This week, I had to write up some recommended shows for our (forthcoming) Fall Arts Guide. But even if that hadn't cut into my usual blurbing time, I wouldn't have had a chance to say all I wanted to about this week's lineup. Stacked, I tell you, stacked!
Tuesday, September 22
After School Rawk Special @ Amsterdam
Polyphia with Ladrones, RJ Pasin @ Armory
Greatest Jam on Earth @ Blues Saloon
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
Croz Boyce @ Cedar Cultural Center
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood Char Bar
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
- Ravyn Lenae @ Fillmore—Back-and-forths over whether she’s more pop or more R&B say more about the state of both genres in 2026 than Ravyn Lenae’s own music. She’s an R&B singer who leads with hooks rather than vibes, which makes her a rarity these days. Coming off the sleeper-hit success of “Love Me Not,” her new album Blue Island is catchy as hell, and the Janet-lite of her girlish timbre remains as flirtatious as ever. Still, nothing seems to have clicked quite like “Love Me Not,” not even this year’s second-best song called “Bobby.”—Keith Harris
Public Image Ltd., Plague Vendor @ First Avenue
Michelle Shocked @ Ginkgo Coffee
Greydeer, Getting Worse, Calavrosa, Liminality @ Green Room
Space Between Jam @ Hook and Ladder
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Jazz Central
North Star Jazz Workshops Jam Session @ Metronome Brewery
Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Breaking Benjamin @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
F-18 with Atomic Lights, Customers @ Pilllar Forum
Omnivore Music Series @ Resource
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
- Kacey Musgraves, Carter Faith @ Target Center—Musgraves’s latest, Middle of Nowhere, is a little more Nashville craft than stoner cowgirl, a course correction I’m fine with. And not only is “Dry Spell” more fun than “Choosin’ Texas,” but I suspect that its sentiment is more universal.—Keith Harris
September Conspiracy Series featuring Effertz & Haskin @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime with Steve Brantseg @ 331 Club
Brian Fallon & the Painkillers @ Varsity Theater
The Twang Express @ White Squirrel
Coworker, Tannins, Dashed @ White Squirrel
Something Meets Boy, Larrikins, Moneybones, & Midso @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, September 23
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
Marty & Mike @ Barely Brothers
Havana Highlife with Yuna Rodriguez @ Berlin
The Cherry Pit Open Jam @ Berlin
Cajun Crawfish Hotdish @ Carbone’s
Eric Howk, Freaque, Zoe Says Go @ Cedar Cultural Center
Coleen Raye & Benny Weinbeck @ Crooners
Isn’t It Always Love @ Crooners
Tom Dahill and Ginny Johnson @ Dubliner Pub
Miss Shannon Presents Kinda Fonda Wanda @ Eagles 34
Chaparelle, Clayton Ryan @ Fine Line
Igorrr, Secret Chiefs 3, Violent Magic Orchestra @ First Avenue
Sera Cahoone, Lily Blue @ Icehouse
Pat Donahue and Friends @ Midway Saloon
Cowboy Rogue @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Baby Mahi Presents: Drain Bramage Residency @ Mortimer's
Staind @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Love Cuts, Mid Death Calm, Warcake @ Pilllar Forum
King Kustom & the Cruisers @ Schooner Tavern
Soda Blonde, JØUR @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Jack Klatt @ 331 Club
Briscoe, Jack Blocker @ Turf Club
The Iron Roses @ Underground Music
Hail the Sun @ Varsity Theater
Family Dinner with Doug & Sarah @ White Squirrel
13 Howell, Glass @ White Squirrel
Thursday, September 24
The Circle Wisconsin Takeover @ Abi’s
Family Night feat. the Hanson Family Band @ Animales
Lupe Fiasco, Gym Class Heroes @ Armory
David Rosen (EP Release), Carl Franzen @ Aster Cafe
North Star Jazz Workshops Faculty @ Berlin
Crates: Together by Coleman Hawkins and Clark Terry @ Berlin
Beech Montana, All Terrain Vehicle, HeyArlo @ Birdhaus
Jaybee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Gordi + S. Carey, Gracie and Rachel @ Cedar Cultural Center
Urban Classic presents Natural Mystic: The Music of Bob Marley @ Crooners
Road Songs: The Music of John Prine and Townes Van Zant @ Crooners
Mary Cutrufello @ Dubliner Pub
The Silverteens, Scott Allen & the List @ Dusty’s
Carnage the Executioner Showcase @ Eagles 34
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Kota the Friend with Juice Lord, Jandeltha Rae, JuneThaKid @ Fine Line
Cortex, Adrian Younge, J Rocc @ First Avenue
Snapz Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
REVO, Clash Minne Rockers, Say It Ain’t Faux @ Hook and Ladder
Acoustic Thursdays @ Mainstreet Bar
Gabriela, Pavel Jany and Dean Harrington @ Metronome Brewery
Northstar Original Revue @ Midway Saloon
Drums of Navarone, DJ Sheleena, Gi Gi & Johnny @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Zodiac with DJs Shannon Blowtorch & Dimitry Killstorm @ Mortimer's
High on Stress, Trash Kickers, APHID @ Pilllar Forum
Crowd Pleaser Thursdays @ Red Sea
Scott Allen & the List, Tony Ortiz @ Schooner Tavern
MT Jones, Woolly Mack @ 7th St Entry
Poor Lemuel, Sawtooth Witch @ 331 Club
Anna Graves, Anna Devine @ Turf Club
Ultra Sunn @ Underground Music
Supersuckers, the Rumours @ Uptown VFW
Holding Absence, Arm’s Length @ Varsity Theater
Body Heat! Live Band Burlesque Funk Show @ Volstead’s
- Nels Cline @ Walker Art Center—You probably know Cline as the longtime guitarist for Wilco and Honda for her work in the ’90s with art-poppers Cibbo Matto, but this weekend these musicians will showcase their more Walker-appropriate experimental sides. For All-Star Gathering on Thursday, Cline will be joined by recent Dylan guitar fill-in Julian Lage, My Brightest Diamond vocalist Shara Nova, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, and the great Minneapolis bassist Anthony Cox. Honda takes over on night two, debuting the opera she has written with Glen Kaino, I Am Yoko, about you-know-who; she’ll then lead an ensemble in a performance of the Ono/Lennon avant-garde film, Fly.—Keith Harris
The Cameras, Jacob Cloutier @ White Squirrel
Ruben, Laura Hugo, Quincy Voris @ White Squirrel
Kyle Colby @ Wooden Ship Brewing
- YHWH Nailgun @ Zhora Darling—These noisemakers have curbed the excesses of their 20-minute debut, 45 Pounds—the 10 songs on their latest, Magazine, are over in 11 minutes. Their m.o. Remains the same though: Zack Borzone yelps something or other up top, Saguiv Rosenstock makes gruesome unguitarlike guitar noises, Sam Pickard rototoms away, everything moves a little slower than you expect.—Keith Harris
Friday, September 25
Funk Friday feat. TH3 @ Animales
The Long Goodbye @ Aster Cafe
Bruce Bednarchuk @ Bear Cave
Jovon Williams and Marvellous @ Berlin
Ronnie Burrage & Holographic Principle @ Berlin
Ray Gun Youth, 1947, Lent @ Birdhaus
Dirty Bottles, DJ D-Mil @ Boardwalk
70s Magic Sunshine Band @ Bunker’s
Jazzicality and Brother Ase @ Crooners
Adi Yeshaya Orchestra with Jennifer Grimm @ Crooners
Yazmin & Beat Zero feat. Havana Quartet and Prudence Johnson @ Crooners
The Paramedics, Spittin’ Image, the Varmints, Yomchi @ Driftwood Char Bar
Irish Music Session @ Dubliner Pub
Miss Shannon Presents Tinglers @ Eagles 34
Crimewave: A Goth, Post-Punk, & Darkwave Party @ Fine Line
Earlybirds Club with Ms. Lakesha and DJ Bootsy Ballins @ First Avenue
Bob the Drag Queen @ Fitzgerald Theater
Cedis Boyz: MKZ x Dwaynne @ Gidi Bar
Hope and the River Stones @ Ginkgo Coffee
Candlelight: ‘90s Hip-Hop on Strings @ Granada
Candlelight: Tribute to Michael Jackson @ Granada
Teddy Swims @ Grand Casino Arena
Flamin’ Oh’s, Annie and the Bang Bang @ Hook and Ladder
Efmi, Dream of the Wild, the Stretch @ Hook and Ladder
- Papa Mbye @ Icehouse—In April, Racket’s first-ever Picked to Click winner released his seven-track EP, Jakaarlo, the much-anticipated follow-up to Parcelles 16. The title means “to be close to” in Wolof, and, fittingly, his singing is more sensual than ever here while high-profile local collaborators Young Dervish and (Meatloaf Dipper co-inventor) Ryan Olson ensure that his music is even more stylistically varied than in the past. Mbye wrote the material for Jakaarlo over the course of a relationship, which ended just as he completed the album, and the title track is influenced by two of old-school Senegalese mbalax stars; N'dongo Lo released a song by the same name, and Mbye samples the great Youssou N’Dour’s song “Lima Wesu.”—Keith Harris
Ostrow/Murray/Johnk/Hurtado @ Jazz Central
Sentinel Hill, Infuriate, Rad Enhancer @ Memory Lanes
Joe Kelly, Boe Ross @ Metronome Brewery
Bad Idea, Rabbid Wreck, Cobra Jets, Left in Rot @ Mortimer's
Sondergard Conducts Stravinsky’s Firebird @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Koh (Where Rivers Merge) with Abel Selaocoe and Sidiki Dembélé @ Ordway
Agony in the Living Room, Waking Hours, and a Secret Acoustic Set @ Pilllar Forum
Bambi Alexandra with the Suicide Horns @ Schooner Tavern
Unsane, Hammerhead, In Lieu @ 7th St Entry
Sabai X Hoang @ Skyway Theatre
Gently Gently, RSSSK @ Terminal Bar
Ahem, Good Doom, the Envies @ 331 Club
Nick Karcher @ Underground Music
Decades: A Transmission Through Time @ Uptown VFW
Mill City Hot Club @ Volstead’s
- Yuka Honda @ Walker Art Center—see Thursday's listings.
The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel
And I Found A Way, Southpaw, Shrive, Pommel @ White Squirrel
Lilac Fortress, Pleasure Cube, Spectres of Desire @ White Squirrel
Blood Cookie, NATL PARK SRVC, Falcon Arrow @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, September 26
Greenvale Manitou, Loop Th3ory @ Acadia
Bleachers, This Is Lorelei @ Armory
Bazemnt’s Second Anniversary @ Bazement
Eric Jacobson Quartet @ Berlin
Shoeless Revolution @ Bunker’s
Brian Halvorson & Friends @ Carbone’s
- Willi Carlisle, William Matheny @ Cedar Cultural Center—"I want to write songs that prove the old weird America didn't go anywhere," queer leftist country singer Carlisle proclaims. His latest, The Universal Bubba (which sounds like a Drive-By Truckers title), is produced by Tyler Childers, and Childers’s band, the Food Stamps, and won’t be out till November 6. But you’ll get a taste of it tonight, and judging from advance tracks “The Mason Jar at the Center of the World” and “Marlboro Vinyasa,” about a small-town redneck who seeks refuge in “the last place you can smoke inside” (which “has got free yoga on Saturday night”) the young weird America seems to be doing just fine.—Keith Harris
Vicky Mountain and Dale Alexander @ Crooners
Bernadette Spray and Friends @ Crooners
- Dakota Block Party 2026 @ Dakota—The Dakota rocks, Minneapolis rocks, and those two truths will be on full display during this free downtown block party that’s taking over Nicollet Mall for another year. Live music will go down at three locations: jazzy stuff inside, with the New Standards headlining at 9:30 p.m.; music education from MacPhail and swing dancing with Southside Aces at the Quinlan Room; and the outdoor main stage is set to host L.A. Buckner & Big Homie (see Racket’s profile here), Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas, Liv Warfield, Dylan Salfer, and reliably excellent headliners Sounds of Blackness featuring Jamecia Bennett.—Jay Boller
The Great Northern @ Driftwood Char Bar
Ditch Pigeon, Redstart Hearts, Piss With Style, Jesus Was a Commie @ Dusty’s
Bahamas, Boy Golden @ Fine Line
Bertha: Grateful Drag @ First Avenue
Chelsea Wolfe, Jonathan Hulten @ Fitzgerald Theater
Alt Country Night @ Gambit Brewing
Candlelight: ’90s Unplugged @ Granada
Whiskey Stone @ Mainstreet Bar
OcTubaFest with Marty Erickson @ Metronome Brewery
Neoteric Chamber Winds with Ladyband @ Metronome Brewery
High & Mighty @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Body High with DJ GirlBlunt @ Mortimer's
Pitbull, Lil Jon @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Sondergard Conducts Stravinsky’s Firebird @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Koh (Where Rivers Merge) with Abel Selaocoe and Sidiki Dembélé @ Ordway
MC Pirate Pants, Virginia's Basement, Pinched. @ Pilllar Forum
Beth Hart, Ty Taylor @ Palace Theatre
Becky Kapell & the Fat 6 @ Schooner Tavern
Evening Elephants, Motherfolk @ 7th St Entry
DPFKS, Off Planet, the Dirtpops @ 331 Club
Nick Hakim, Arima Ederra @ Turf Club
Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers @ Uptown Theater
David Ebner Tribute Show with Yeah Yeah Fine, Los Demas, Special Guests @ White Squirrel
Friendly Fred (Album Release) @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, September 27
MN Needs Music Campaign Kickoff @ Amsterdam
Sunday Swing Brunch @ Aster Cafe
Brandon Wozniak: A Tribute to Sonny Rollins @ Berlin
Andy Ulseth @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Communion Season 20:17 @ Cabooze
Taikogroove with Enso Daiko and Savage Aural Hotbed @ Cedar Cultural Center
Gospel Legacy Live Presents the Music of Kirk Franklin @ Crooners
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood Char Bar
Chance York, Salsa Brava @ Dual Citizen
Hurricane Harold Trio @ Dubliner Pub
Sunday Trad Session @ Dubliner Pub
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Gettoblaster @ Eat Street Crossing
Johnny Blue Skies @ Grand Casino Arena
The Schizophonics, Fever Dog, the Ugly Cowboys @ Icehouse
Harvest: A Tribute to Neil Young @ Parkway Theater
Steven Dawes, Jojomber @ 7th St Entry
Church of Cornbread @ Schooner Tavern
Steelin’ Dan Unplugged @ 318 Cafe
Two Runner, Ross Thorn @ Turf Club
The Linda Lindas, Vial @ Varsity Theater
Adam Wetterling, Jonah Paul, J-Mo On The Beat @ White Squirrel
North Country Singers @ White Squirrel
Monday, September 28
Foster the People, Goth Babe @ Armory
Soundwave Frequency V3 @ Bazemnt
Massive Mondays Reggae @ Cabooze
Simon Joyner & the Ghosts, David Nance @ Cloudland
Jennifer Eckes and Kevin Werner-Hohlstein @ Crooners
Dan Chouinard feat. Jennifer Grimm @ Crooners
Buzz Kull, Kontravoid @ Icehouse
Dirty Pretty, Ditch Pigeon, Mr. Rogers @ Memory Lanes
Free Community Concerts @ Metronome Brewery
Blues Jam with Moses Oakland @ Midway Saloon
Monday Jam @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Metal Monday @ Schooner Tavern
Basic: Chris Forsyth, Douglas McCombs, Mikel Patrick Avery and DPAD @ 7th St Entry
