ Crooners
Mick Sterling Sings Van Morrison's Moondance and Street Choir Albums @ Crooners
Ms. Lisa Fischer and Grand Baton @ Dakota
Rock Melon, Milk Palace, Wrenfield @ Day Block Brewing
Westwind Swing Band @ Dock & Paddle
The Urge, the Road House Blues @ Driftwood Char Bar
Music for the Mississippi @ Dual Citizen
Irish Diplomacy @ Dubliner Pub
Gay Witch Abortion, Off Planet, Raw Space @ Dusty’s
Party Girl — A Night of Party Girl Anthems @ Fine Line
Leviathan, Lucky Crayfish, The Skeleton Crew, Mommy Log Balls, Stranger @ Flying V
The Pink Pop Party @ Green Room
- Roots, Rock, & Deep Blues XIII @ Hook and Ladder—The Hook’s marquee festival celebrates lucky 13 this year, and it’s spread out as always on multiple indoor and outdoor stages. Just the list of artists is the length of a regular Event Horizon blurb: Mae Simpson, Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound, the Halfway Blues Band, Kent Burnside, Little Man, Erin McCawley’s Harrison Street Band, Eleganza!, the Flood Brothers, Joe & Vicki Price, and Colin Campbell of the Shackletons. That’s a whole lot of music for the price of a ticket.—Keith Harris
Louie Schurrer: The Three Wise Men @ Jazz Central
Hurricane Blaze @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
32nd Street Jazz—Miles Cinematic Universe: A Tribute to Miles Davis @ Metronome Brewery
The Original Westside Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Ghost Channels (Album Release) @ Mortimers
Twin Cities Battle of Badges @ Myth Live
Minnesota Winds: First Season Finale @ Minnesota Orchestra
Stock Market Cinema & Honey Please with Call Me Fritz @ Pilllar Forum
Jiggs Lee Invasion @ Schooner Tavern
Amelia Day with Dilly Dally Alley @ 7th St Entry
Tre Spiritus, OVRFWRD, Pyrmafrost @ Terminal Bar
The Del-Viles, ditch pigeon, J-Mo & The J-Lighters @ 331 Club
Clay Street Unit, Texas Toast @ Turf Club
Between the Buried and Me @ Varsity Theater
John Penny and the Virtual Band @ Water Works
Onlytime, Cobra Czar, Den of Thieves, Body, Psychic Wreck @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, May 31
ArtistTourUSA Open Mic @ Acadia
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Kenny Reichert’s Letters From the Road: Twin Cities Quartet @ Berlin
Communion Season 20:01 @ Cabooze
Blue Moon: the Artistry of Lorenz Hart @ Crooners
Suzanne Paris and Adi Yeshaya @ Crooners
Mick Sterling sings The Seeger Sessions by Bruce Springsteen @ Crooners
Floh, Stranger, Greydeer @ Day Block Brewing
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Joe Tougas and Ann Fee @ Dubliner Pub
Sunday Trad Session @ Dubliner Pub
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Meet Me @ The Altar with Fluorescents @ Fine Line
Obi Original and the Black Atlantics (Residency) @ Icehouse
- PleezerPalooza 2: The Re-Pleezening @ Insight Brewing—The rock-critic establishment isn’t kind to Weezer (just ask our own Keith Harris about ‘em), but The People? They love Rivers & Co., even if the alt-rock stalwarts haven’t released a great album since 1996—Jesus, that’s 30 years! Privy to that, almost certainly, are Pleezer, Minnesota’s preeminent Weezer cover band. The boys will practice fan service at PleezerPalooza 2: The Re-Pleezening by only covering the good stuff: first 1994’s Blue Album, then 1996’s Pinkerton, followed by a set of deep cuts and requests. Attendees can grub out on Asian fusion from the Kham Fu Dee food truck, and the band promises “some *very* special guests.” Should Racket’s Jay Boller have interviewed Pleezer for his recent feature story on the rise of local cover bands? Probably! Can’t win ‘em all—just ask the back 85% of Weezer’s discography.—Jay Boller
Prior Lake Brass @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Junior and the Jukes @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Dean Magraw & Suwal Singh, Ellen Stanley aka Mother Banjo @ Metronome Brewery
Jackson Peters @ Metronome Brewery
Honky Tonk Jump @ Midway Saloon
Bach to Rock: Battle of the Bands @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Poulenc, Bartók and Ravel @ Minnesota Orchestra
Brajeswar Mukherjee & Co. @ O’Shaughnessy Auditorium
The Sonder Bombs @ Pilllar Forum
Church of Cornbread @ Schooner Tavern
Gozu and Restless Spirit @ 7th St Entry
Becky Kapell & the Fat 6, Jack Klatt @ 331 Club
Monday, June 1
Massive Reggae Monday @ Cabooze
The Big ’70s Singalong @ Crooners
Roseville Community Band @ Dock & Paddle
The Great Irish Singalong @ Dubliner Pub
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Necessary Diversion @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
