How are we midway through July already? Best not to think about it and just plan the week ahead. There's a lot to choose from.
Tuesday, July 21
Greatest Jam on Earth @ Blues Saloon
Niny Salem @ Bryant Square Park
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
The Hamm Sammies @ Father Hennepin
BZ3 Organ Trio @ Indeed Brewing
Explosion Big Band @ Jazz Central
Janelle & Simply Fusion Trio @ Loring Park
Lydia Sophia @ Minnehaha Bandstand
River City Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Old Timey Music Session @ Padraigs
- Pavement, Nap Eyes @ Palace Theatre—Let me tell ya something about Pavement… no, wait, actually I have nothing to say about Pavement that I didn’t say here. But there are so many touring indie vets out there on the road this summer cashing in on your nostalgia (not that I begrudge them) that I had to mention one of ’em at least. Stephen Malkmus and his pals get the nod over the still un-unretired LCD Soundsystem (OK, I begrudge them a little) and the still sullen Modest Mouse (I can’t shake memories of their dreary 2015 Rock the Garden set). Pavement offers the full-catalog exhumations that bigger-than-cult, smaller-than-mass band reunion should. Hope they get off the road before the enthusiasm wanes.—Keith Harris
Joshua David, Laura Hugo, Garret Nasset, Boom @ Pilllar Forum
Alex Lahey, Gay Meat @ 7th St Entry
- Omnivore: Music for Hungry Ears @ Resource MPLS—Title aside, this wide-ranging three-day “experimental mini-fest,” organized by singer-songwriter Dylan Hicks, will feature no ophthalmological lectures. At least I don’t think so. Each day includes a musical performance, then a literary reading, maybe “an improvised collaboration between the writer and the musician,” and closes with a performance by Hicks and his band the Small Screens, which will feature material from their upcoming album (oh, now I get it) Photopsia. Friday serves up musician Kata Fried and poet Hallee Kirkwood; Saturday offers improvisational duo Davu Seru (drums) and deVon Russell Gray (keys) plus a reading from Michael Kleber-Diggs; and Sunday wraps up with trombonist JC Sanford’s EQ (guitarist Toivo Hannigan, bassist Erik Fratzke, and drummer Ben Ehrlich) and writer Patrick Nathan. I recognize just enough of those names for my curiosity about the others to be sparked.—Keith Harris
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
July Conspiracy Series featuring Paul Lawrence LaPlant Road @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Tom Feldman @ 331 Club
Flagman, Popstar @ Underground Music
The New Havoline Supremes @ White Squirrel
Lo Mismo, Paperbark, Erik Tinberg @ White Squirrel
Thelma and the Sleaze, Sparrow Hawk, Paisley Fields @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, July 22
Dashed, Circle Circle, Sugarcoat, Modern Wildlife @ Amsterdam
Mikey Marget x SpectacleCase & Kevin Gamble Quartet @ Berlin
The Cherry Pit Open Jam @ Berlin
Matt & Laurel with Zander @ Carbone’s
The Foxgloves @ Cedar Cultural Center
Giant Valley String Band @ The Commons
Red Eye Ruby @ Como Park Conservatory
Michael Gold Jazz Quartet @ Crooners
Saturday Lights Out @ Driftwood Char Bar
Blank Hellscape, Feel Free Hi-Fi @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon Presents Lena and the Lovekills @ Eagles 34
Lucero, Justin Wells @ First Avenue
Diane Miller Presents MN Music Night @ Icehouse
Brio Brass @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Pat Donahue and Friends @ Midway Saloon
Cowboy Rogue @ Minnesota Music Cafe
5 Seconds of Summer @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Jennifer Lyn & the Groove Revival, Electric Eden @ Parkway Theater
The Central, Scarer, Vin, Pommel @ Pilllar Forum
Pendulum Hearts @ Schooner Tavern
The Family Crest @ 7th St Entry
Maybe Nebraska, Switchyard @ 331 Club
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with New Havoline Supremes 331 Club
MC Chris, Swell Rell @ Turf Club
The Good Word, Leviathan, Maria's Tears, Damage Case @ Underground Music
Nine Vicious @ Varsity Theater
Family Dinner with Doug and Sarah @ White Squirrel
Carhearts, RSSSK, Moonsault @ White Squirrel
- The Sloppy Boys @ Zhora Darling—If you’re a fan of the extended “Boys” comedy universe (Birthday Boys, Doughboys, Sloppy Boys, and, for a real deep cut, Deli Boys), you’ve had this one circled on your calendar for months. The Sloppy Boys are Tim Kalpakis, Jefferson Dutton, and onetime Racket interview subject Mike Hanford, and they're both a party-rock band and a cocktail review podcast. Tonight’s all about the L.A. trio’s fun, funny, and (somewhat surprising, considering the subject matter) occasionally formidable rock ‘n’ roll. Expect Sloppy Boys favorites like “Here for the Beer,” “Smashing the Plates,” and "Mastah Bong Rippah," alongside the best stage banter you'll hear all year. For devoted Twin Cities-based Slopheads, Christmas is truly coming in July. Craving a localish angle? Birthday Boy Dave Ferguson married the heiress to the Cannon Falls-headquartered Ferndale Farms turkey fortune, a fact his sketch-group buddies in the Sloppy Boys celebrated earlier this year.—Jay Boller
Thursday, July 23
Shiner Shine Entertainment @ Acadia
The Hanson Family Band @ Animales
Scott Cheever & Joe Cruz @ Aster Cafe
Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez, SOLORAH the Essence @ Berlin
Crates: Three by Four Tet @ Berlin
Rachel Wyre @ Bryant Square Park
Jaybee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Wild Child @ Cedar Cultural Center
Erin Livingston and Linda Peterson @ Crooners
Audrey Q Plays Fiona Apple @ Crooners
Snow Removal Big Band @ Dock & Paddle
Shannon and Dan Flaherty @ Dubliner Pub
The Sudd Brothers, Morgan Richards
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Poison Rhythm Section, Soup Activists, Chorus Truly, Chutes @ Eagles 34
School of Rock All Stars @ Granada
Snapz Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
Find Your Frequency: Where's Baldo, DJ Scoops, 1TT, Rain Drop, Cosmic Bitch @ Hook and Ladder
The Montvales @ Hopkins Downtown Park
Shady Cove, Molly Dean @ Icehouse
Clovers Daughter @ Landmark Center
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar
Salsa Del Soul, Tropical Zone Orchestra @ Mears Park
Chuck Solberg Blues Band @ Midway Saloon
Lake Country Jazz Collective @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Gigi & Johnny @ Minnesota Music Cafe
John Williams’ Greatest Scores @ Orchestra Hall
When the Sun Sets, Exit 122, Halfway Down, Portside Dive @ Pilllar Forum
Backyard Boogie with DJ Bakeshow Baker @ Pimento
Chemistry Set, Nathan Walker Music @ Schooner Tavern
Harvey Street, Bright Young Things, Syncline @ 7th St Entry
Forrest Frank, Tori Kelly, Cory Asbury & the Figs @ Target Center
Nikki Lemire Trio, Matthew French @ 318 Cafe
Nick Elstad Trio, the Wooden Nickel Factory, Jack Klatt @ 331 Club
Rattle and Hum, Kars 4 Skids @ Turf Club
The Squirez, Isssy, Kurt Russell's Muscles @ Underground Music
The Convalescence, Squidhammer @ Underground Music
Body Heat! Live Band Burlesque Funk Show @ Volstead’s
John's Garage, SongBirks & Dean @ White Squirrel
Chick Singer, Shot Down in Flames @ White Squirrel
Longfellers @ Wooden Ship Brewery
Trace Amount, Lunacy, Insula Iscariot @ Zhora Darling
Friday, July 24
Fiona Hayes (Single Release) @ Amsterdam
TH3 @ Animales
Tribeville Festival Deluxe feat. Wizkid @ Armory
Calvin Caron’s American West Quintet @ Berlin
Maurice Jacox & We Still R @ Blues Saloon
The Tire Fires @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Mikel Wright & the Wrongs (CD Release) @ Bunker’s
Magic Tuber Stringband with Mother Shipton @ Cedar Cultural Center
Products Band, Angel Band, Oyster World @ Cloudland
- Eaux Claires @ Carson Park, Eau Claire—“Wake up babe, I got us Dylan tix!” “Oh cool, I really want to check out that new amphitheater!” “Ha, no, I mean Bon Dylan tickets.” Yes, as this long-dormant western Wisconsin gathering swings back into action, festmeister Justin Vernon will be singing his Dylan faves—probably more faithfully than Bob ever does, if that’s a selling point. I respect EC for not trying to bowl you over with big names: There’s no Paul Simon, Wilco, or Chance the Rapper this time around. But Aimee Mann singing Bachelor No. 2 and R&B auteurs Dijon and Daniel Caesar ain’t nothing to sneeze at. As always with Eaux Claires, the music is only half the fun (OK, maybe 3/4 of the fun). This year the fest will have writers in residence hosting panels and discussions: You can catch locals Katie Ka Vang and Benjamin Percy as well as (relevant to my interests) rock critic Amanda Petrusich and celebrated autofiction novelist Sheila Heti, who was once married to a rock critic.—Keith Harris
Southbound All Stars @ Crooners
‘66: Talkin’ Bout My Generation @ Crooners
Just the Two of Us: The Music of Grover Washington Jr. & Bill Withers @ Dakota
Ditch Pigeon, Miid, Johnny Sincerely Orchestra @ Day Block Brewing
Bernadette Spray @ Dock & Paddle
Bring Your Mom @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub
Wooly Mack, U.F. Audio @ Eagles 34
Ukrainian Village Band @ Eagles 34
Meghan Kreidler, Isla Anderson @ 50th & France
One Direction Night @ Fine Line
United We Dance @ First Avenue
Girls Rock N Roll Retreat Showcase @ Granada
Smell My Pillow (Album Release), Simple Motion @ Hook and Ladder
Tim Fast and Dan Raza @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
New Primitives @ Mainstreet Bar
Senor Blues @ Minnehaha Bandstand
The Good the Bad and the Funky @ Minnesota Music Cafe
John Williams’ Greatest Scores @ Orchestra Hall
- Photopsia: Risk Factors and Treatments @ Resource MPLS—see Friday's listings.
Kill Bill the Rapper, Ashtin Larold @ 7th St Entry
Jon Garon & Friends @ 318 Cafe
Nosio, Killed by Kiwis @ 331 Club
Dustin Lynch @ Treasure Island
- Birthday Suits, Panel, Me Me Me @ Turf Club—We use “beloved” way too much here at Racket. Really, we’re always asking each other, “Can’t you use another word?” What can I say? The Twin Cities is just full of intense belovers. There’s no dodging it here, though—the noisy duo of guitarist Hideo Takahashi and drummer Matthew Kazama long ago earned the “b” word in perpetuity. Birthday Suits doesn’t reunite often now that Kazama has become a ramen impresario, but this is a special benefit for Peelander Zee, the Austin, Texas-based punks who were injured in a terrible traffic accident two months ago in Albuquerque.—Keith Harris
The Spirit of Versailles, Sinking Steps Rising Eyes, Motee, Unsouling @ Underground Music
Transmission Presents Party On! @ Uptown VFW
Love in the Club @ Varsity Theater
Mill City Hot Club @ Volstead’s
The Mary Cutrefello Band @ White Squirrel
ValleyKil, Heliocene, Marvin Magic @ White Squirrel
Miracle Blood, Wanderer, Baumgardner, Welt @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, July 25
Clint Niosi, Cap'n Seabeard, Paper Chain, Dog Gamn @ Acadia
Evernorth (EP Release), Our Common Collapse, Chrome Coda @ Amsterdam
Doug Collins & the Receptionists @ Animates
- Lake Street Live @ Arbeiter Brewing—Lake Street is for lovers, as Lifter Puller once proclaimed, but between the unrest and Operation Metro Surge that Minneapolis thoroughfare hasn’t been feeling the love this decade. That changes tonight! Hosted by Arbeiter Brewing Co. and the Lake Street Council, Lake Street Live is a family-friendly fest. Like any self-respecting block party, that means a rippin’ roster of live music (American Cream Band, Brandyn Tulloch, Cowboy Thoughts, Los Malos Pasos, Oyster World, Butter Boys, Good Morning Midnight, Ciao Bello), food trucks (La Tortilla, Amazing Momo, Trio Plant-Based), and local vendors. “Come for the music. Stay for the community. Leave knowing you helped keep Lake Street thriving,” organizers write, noting that donations will benefit the Lake Street Council’s outreach efforts with immigrant-owned businesses—Jay Boller
Kray Klaas (Single Release) @ Aster Cafe
Saturday Night Vibes: LIB Independence Celebration @ Bazemnt
Steven Hobert, Tim O’Keefe @ Berlin
Kelly Doyle feat. Nelson Devereaux @ Berlin
Russ Parrish & the Lone Oaks with DJ Ys @ Boardwalk
Trash Can DJs, Catalogue @ Broken Heart Tattoo Club
- Eaux Claires @ Carson Park, Eau Claire—see Friday's listings.
World Peace, Prosthetic, I Owe This Land a Body, Human Body, Rime @ Caydence Records & Coffee
- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Wendy Eisenberg @ Cedar Cultural Center—Though Eisenberg is known for her experimental bent, Wendy Eisenberg is, no mistaking it, a singer-songwriter album. But they stretch that elastic not-quite-genre beyond its bounds with dexterous finger-picking and violin-not-fiddle accompaniment and questions like “What could be relaxing about an old myth dying?” Start with “Another Lifetime Floats Away,” a collection of childhood memories (“My mother makes breakfast, she keeps me alive”) that will remind you of your own mortality. A lot of it kind of sounds like the Roches, whose singer-songwriter records were plenty experimental in their own way.—Keith Harris
The Stress of Her Regard, Toilet Rats, Razordaisies @ Cloudland
Pam Linton & the Cotton Kings with Sherwin Linton @ Crooners
The Over Unders, Monarch, the Social Cues @ Day Block Brewing
Mill City Machine @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Diplomacy @ Dubliner Pub
Rich Mattson & the Northstars, Miss Georgia Peach, Dragnet @ Dusty’s
Off Campus Night @ First Avenue
Atomic Lights, Cut Rate Clones, Los Malos Pasos @ Gambit Brewing
Ray Bonneville @ Ginkgo Coffee
Candlelight: Tribute to Trent Reznor @ Granada
Candlelight: Tribute to Fleetwood Mac @ Granada
Love FM Summer Fling @ Green Room
Trailer Trash, Jack Knife and the Sharps @ Hook and Ladder
im Sparks, Ben Abrahamson, and Gary Raynor @ Icehouse
Paul Harper Quartet @ Jazz Central
Minneapolis Pops @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Amanda Grace, SYM1, Andra Suchy, DJ Mickey Breeze @ Loring Park
King Caesar, Velvet Ghoul, Liminality @ Memory Lanes
Amaz’en: A Tribute to Frankie Beverly and Maze with Ray Covington @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Mavericks @ Mystic Lake Casino
- Hilary Duff @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater—We’ve heard plenty of “I’m not a kid anymore” records in the past, but Luck… or Something is something rarer: a former teenpop star’s midlife crisis album. Marital squabbles, sexual droughts, sibling estrangement, petty jealousy—in the old days, a biz veteran like 38-year-old Duff would have picked up an acoustic guitar to get this generically personal, but she sticks to synths and big drums. And her song about strained friendships quotes Blink-182. (Some of these cuts would have me worried about her marriage if her husband wasn’t her producer.) Though there’s no great lyrical insight here and the hooks are just OK, but I keep listening. Maybe it’s just because for a child star to suffer from such ordinary anxieties is kind of an achievement.—Keith Harris
JVNA with Elephante @ Myth Live
John Williams’ Greatest Scores @ Orchestra Hall
Art Beagle’s Backup Band @ Padraigs
Larry McCray Band @ Parkway Theater
Bunny Blood, Million.point.Million, Gauze, Virginia’s Basement @ Pilllar Forum
- Photopsia: Risk Factors and Treatments @ Resource MPLS—see Friday's listings.
Cole Diamond @ Schooner Tavern
Blu & Exile, Sirplus, Dwynell Roland @ 7th St Entry
Wonky Willa, Buku, Jason Leech, Overeazy @ Skyway Theatre
- Megan Moroney, JP Saxe, Solon Holt @ Target Center—With Cloud 9 her third brilliant country-pop record in four years, Moroney’s in this for the long haul. Once again producer Kristian Bush and assorted song doctors tone up the hooks to accentuate that purty catch in her voice just right, and if anything she effervesces more poppily than ever—she’s so infatuated on the title track she’s even fine getting Pepsi when she wants a Coke. Of course she’s even better when she’s heartbroken or pissed: Try “You don't like my short black dress/Well, it's going out tonight/And if it hits a floor, it won't be yours this time,” “What doesn’t kill you calls you six months later,” and a nasty line about ex Riley Green’s veneers. Kacey Musgraves fans who give Moroney a pass ‘cause she’s too Nashville deserve to never know what they’re missing.—Keith Harris
Megaton Communion Slash Fire, First Out @ Terminal Bar
The Old Smugglers, the Hazy Phase, Johnny Sincerely @ 331 Club
House of Heavy: Nu Metal + Metalcore Nights @ Turf Club
Madeleine Kelson, Sammie Jean @ Underground Music
Heat On Beat x Elite EDM x Winn Presents: OG NIXIN @ Uptown VFW
Mama Liberia @ Varsity Theater
Lars Nelson Band, UFaudiO @ White Squirrel
Parachute Pandas, Rada K & the Cicadas, Kurt Russell's Muscles @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, July 26
Al Church’s Sunday Service @ Animales
Sunday Swing Brunch @ Aster Cafe
Curated by Aida Shahghasemi @ Berlin
NONPOINT, Spineshank, (Hed) P.E. @ Cabooze
Lord Buffalo, Lovely Dark @ Cloudland
Suzanne Paris and Dale Alexander @ Crooners
Songs From the French Quarter @ Crooners
Hopkins Westwind Concert Band @ Dock & Paddle
Bavarian Musikmeisters @ Dock & Paddle
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Hurricane Harold Trio @ Dubliner Pub
Sunday Trad Session @ Dubliner Pub
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Liberian Independence Celebration Day @ Gidi
Obi Original and the Black Atlantics @ Icehouse
Robbinsdale City Band @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Minneapolis Pops @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Target Spots, Frankie Torres, Blood Quantum @ Loring Park
Davin Willis Quartet @ Metronome Brewery
Legacy of Lilith Fair @ Parkway Theater
Photopsia: Risk Factors and Treatments @ Resource MPLS
Church of Cornbread @ Schooner Tavern
The Capstone Volunteers, Of the Orchard, Agony in the Living Room @ Underground Music
RxBandits, Catbite @ Varsity Theater
Clint Niosi, Nikki Matteson and Rich Rue, Ditch Pigeon @ White Squirrel
Conduit Presents: Minds on Fire @ White Squirrel
Blood, Bath, & Beyond, Redeemer Shane Louis, Chippu, Somewhere Nice, Someday @ White Squirrel
Trhä, Saidan, Barbelith, Eudaemon @ Zhora Darling
Monday, July 27
Deradoorian, Greg Fox @ Berlin
Massive Mondays Reggae @ Cabooze
Jennifer Eckes and Kevin Werner-Hohlstein @ Crooners
The Singer’s Voice hosted by Dan Chouinard featuring Ann Reed @ Crooners
Kavyesh Kaviraj & Omar Abdulkarim @ Dakota
- Audrey Hobert @ First Avenue—My defenses were up with this one. Hobert has co-written with bland-out queen Gracie Abrams and her brother is Malcolm Todd, who is basically Steve Lacy’s own private Pat Boone. But Hobert’s full-length debut, Who’s the Clown?, is a decent little tour of the perils of dating in your 20s, from guys whose beds don’t have headboards to “When I'm drunk at the club I wanna be felt up” to “Don’t go back to his ass/That shit is a trap.” So why’s she keep at it? Like the lady says, “Sue me/I want to be wanted.” With pop-star imitators a given, I’ll take Xeroxed Olivia over carbon copy Taylor when it comes to second-stringers, because jokes that try a little too hard are easier to get across than strained candor.—Keith Harris
L.A.’s Monday Nights @ Icehouse
Mary Strand and the Garage @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Something Meets Boys, the Ugly Cowboys, the Carhearts, Far Faraway @ Memory Lanes
Free Community Concert @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Minnesota Monday Jam @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Avenged Sevenfold, Good Charlotte @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Metal Mondays @ Schooner Tavern
LSD and the Search for God, Total Wife @ 7th St Entry
Open Mic @ Sociable Cider Werks
The Midnight Movers @ White Squirrel
Jonger, Argo & The Violet Queens, One Big Quilt @ Zhora Darling
