If all goes well, I'll be ducking in and out of Palmfest over the weekend, and not just to pay my respects—it's a hell of a lineup, as I discuss below. Let me also put in a good word for Open Mike Eagle, a terrific performer.
Tuesday, July 22
Dru Solomon & Rojohasu @ Amsterdam
- Lord Huron with Lee Fields @ Armory—Over the years the thinking person’s Dawes has developed into My Morning Jacket for the jam-avoidant, which I’d possibly consider evolution if Ben Schneider could write a song as memorable as 2015’s “The Night We Met,” which, as Steven Hyden has noted, has racked up a startling three billion streams on Spotify. Maybe moping about how unworthy you are of the many women who dump you isn't exactly fertile aesthetic ground after all. Soul singer Lee Fields, still cookin' at 75, is worth showing up on time for.
Squirrel Flower + Products Band @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Barking at Ghosts @ Bryant Square Park
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
River City Orchestra @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Radiator Girl, Being a Satellite, Akebono @ Eagles 34
Northeast Community Band @ Father Hennepin Park
New Band Night: Golden Satellite, Honeygrl, Living Bloom, & Mellow Cassette @ Green Room
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Old Guys Play the Blues @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Pop Punk Princess @ Mortimer’s
Irish Trad Session @ Padraig’s
RAGEFUTURE Open Mic @ Palmer’s
The Briefly Gorgeous with Delicate Friend, Mars Counsel, and Mouthful @ Pilllar Forum
July Conspiracy Series featuring The Beavers, Scottie Devlin @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Tom Feldmann @ 331 Club
Ali Grey’s Country Jamboree @ White Squirrel
Paper Chain (Residency) @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, July 23
Dean Sibinski & St. Anthony Mann @ Aster Cafe
- The Juju Exchange @ Berlin—The Juju Exchange is made up of three Chicagoans with impressive resumes. The best known is Nico Segal, aka Donnie Trumpet, who collaborated with Chance the Rapper on Surf, back when recording music was something Chance considered worth his time. Keyboardist Julian Davis Reid has collaborated Isaiah Collier (the jazzman, not the baller) and drummer Nova Zaii works with Vic Mensa. The pedigreed crew gets to spread out on their latest, Behold, and though the air does grow a little thin as they foray into the beyond, as will happen with spiritual fusion, there’s plenty of tune and smarts to their improvisations.
The Cherry Pit Presents Bible Study @ Berlin
Squirrel Flower + Bugsy @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Abinnet Berhani’s Ahndenet አንድነት featuring Genet Abat @ Cedar Cultural Center
Bob: The Music of Dylan @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Way Back Wednesday @ Day Block Brewing
Mill City Caravan, Buzzbox @ Driftwood
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
The Big Star Quintet with Chris Stamey @ First Avenue
Dear Nora with Walker Rider @ Icehouse
The Whistles @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Favourite Girl @ Marjorie McNeely Conservatory
Pat Donahue & Friends @ Midway Saloon
Maurice Jacox and the We Still R Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Mortiholics, Love Band, Frostbeard, D.M.C.A @ Mortimer’s
Frog and The Bog and Lenz & Frenz @ Palmer’s
Bad Weather with Hella Reptilian and the Asshats @ Pilllar Forum
Rank Stranger, Velahsa @ Schooner Tavern
Bash for the World @ 7th St Entry
Quintron and Miss Pussycat with shrimp olympics and American Cream Band @ Turf Club
m0ntazz, JugoDiDit!, CharlesGotCash, T-King @ Underground Music
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Jon Rodine and Friends @ 331 Club
Family Dinner with Sarah and Doug @ White Squirrel
Nights With Tim @ White Squirrel
Jenny Haniver, Another Heaven, & Din-Din @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, July 24
GIRLS NIGHT OUT!: A MPLS Femme DJ Showcase @ Abi’s
Big Wiz, Mike the Martyr @ Acadia
Clementine, Toadstool, Green,, Rock Melon @ Amsterdam
Pierce Pettis @ Art House North
Honey Please & Mwago Kuria @ Aster Cafe
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Company Retreat, the Right Here, Tightwire @ Cloudland
Adam Bohanan, Tyler Dale, Joanna Serenko @ Day Block Brewing
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Panel, Visual Learner, Tommy @ Eagles 34
Snapped Live Band Open Night @ Green Room
The Hazy Phase with the Placaters & Teeth @ Hook and Ladder
David Huckfelt & J.T. Bates @ Icehouse
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar
- Turn Turn Turn with Molly Brandt @ Mears Park—Downtown St. Paul could use a flicker of good news, and that's what we're here to provide: Lowertown Sounds, the reliably terrific—and free!—summertime concert series at Mears Park is back for 2025. More than half of this year's genre-spanning local performers are LTS first-timers, according to organizers, and as always they’ll be joined throughout the summer by craft bev vendors (Gambit Brewing, Pryes Brewing, Utepils Brewing, Alexis Bailly Vineyard) and a rotating fleet of "almost 10 food trucks” (we’re guessing that means eight or nine). Tonight's ace lineup includes Laurel-Canyon-meets-Nashville trio Turn Turn Turn, and country singer Molly Brandt, who we profiled here.—Jay Boller
Northstar Original Revue @ Midway Saloon
The New Feral Cats @ Midway Saloon
Two Peace Suite @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Drums of Navarone @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Gigi V’Allure & Johnny @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Parlour Magic, Enemy In the Sky, and Pity Party @ Palmer’s
Jenna Graves & the Loons @ Park Tavern
Cut Rate Clones with Rad Owl and Far Far Away @ Pilllar Forum
Sour Widows with Lana Leone and Linus @ 7th St Entry
East Lakers, the Whistles @ Schooner Tavern
Odd Mob with Welker, Stereogo, LuckyTheUnfortunate, Zella @ Skyway Theatre
Twins of Franklin @ Sociable Cider Werks
The New Entangled Particles @ 318 Cafe
Kat and the Kodachromes, Former Crush, Ty and the My My’s @ 331 Club
Twin Citizen, JoJo Green, The Morning Kings, and JAZICALITY @ Turf Club
Death of the Heron, UXIA, Better Broken, & Last Shot at Redemption @ Underground Music
The Comebacks with Economic Headwinds, West On Wellesley @ White Squirrel
Gorgatron, Casket Robbery, Maniacal Force @ Zhora Darling
Friday, July 25
Irie Sol, Prairie Fire Choir @ Amsterdam
Stanley Kipper Project @ Aster Cafe
Undertones @ Bear Cave Brewing
Benjamin/Cox/Hurtado/Kaviraj @ Berlin
Some Shitty Cover Band @ Bunker’s
Smirk, Citric Dummies, Step Sister @ Cloudland
Arne Fogel and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Demitrious Rallis & Run for the Roses @ Day Block Brewing
Jaybirds, Stinging Nettles, Big Love Little Lies @ Driftwood
Want of Sin and Niveous @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon's Sock Hop with Lena and the Lovekills @ Eagles 34
League Two, Sylvia Dieken @ 50th & France
United We Dance: The Ultimate Rave Experience @ First Ave
The Honeydogs with Molly Maher @ Green Room
The Suitcase Junket @ Hook and Ladder
- The Twin Cities DJANGOFEST Festival @ Hook and Ladder—Eight bands playing in the style of the great Django Reinhardt, which I'm relieved they're no longer calling "gypsy jazz." A hot night for sure.
NEXT FRIDAY featuring Mike The Martyr. Jiko, Chance York, T'la Shawn, Posh @ Hook and Ladder
Engocha Trio feat. Yohannes Tona, Kibrom Birhane, and Abinnet Berhan @ Icehouse
USPOP @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Khold & Friends with Subsuka, Abyss, Omen, Jaq b2b Mr. Niceguy @ The Loft
Flamin’ Oh’s @ Marjorie McNeely Conservatory
Twin Cities Mobile Jazz Project @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Funktion Junction @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Great Beyond 2025 @ Minnesota River Valley Sanctuary and Retreat
Parker, Schumann and Tchaikovsky @ Orchestra Hall
Art Beagle’s Back Up Band @ Padraig’s
- Palmfest 2025 @ Palmer’s—Yes, with Palmer’s soon going the way of too many great dive bars before it, this will be the last Palmfest, so let’s make it a great one. The stacked lineup includes many Palmer’s regulars and I could shout out some of the names I’m looking forward to—the Silent Treatment and Unstable Shapes, Christy Costello and the Gated Community—but my picks might not be yours. What really matters here is that anyone with a passing interest in local rock will find 10 bucks worth of music here over the course of three days. Plenty of drunken tears will be shed, and hopefully no one will make off with any mementos.
High Speed Snowshoes with Anything You Want and Lasalle @ Pilllar Forum
Greazy Gravy with Sonny Earl @ Schooner Tavern
- Open Mike Eagle with Cavalier and Rhys Langston @ 7th St Entry—Now 44, with a premature midlife crisis behind him, this L.A.-based underground-rap lifer simply goes about the day-to-day on his latest, Neighborhood Gods Unlimited. The album opens with a “stone cold idiot” announcing that they “Woke Up Knowing Everything,” but the tracks that follow are deliberately more quotidian. Mike is the only employee at the Daily Planet to be halfway curious about what Clark Kent is up to; Mike swipes Tims from the Mephisto he works at; Mike loses a handful of tracks when his phone gets run over by car. (It’s like when RZA’s basement flooded, wiping out hundreds of beats, he says, “but less, less devastating.”) When pals Video Dave and Still Rift (whom Mike records with as the I-swear-better-than-its name trio Previous Industries) pop in, it’s clear that this is primo hangout rap, just a bright guy free-associating with a comic’s understated delivery over just-memorable-enough beats.
Ladies of the Night @ Terminal Bar
Solana and the Sunsets, LaSalle, the Amores @ 331 Club
Shane Smith & the Saints, James Whatton Band, Trenton Fletcher @ Treasure Island Amphitheater
White Denim with Tagua Tagua @ Turf Club
Shadow Lake, Sugar Coat, the Tolerables @ Underground Music
Jon Wayne and the Pain with Kanser, Push & Turn, DJ Gabe Garcia @ Uptown VFW
- Dizzy Fae @ Walker Art Center—Ms. Fae, whose 2024 release Are We There Yet was among my favorites from last year, is back from L.A. to celebrate the summer edition of the Walker's After Hours party. Plenty else going on as well, including "art-making activities," theme cocktails, and free mini-golf. Plus there's that whole art museum.
The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel
Pelicant with Leslie & Anothernight @ White Squirrel
The Lumineeers @ Xcel Energy Center
Saturday, July 26
88 Diagrams, BDaMan, IanChri$t, DJ NanoByte, Spiderchrist, N3RD4KING, Ratliff @ Acadia
Lunar Moth, Aergo, Majoon Travellers, Mystery Meat @ Amsterdam
Spencer LaJoye & Sadie Gustafson-Zook @ Aster Cafe
Bruce Bednarchuk @ Bear Cave Brewery
¿WATCHES?, Dollchaser, Mystery Meat, Lure of Lilith, Oceanographer, Splendid @ Black Hart
Dj Skriblz and ‘Sota Pop @ Boardwalk
Strictly R&B: Leo SZN @ Cabooze
Mama Liberia ft. C.I.C and L’Frankie @ Cabooze
Cheap Bouquet, Crush Scene, Kyrie Nova, the Defiant, & Lydia @ Can Can Wonderland
Malamiko, Ben Seretan, Spaceport @ Cloudland
Arne Fogel and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
One Night Only: Elton John Tribute @ Crooners
Davina and the Vagabonds @ Dakota
New to Human, Sigtones @ Driftwood
The Whispers and Friends @ Dusty’s
Ghostmade Cellophane @ Eagles 34
- Night Moves with Shady Cove and Good Doom @ First Avenue—For 15 years now (lord, the passage of time…) these local psych-rock greats have been pulling off a neat trick by evoking Todd Rundgren and Gram Parsons while sounding vital and contemporary. The release of their first album in six years, Double Life, is being celebrated tonight in the Mainroom. Swinging and shimmering lead single “Hold On to Tonight” is perhaps the most fully realized distillation of the Night Moves sound to date, with frontman John Pelant’s old-soul wail hitting harder than ever. Tonight’s release show should feel like a victory lap.—Jay Boller
Visceral Reaction, Mortura @ Flying V
Retro Bakery presents Retro Fest @ Hook and Ladder
Twin Cities Jazz Workshop @ Icehouse
Engocha Trio feat. Yohannes Tona, Kibrom Birhane, and Abinnet Berhan @ Icehouse
InMotion presents: White Out Party @ Icehouse
Minneapolis Pops @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Jack Schabert Farewell Bash @ Metronome Brewery
North Star Original Revue Festival @ Midway Saloon
The Roxxy Hall Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
DJ Bryan Angeles @ Modist Brewing
The Assortment ft. Michael Grey @ Mortimer’s
Rhythm in Motion @ Orchestra Hall
Chamber Music in the Hall @ Orchestra Hall
The Wailin’ Jennys @ Pantages Theatre
Dingus, Linus, Amen, and The Hell Yeahs @ Pillar Forum
Pandemonium: We’re Just As Sick… @ Red Sea
The New Back Alley, the Denials Schooner Tavern
Grave Next Door, MVRROW MVRROW, Gossamer @ Terminal Bar
The Customers, Bad Idea, the Dirty Pretty @ 331 Club
Agora Bomb, Baumgardner, Distress, Tolerance @ Time Traveler's Public House
Soul Asylum, Shakey Graves, Mason Jennings, Wild Horses @ Treasure Island Amphitheater
Long Live Taylor: A Taylor Swift Celebration @ Turf Club
King Sans, Frozen Charlotte, the Muatas @ Underground Music
Buried Animals’ Annual Beach Party feat. Müllet + Bridal Style @ Uptown VFW
Spike and the Gimme Gimmes @ Varsity
Aaron James with Bury Em’ Deep, Superfloor @ White Squirrel
Johnny Sincerely @ White Squirrel
Kars4Skids with Tromp Le Monde @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, July 27
Wild Love Tigress featuring Hunny Bear and Efmi @ Amsterdam
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Ella Grace feat. Ella Grace MNTET @ Berlin
Kinship, Canary Room, Kiernan @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Hopkins Westwind Concert Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Prior Lake Windjammers @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Erin Schwab Sings Bette Midler with Jay Fuchs @ Crooners
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
- Macy Gray @ Fillmore—Gray has built up quite the odd but endearing songbook over the past quarter century, with standouts ranging from the bulletproof ballad “I Try” to the justified “I Committed Murder.” In recent years, she’s accentuated her jazzy side, a move common to many former R&B hitmakers, but one she pulls off with more style than most—you should give Stripped from 2016 a spin. As she celebrates her 1999 career-making debut On How Life Is, Gray will mostly stick to the hits. She'll also toss in a few covers, some of which she’s recorded (Radiohead’s “Creep”) and some she hasn’t (Right Said Fred’s “I'm Too Sexy,”), though sadly we're unlikely to hear her parentally angled take on My Chemical Romance’s “Teenagers.”
The Scarlett Goodbye @ Hewing Rooftop
- Michael Franti & Spearhead @ Hilde Performance Center—I'll be the guy yelling "Play 'Television, the Drug of a Nation!!!" Or I would be if I felt like hiking out to Plymouth.
Night Shift Dance Party @ Icehouse
Bob: The Music of Dylan @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Minneapolis Pops @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Thomas Gott Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
The Squares @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Minimort: Producer’s Showcase @ Mortimer’s
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
The Real Chuck NORAD @ 331 Club
Harbour with Sam McPherson @ Turf Club
Hiahli with Jasno, Smokin' Joe @ White Squirrel
Coalesce with Buildings & Porcelain @ Zhora Darling
Monday, July 28
Matty & The Subtle Validation @ Acadia
Accent Brass Quintet @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Joe Pulice Salutes Buddy Rich @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
World Music Monday @ Eagles 34
Of Montreal with Bijoux Cone @ Fine Line
Glass Beams with Maiah Manser @ First Avenue
GRRRL SCOUT: HOT TROPIC @ Green Room
Bill Simenson Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Hot Club Mania @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Afters, Deletist, and Mild Manner @ Palmer’s
Skating Polly with Black Ends and Allergen @ Pilllar Forum
Metal Monday @ Schooner Tavern
Mustard Service with Strawberry Milk Cult @ 7th St Entry
Shinedown with Bush @ Target Center
- Roe Family Singers @ 331 Club—When you gig as regularly as the Roes do, it's easy to get taken for granted. So when I heard that the hard-working string band, which appears weekly each Monday at the 331 Club, was celebrating their 20th anniversary, I knew I had to give 'em an overdue nod here. It's also "Mustache Monday," I'm told, which means attendees are encouraged to 'stache it up by either natural or cosmetic means. And as though all that wasn't enough, it's also 331 bartender Dick Donovan's birthday. Hope he wants people to know that, because it was in the press release!
