Welcome the Start of Outdoor Music Season With Your Complete Concert Calendar: May 30-June 5

Pretty much all the live music you can catch in the Twin Cities this week.

By Keith Harris

12:27 PM CDT on May 30, 2023

Photos provided|

Tink, Alex Lahey

Well, Memorial Day has come and gone, and that means it's officially outdoor music season. Enjoy it while you can.

Tuesday, May 30

International Reggae Allstars @ Bunkers

Natania & Ticket to Brasil @ Dakota

St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood

Pedro the Lion with Erik Walters @ Fine Line—Everyone's favorite former Christian rocker, David Bazan, plays PTL albums It’s Hard to Find a Friend and Control in their entirety.

Tommy Goodroad with Cole Diamond, Ty Pow & the Holy North @ Green Room

Murphy Smith, Caleb Dee @ Icehouse

Alestorm @ The Lyric

DJ Blue Funk @ Palmer's

Alex Lahey with Liza Anne @ 7th St. Entry—You wouldn't necessarily know that The Answer Is Always Yes, released earlier this month, is the first of Lahey's three albums to feature co-writers and outside producers. If anything, the arrangements are slightly less kempt than those of its predecessor The Best of Luck Club, even if they don't match the punky rush of her debut, I Love You Like a Brother. Topics covered include having a good time, hating how happy an ex is, social anxiety, and not getting laid on your birthday.

April Conspiracy Series featuring theyself, 26 BATS @ 331 Club

Worker's Playtime, Paul Bergen @ 331 Club

YOB with Cave In and DUG @ Turf Club

VALLEY @ Varsity Theater

Trevor McSpadden & Mary Cutrufello @ White Squirrel

Residency, Thy Name is Jeremy @ White Squirrel

Janet Jackson @ Xcel Energy Center—Janet Jackson meant it when she said “Let’s Wait Awhile”—she hasn’t made it back to the Twin Cities proper for a show since her 2015 gig at the Target Center, when she was touring behind her last album, Unbreakable. She did hit the Treasure Island Amphitheater in Red Wing in 2019, where her setlist reached back into every era of her hit-crammed career (viciously derailed as it was by the vile Les Moonves, with the assistance of the venal Justin Timberlake). Word is she’ll be performing new material from her long-delayed upcoming album (her first since Unbreakable), which last we heard was called Black Diamond. But there will still be plenty of room for the slamming Flyte Time beats of the ’80s and ’90s on what she’s calling the Together Again Tour. And at 56, the woman can still move.

Wednesday, May 31

Mark Ross & the Three-Nineteen @ Aster Cafe

Dylan Salfer @ Bunkers

Matt Jennings Electric Trio @ The Commons

Maggie's Wednesdays: Strum Brothers @ Crooners

Howie Day @ Dakota

Jimmy Peterson and Casey Gooby @ Driftwood

Dark Funeral and Cattle Decapitation with 200 Stab Wounds and Blackbraid @ First Avenue

Ivan Cunningham's Freedom Pie, Oyster World, DJ Enva @ Icehouse

Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra @ Lake Harriet Bandshell

Prairie Clamor, Alicia Thao, Yeng Yang, Tommy Boynton @ Mortimer's

Hunny Bear, Confusicaurus and Pandelion @ Palmer's

Bazookatooth, Hallux, Identity Criss @ Pilllar

Buffalo Daughter with babybaby_explores and Balloon Race @ 7th St Entry

Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Mississippi Hot Club @ 331 Club

Lenz and Frenz @ 331 Club

Frankie Rose with SRSQ and Collin Gorman Weiland @ Turf Club

Cook County & Joan of Profile @ Underground Music Venue

Subtle Transients @ White Squirrel

Thursday, June 1

Hunter Hayes with Abby Anderson @ Amsterdam

Billy Johnson @ Aster Cafe

Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunkers

Gili Yalo with DJ Fawzi @ Cedar Cultural Center

American Dream Band @ The Commons

The Brian Grivna Quartet @ Crooners

Joyann Parker @ Crooners

How Sweet It Is: The Music of James Taylor and Carly Simon @ Crooners

Vanessa Collier @ Dakota

Snow Removal Blues Band, On the X @ Driftwood

Blu Bone with Denaisha, Gym Kang, GoldGrrl @ Fine Line

Lucia Sarmiento, Adam Bohanan, Elyse Jones @ Green Room

The Immaculate Beings, Sleeping Jesus, and Beemer @ Hook and Ladder

Abinnet Berhanu Trio @ Icehouse

Mostly Trees (Album Release) with Good Doom @ Icehouse

Aaron Simmons Band @ KJ's Hideaway

Good Morning Bedlam @ Mears Park

South High Band @ Minnehaha Bandstand

"Knockturnal" with Greenery @ Palmer's

Off With Their Heads with Single Mothers and Constant Insult @ 7th St Entry

Northeast Invitational @ 331 Club

Aesha Minor, Unstable Shapes, SAX, and Stranger Gallery @ Turf Club

Shady Babies @ Underground Music Cafe

White Squirrel 2 Year Anniversary Show @ White Squirrel

Friday, June 2

Still Stayer, Surefire, Contrition, Comatose, & VVakefield @ Amsterdam

Jason Walsmith @ Aster Cafe

Alex Rossi @ Bunkers

Nimcaan Hilaac and Hilaac Band with Bashir Jaawi @ Cedar Cultural Center

Arne Fogel @ Crooners

The Jana Nyberg 5 @ Crooners

Jens Lindemann @ Crooners

Maggie's Afterglow: Rick Carlson with Geoff Jones @ Crooners

Alejandro Escovedo @ Dakota

Hotel Blue, Strollin Clones @ Driftwood

Haken with Arch Echo @ Fine Line

Morel Feast Fundraiser @ Hook and Ladder

Tim Sparks Trio @ Icehouse

Noise Party Vol. 3 @ Icehouse

Alanna Snortland with Thomas Sticha @ KJ’s Hideaway

Lloyds @ Lake Harriet Bandstand

The Percolators @ Loring Park

Bato Bato!: Breck School's Marimba Band @ Minnehaha Bandstand

Worn Mantle, Dischordia, The Last Of Lucy, Serac @ Mortimer's

The String Queens @ Ordway

Tink,Jacquees @ Orpheum Theatre—POSTPONED After making a splash in 2014 with her mixtape Winter's Diary 2: Forever Yours, Tink was inducted into XXL's Freshman Class the following year and signed with Timbaland. Then, as with too many talented female rap/R&B performers, her career has been derailed by label issues. She's regained her footing as an independent artist since, and as she shows on her latest, Thanks 4 Nothing, she's learned to protect herself, on guard against "Fake Love" and realizing "Streets Ain't for Me."

Linus, Gentleman Speaker and The Havana Sleeve @ Palmer's

Trevor Says Mosh, N3RD4KING and Lil Censei @ Palmer's

Star Student, Anita Velveeta, Brave Room Terrified @ Pilllar

Mack OC–Osinachi with Brandyn Tulloch, Kwame J, Gifted Handz @ 7th St Entry

Dirty Monkey X Jantzen @ Skyway Theatre

Lakeview @ Studio B

Nina Luna, Oak & the Woods, Jordan Carr @ 331 Club

Black Market Brass with Obi Original @ Turf Club

Vulllgur, Yunit, Psychonaut, Abyss, & Winn @ Uptown VFW

Jim and Kathy Emery @ Water Works

The Matt Arthur Contraption with Erik Brandt and the Urban Hillbilly Quartet @ White Squirrel

Saturday, June 3

Caster Volor, Dirty Sexy Riot, Rebel Queens, Outlaw Saint @ Amsterdam

Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Perfume Genius @ Armory—These 9/11-era New York rock revivalists haven’t played the Twin Cities since 2013, which means countless Minnesotans of drinking age (and older!) have never had the chance to see Karen O in her full onstage glory. (Or hear Nick Zinner’s guitar at its full three–dimensional electronic thrum, for that matter.) The trio is touring behind Cool It Down, their first album in nine years, and though it doesn’t explode with the eager postpunk bombast of Fever to Tell or strut with the high-stepping femme glamor of It’s Blitz!, it will contribute several stylish additions to their setlist. And recordings never quite did this band justice anyway. Opener Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, appears on the lead track, “Spitting off the Edge of the World,” and the band seems inspired by his midtempo theatricality throughout. He’s a good role model.

Matty O’Reilly + Big Lake @ Aster Cafe

Ashley DuBose @ Bunkers

Joe Flip: Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan & ZZ Top @ Crooners

Maud Hixson @ Crooners

Kevin Kling and Victor Zupanc @ Crooners

Joyann Parker Band @ Crooners

Maggie's Afterglow: Rick Carlson with Debbie Briggs @ Crooners

Jaedyn James (Album Release) @ Dakota

The Quick Fix, Sunkenship Irony, Better Devils, Jimmy Barnett @ Driftwood

Lu Lu & the Shoe, Plastik Boxes, and Loser Magnet (solo) @ Dusty's

Bop To The Top With Lucas Grabeel, Dj Jeffery + Life By Michael @ Fillmore

Nekrogoblikon with INFERI, Æther Realm and Hunt The Dinosaur @ Fine Line