Still planning for that special day, lovebirds? Well, you can find some unconventional (and possibly totally unromantic!) options below.
Tuesday, February 11
Dark Pony & Friends @ Aster Cafe
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
- Guy Davis @ Cedar Cultural Center—Kinda makes sense that the friendliest of folk blues revivalists started making the finest albums of his career as he entered his 70s—Davis has always had more Mississippi John Hurt in his soul than most of his peers. His latest, The Legend of Sugarbelly, is an excellent follow up to 2021’s Be Ready When I Call You, mixing folk tales with gently finger-picked stories of rambling and setting still. The mood is placid if not reassuring, putting him over the head of dummies who buy the old lie that the blues is about feeling bad (or about any one thing at all). And you know he’s got the stories to go along with them. Confession: Somehow I only recently learned Guy was Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis’s son. Maybe I shoulda been paying more attention all along.
Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience @ Dakota
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
South High Play It Forward Student Fundraiser @ Hook and Ladder
Cedar Avenue Big Band @ Jazz Central
Nova Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Timeless Tuesdays @ Mortimer’s
Eddie 9V with Cousin Curtiss @ 7th St Entry
Artist Showcase @ Sociable Cider Werks
February Conspiracy Series featuring Elour, The Beavers, Woodzen @ 331 Club
Worker's Playtime with Becky Kapell @ 331 Club
Sarah and the Safe Word @ Underground Music Cafe
Wednesday, February 12
Shady Babies Open Mic @ Acadia
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
The Cherry Pit Presents: Bible Study at Berlin @ Berlin
Mary Cutrufello @ Como Park Conservatory
Direct From Sweden: The Music of Abba @ Dakota
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Starlight Vinyl Night: MAKR Spins the Classic @ Icehouse
Marijuana Death Squads @ Icehouse
Big Woods Brass @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Mortiholics + Elliot Hilton & Hart Lake Mystery + Edith Head @ Mortimer’s
The Customers with Neo Neos, The Dirty Pretty @ Pilllar Forum
Connor McRae Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Filthy Kittens, Lana Leone, Mother Soki, and berzica @ 7th St Entry
The What-have-yous, Matt Caflisch @ 331 Club
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Scottie Miller @ 331 Club
Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers @ White Squirrel
Linnea Grace with Emmy Woods, Deer Skin @ White Squirrel
Murder Curious, Couch Potato Massacre, Mommy Log Balls @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, February 13
Rue Sabien with Laura Mackenzie @ Aster Cafe
The Lawrence McDonough Trio @ Berlin
Purple Orange (FKA Jelloslave) @ Berlin
Mistress Ginger Sings Rodgers & Hart @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Peony Park, Dashed, Junior Choir @ Cloudland
BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet @ Dakota
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Lover’s Radio: An R&B Experience @ 56 Brewing
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats with Jonathan Hultén @ Fitzgerald Theater
Snapped Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
Winter Rayne @ Minnesota Music Cafe
JJ Sweatheart with Absolutely Yours, Rupert Angeleyes, Jumbos, Prim Woes @ Mortimer’s
The Front Porch Swingin’ Liquor Pigs @ Palmer’s
Edie Rae Band, Nathan Walker Band @ Schooner Tavern
Bugsy with Haze Gazer, Fend, and mouthful @ 7th St Entry
Adam Bohanan with Matcha Fever, Trent Romens Band, and Frankie Torres @ Turf Club
Nobody From Nowhere with Ted Hajnasiewicz & Friends @ White Squirrel
Rada K & The Cicadas with Solana & The Sunsets, Jackson Peters Combo @ White Squirrel
Friday, February 14
Subtronics Night 1 with Inzo, Truth, Smoakland, Motifv @ Armory
Freak of the Week @ Beast Barbecue
Cody McKinney/Davu Seru/Mike Wolter @ Berlin
Nudie Nubies Burlesque @ Black Hart
Mistress Ginger Sings Rodgers & Hart @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Neon Night: Black Mirror @ Can Can Wonderland
Eivør with Silvaine @ Cedar Cultural Center
The Boot RNB, Jim Ruiz Set, Oliver Phibes, DJ Megan O @ Cloudland
Erin Livingston with Mark Asche @ Crooners
Cyclops Clubhouse @ Day Block Brewing
Randy Everson & Wilson Parc @ Driftwood
Steve Clarke & the Working Stiffs @ Eagles 34
sapphic factory: queer joy party @ Fine Line
Reventón ⏤ Reggaeton Party ft. DJ Cristian Baca with Oscat and DJ Yobany @ First Avenue
Jahny D'Occurance @ Ginkgo Coffee
Fancy Dress Party 2025 @ Hook and Ladder
dj izzie p presents: ‘It’s All Love’ Lounge @ Hook and Ladder
Erik Koskinen & Band @ Icehouse
Dakota Andersen @ Jazz Central
The Good, the Bad, and the Funky @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Park, Ortiz, and Prokofiev @ Orchestra Hall
Four Spirits with Abel Selaocoe @ Ordway
Led Zeppelin Listening Party @ Padraigs
Vacant, Count Spookula, Miracle Debt, and Laugh Track @ Palmer’s
Waterline with Sunsets Over Flowers @ Pilllar Forum
Just Luv, Inc @ Schooner Tavern
The Young Dubliners with Hounds of Finn @ Studio B
Mathias St. John, Jamie Quinn, Taylor Robert's Roll & Soul Band @ Terminal Bar
All The Pretty Horses with Butter Boys @ 331 Club
I Love Lucy ⏤ Kiss the Tiger Pays Tribute to Lucinda Williams with 1-800 LIVE MUSIC @ Turf Club
Charles Wesley Godwin @ Uptown Theater
Grand Lilac with Muscle Fork @ White Squirrel
Spiderlily with Oceanographer, Twin River, 1947 @ White Squirrel
The New Standards @ Woman’s Club
Lasalle, Vinny Franco & the Love Channel, Soulflower @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, February 15
Subtronics Night 2 with Mersiv, Rusko, Zen Selekta, Flozone @ Armory
Andy Ulseth & Theo Langason @ Aster Cafe
Goodroad/Hurtado/Olse @ Berlin
The Good, the Bad, and the Funky @ Bunker’s
Steve Soleka: The 24 Piece 1 Man Band @ Can Can Wonderland
- Mustafa @ Cedar Cultural Center—This Sudanese-Canadian called himself “Mustafa the Poet” until grabbing the mic for his 2021 debut EP, When Smoke Rises, by which point he’d already established himself as a productive toiler in the pop world, mostly notably for co-writing a track for The Weeknd in 2016. Released last year, Mustafa’s first full-length, Dunya, documents the difficulties of being caught between cultures with acute sensitivity. Written and performed in acoustic singer/songwriter mode, the album touches base with scattered friendships and loves, and bids a bitter farewell to his city with “Leaving Toronto.”
Tender Comrade, Ramson, TV for the Dogs @ Cloudland
Twin Cities Flamenco Collective @ Crooners
Erin Livingston with Mark Asche @ Crooners
Stringdusters with Buffalo Galaxy @ Day Block Brewing
Skyx, Crossroads Blues Band @ Driftwood
The Bill Patten Trio @ Dusty’s
Blind Pilot with Kacy & Clayton @ Fine Line
Good Kid with Phoneboy @ First Avenue
Good Morning Bedlam with People Brothers Band @ Green Room
RiN with Rrose, Convextion aka E.R.P., & Hodge @ High Noon Saloon
Fatality, Fierro, & Borrachoz Inc @ Hook and Ladder
Gothess DM Tribute @ Hook and Ladder
InMotion: Valentines Edition @ Icehouse
Dennis Mitcheltree and Johannes Wallmann @ Jazz Central
Jaybee & the Routine @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Park, Ortiz, and Prokofiev @ Orchestra Hall
MMEA All-State Choral Concert @ Orchestra Hall
MMEA All-State Instrumental Concert @ Orchestra Hall
Four Spirits with Abel Selaocoe @ Ordway
Loud Sun, Family Ledgers (Cassette Release), and Cha Cha 9 @ Palmer’s
Anita Velveeta & Thotcrime with S.L.O.G and Fly Over States @ Pilllar Forum
Craig Clark Band @ Schooner Tavern
Michigan Rattlers with Elias Hix @ 7th St Entry
The Crimson Boys with Porch Knights @ 331 Club
Petty Treason’s Burlesque Bonanza ⏤ Valentine Giddy Up @ Turf Club
LAZARUS with Tony Ortiz, Unfinished Products @ White Squirrel
13 Howell with Muun Bato @ White Squirrel
Woodzen with Red Wing Blackbird, Miss Georgia Peach @ White Squirrel
Lungs, Too Late, But Still, Loss Leader, Spit Takes @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, February 16
The Clean Plate Club with Red40, Emily & The Space Butterflies, & The Gentlebrass @ Amsterdam
Subtronics Night 3 with Deathpact, Level Up, Muzz, VKTM @ Armory
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Medium Zach/Kavyesh Kaviraj @ Berlin
The Okee Dokee Brothers @ Cedar Cultural Center
Sidewalk Diamonds, Creekside Ruffians, John Magnuson Trio @ Cloudland
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
TC Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Ramblin’ Bluebirds & No Man’s String Band @ 56 Brewing
- Dua Saleh with XINA and SoulFlower @ Fine Line—Dua Saleh operates best on a small scale: At 32 minutes, their debut full-length, I Should Call Them, isn’t much longer than the three EPs that preceded it. But the formerly Minneapolis-based singer (now out in L.A., like so many formerly Minneapolis-based musicians) doesn’t need a lot of time to cover a lot of emotional ground. Their always stylistically elastic voice ranges more broadly than ever on the new album, with their sinuous upper range getting a particularly rigorous workout; proximity to simpatico duet partners Serpentwithfeet and Sid Sriramhas keeps Saleh thinking on their feet. The tracks, crafted by a crew of producers including Andrew Broder, are less murky than Saleh’s norm, all the better to showcase their playful sexual boasting. Related: I am just now finishing up the final season of Netflix’s Sex Education (in which Saleh plays the trans student Cal) and I am going to miss those kids!
Nicholas David and Demitrious Rallis @ Icehouse
Red Hot Django Peppers @ Metronome
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer’s
- Mary Bue (Album Release) with Mae Simpson Duo @ Parkway—Since Bue teaches yoga and conducts meditative retreats, I sometimes worry she’ll become so spiritually well-adjusted it’ll dull her songwriting edge. Her terrific new album, The Wildness of Living & Dying, which urgently testifies as “this beautiful world fuckin’ burns before our eyes,” amply assuages those fears. Bue is equally at home riffing off L. Cohen's "Anthem" (“Leonard says cracks/Are how the light gets in/Well then, I’m a crack whore/It feels like I’m crumblin’”) or assuring listeners “If you’re hearing this, you ain’t dead yet, my friend,” and she's still very much attuned to the pain in this world without surrendering to it.
Jarv with King Green and Damn Skippy @ 7th St Entry
The Plot in You with Holding Absence, Boundaries, & Acres @ Skyway Theatre
- Benjamin Booker with Kenny Segal @ Turf Club—Though Booker’s often thought of as a traditional singer-songwriter type, his stylistic range is broader than that. Even so, Lower, recorded with underground rap producer Segal, is a departure, shrouded in bracing sheets of electric guitar, driven by innovative beat craft, and undercut with dissociative effects like the recordings of a school shooting and the sounds of his own infant that trouble the hopeful and melodic “Same Kind of Lonely.” Booker’s got a sense of history, too, which hardly reassures him: ”Give a little love, they bug the house again,” he sings on “Black Opps,” while “Rebecca Latimer Felton Takes a BBC” explores the contradictions of the slave-owning feminist congresswomen.
Assorted Portions, Gates of Dawn @ Underground Music Venue
Charles Wesley Godwin @ Uptown Theater
Wintry Elementary @ White Squirrel
Karaoke with Ally @ White Squirrel
Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol with Lip Critic @ Zhora Darling
Monday, February 17
The Mystery Mic - Ian Mcclean @ Acadia
Baldwin/Harris/Hennig @ Berlin
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome
Cowaoke with Ben Moooker @ Palmer’s
Cap'n Seabeard with Mike Clark and the Sugar Sounds and Ditch Pigeon @ Pilllar Forum
Jordana with Rachel Bobbitt @ 7th St Entry
Open Mic @ Sociable Cider Werks
Sparrow Catcher @ White Squirrel
