Jeez, gimme one three-day weekend and my ambitions run wild. For a while I've wanted to populate this somewhat eye-glazing weekly list of shows with more suggestions, explanations, and observations. But tempus, as you know, will fugit, especially on a four-person website.
So let's see if this remodeled calendar lives up to my great expectations—In future weeks, I hope to spotlight some folks with regular gigs as well as some under-sung venues that deserve the shine. Oh, also, I've added a bunch more photos, which I should've started doing a long time ago, no excuses.
As always, if you notice a venue missing here, gimme a holler.
Tuesday, July 8
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
Capri Big Band @ Como Lakeside Pavilion
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Cafe Accordion Orchestra @ Eagles 34
Jazz on the Prairie Big Band @ Father Hennepin Park
- Glitterpit, Makeshift, Oceanographer, & Sunsets Over Flowers @ Green Room—I am a sucker for branding. You could book new bands every night of the week and I might not notice. But do it one night a week, call it “New Band Night,” and this dullard’s interest is piqued. Actually, Green Room’s new band night is every other Tuesday (the traditional night set aside for new bands). For $10, worth popping in and hearing what’s up.
Nate Wooley, Ches Smith & Chris Corsano with Michael Lewis & JT Bates @ Icehouse
Cedar Avenue Big Band @ Jazz Central
Funk ‘n’ Spuds @ Indeed Brewing
Rare Form @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Nova Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
July Conspiracy Series featuring with the Beavers, Chemistry Set @ 331 Club
Workers Playtime with Jeff Ray @ 331 Club
Paper Chain (Residency) @ White Squirrel
Freezer Jam, A Slice To Go, Pencilneck, & Worm Grunter @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, July 9
- Ezra Furman @ Amsterdam—“If I were a music journalist,” Ezra Furman writes of her latest album, Goodbye Small Head, “I would call this an orchestral emo prog-rock record sprinkled with samples.” Then she adds, “Thank goodness I’m not a music journalist!” Jewish, trans, and defiant, Furman has been expelling her anxieties into song rather than succumbing to them for 15 years or so; Goodbye Small Head adapts its title from a lyric to Sleater-Kinney’s “Get Up,” and like those punk greats she has a gift for bringing just the the right amount of drama to a situation. The sometimes orchestral, emo in a broad sense, prog-not-quite album climaxes with the truly inspiring “A World of Love and Care,” with Furman declaiming “Human dignity/Was supposed to be a guarantee for all” and urging us all “Dream better/Dream bigger.” Oh, there’ll be some weeping to that one live.
Babymetal with Jinjer + Bloodywood @ Armory
Sugar on the Roof @ Aster Cafe
The Cherry Pit Presents: Bible Study at Berlin @ Berlin
Sinkane @ Cedar Cultural Center
Pigseye Jass Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Pop Wagner Tavern Trio, Corpse Reviver @ Crooners
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
- Mekons with Jake La Botz @ Fine Line—Hey, I heard you like anticolonialism. Can I interest you in an album about the crimes of the British Empire from a collective of weary Marxist rock veterans that kicks off in 1654 with a reggae song about Elizabeth’s court astronomer John Dee and Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell crafting world domination? Hey, where are you going? More impressionistic than didactic, the Mekons’ latest, Horror, isn’t exactly defiant stuff—even human dynamo Jon Langford sounds a little battered, and the dominant voice here belongs to unbowed but fatigued Tom Greenhalgh. But these lefties are far from resigned. And who else could make “Physical coercion will not achieve dominance” sound as rousing as “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me”?
Starlight Vinyl Night: MAKR Spins the Classic @ Icehouse
Love Stinks with Brandon Commodore and MacKenzie @ Icehouse
Beasley’s Big Band @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Salsa Del Soul @ Marjorie McNeely Conservatory
Big Woods Brass @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Most Cake, Sierra Swan, Monsters In Your Parasol, Mortiholics @ Mortimer’s
Mike Wolter and Friends @ Palmer’s
- Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Samantha Fish @ Pantages Theatre—I don’t follow contemporary blues that closely, but 26-year-old Grammy winner Ingram showcases enough vocal and guitar chops on his 2023 set Live in London to recommend him to anyone else who doesn’t follow contemporary blues that closely. (Them as do keep up already know the guy.) I know less about former wunderkind Fish, now 36; her Paper Doll rocks them blues in a generic but skilled way.
The Teddy Holidays @ Park Tavern
Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes @ Parkway
Another Heaven with Patience, Ophelia, and Quail @ Pilllar Forum
OVRFWD, Jazz Outlaws @ Schooner Tavern
Ye Vagabonds with Hemma @ 7th St Entry
The Meshes, Tonal Whiplash, Wage Cage @ Time Travelers Public House
John Garcia with Telekinetic Yeti @ Turf Club
Year of the Cobra with Wilbur @ Underground Music
Paul Bergen & Friends @ White Squirrel
Pretoria, Diet Lite, Haze Gazer, & Alaska Jules @ Zhora Darling
Thursday, July 10
Winter Rayne, All Waffle Trick, Lost Island Society, Far Far Away @ Acadia
Sol Concert @ American Swedish Institute
Xawaro, Volcano Diving Inc., Touch of Malice, Ghostmade Cellophane @ Amsterdam
- Sounds of Africa: Gifted Handz & Yonathan B @ Berlin—And speaking of chops, they’ll be on display at this Carbon Sound-sponsored show. The Liberian-American gospel-fusion quartet Gifted Handz can flat out play; even unbelievers will get the spirit. And Ethiopian-born bassist Yonathan B, who moved to Minnesota as a teen, fronts his own group that features two trumpets, a drummer, and a percussionist.
Nolen Sellwood @ Bryant Square Park
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves @ Cedar Cultural Center
Sue Scott’s Island of Discarded Women @ Crooners
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
New Justice Project Presents: The People’s Mic @ Hook and Ladder
Francine Magee, VERSKOTZI, and Marvelous @ Icehouse
Howdy Pardner Country Dance Night @ Lush
Dan Rodriguez with Becky Kapell @ Mears Park
Comes a Time @ Minnehaha Boulevard
Mary Prescott, John C.S. Keston, Dovetail @ Mirror Lab
Dingus, Tiny Stupid, and Pyrrhic Victories @ Palmer’s
Lone Rock Bride with Seven Pines, Lake Davi, and The Penny Peaches @ Pilllar Forum
Edie Rae Band, B & the Sting @ Schooner Tavern
Los Bitchos with the Swongos @ 7th St Entry
Joe Hysell with Dan Neal @ 331 Club
Langhorne Slim with Angela Autumn @ Turf Club
The Motion Mosaic, Koningsor, Solshade, & Fairer Sands @ Underground Music
Dan Chouinard @ Waldmann Brewery
Adam Brandt Band with Samuel John Band @ White Squirrel
Red Lovely with Landing Pad & Seismic City @ White Squirrel
Wayne Anthony @ Windows at Marquette
Unattractive Giant Monsters, Cut Rate Clones, Littleton @ Zhora Darling
Friday, July 11
Leaving Hope, Lost Evidence, Red Fletcher, My Kid Banana @ Amsterdam
Curtis Wayne Hunt & Anna Houston @ Aster Cafe
Yeshaya Ehrlich Yeshaya @ Berlin
Regional Jazz Trio (Anthony Cox/JT Bates/Mike Lewis) @ Berlin
Nude Nubies Burlesque @ Black Hart
- G Herbo @ Cabooze—The Cabooze has always been the place to catch touring rap veterans, and it seems like those vets get younger every year. For instance, this Chicago drill master, who turns 30 in October, is already something of legend among his peers and, about a decade into his career, maybe no longer in his prime. His most recent album, Greatest Rapper Alive, a team-up with frequent soul-sample-flipping producer Southside, might not quite live up to its title (rappers do like to exaggerate—it’s kinda their thing), but I’m here for tracks like “Went Legit,” the kind of boast it’s always good to hear a street rapper live long enough to make.
Neon Night’s 2 Year Anniversary Rave @ Can Can Wonderland
Straya, Another Heaven, Controversial New Skinny Pill @ Cloudland
PARADOX 07.11.25 @ Congo Latin Bistro
Erin and Jay Cabaret @ Crooners
Booster Pack with Hunny Bear and Chroma @ Day Block Brewing
Haybale, the Famous Names @ Driftwood
Chutes, Sam Soderholm @ 50th and France
Heart Attack Man with Carpool and Dear Seattle @ Fine Line
Harvest, Seraph, Joust, Toilet Rats, Everybody Takes One @ Flying V
The Smallweeds @ Ginkgo Coffee
The Best Night Ever @ Green Room
Cole Swindell @ Hinckley Grand Casino
Astronomy Town (EP Release) with Nelson Devereaux @ Icehouse
Calla Mae, Glitter Pit, Green @ Klash Coffee
- Foreigner, .38 Special, Loverboy @ Lakefront Music Fest—Prior Lake is too far to drive for this Relics of Arena Rock lineup, Lou Gramm or no Lou Gramm.
Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Bainbridge X High Zombie @ The Loft
Reckless at Tiffany’s @ Mainstreet Bar
The Jazz Standards @ Minnehaha Bandstand
Beethoven and Brahms @ Orchestra Hall
Impaler, Rad Enhancer, VolsungaSaga, Outlaw Saints, and Cymothoa @ Palmer’s
Flummox with Anita Velveeta, Extermination Day, and Eudaemon @ Pilllar Forum
Jaak Jensen, Paul Thomas Flynn, Alien God Theory, Nelsdotlive @ Red Sea
Maurice Jacox & We Still R @ Schooner Tavern
Friendship with 2nd Grade and Pat Keen’s Bug Band @ 7th St Entry
Summer of Loud: Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, I Prevail, Beartooth @ Somerset Amphitheater
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with .J. Grey & Mofro @ Surly Brewing Festival Field
Richard Kriehn with Dan Chouinard & Pat Donohue @ 318 Cafe
The Cameras, Soulflower, LaSalle @ 331 Club
Buñuel with TODAY IS THE DAY and Spiritual Poison @ Turf Club
The John Magnuson Trio, Starter Boyfriend @ Underground Music
MILKSHAKE: 2000s hip hop, R&B, and pop DANCE PARTY @ Uptown VFW
The Gated Community @ White Squirrel
Dylan Tribute @ White Squirrel
Oister Boy, Mouthful, North by North, Natl Park Srvc @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, July 12
Orthodox @ American Legion 577
Evernorth (EP Release), Chrome Coda, Souls @ Amsterdam
Zaq Baker Team, the Melismatics, Viva Knievel @ Bauhaus Brew Labs
The Tyler Lustek Confluence @ Berlin
Rob Clearfield: Voice in the Wilderness @ Berlin
Late Night Lounge by Kinetic: Woody McBride @ Berlin
Mary Brewster’s Sparkle @ Black Hart
The Versus Party: East vs. West @ Cabooze
Glass Eyed Brother. xLCR, and Bookowski @ Can Can Wonderland
Night Jobs, Atomic Lights, Suburban Muscle @ Cloudland
The Music of Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers @ Crooners
Sunbather, Canada Goose, Johnny Williams, Flatwound, Jay James @ Day Block Brewing
The Back 40s with Thief River Band @ Day Block Brewing
Grand Theft & Petty Misdemeanors, Slap Hazard & the Serfs @ Driftwood
Cindy Lawson, 10 Watt Robot, King James Version @ Dusty’s
Swinging on a Star @ Eagles 34
Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers with j. bell & the Lazy Susan Band @ Fine Line
EARLYBIRD with DJ Liiiam @ First Avenue
I’m Too Late But Still @ Flying V
Music with Open Arms @ Hook and Ladder
The Symptones (EP Release) with Socktopus & Dot Operator @ Icehouse
Brett Newski & the Bad Inventions @ Insight Brewing
William Duncan Presents @ Jazz Central
Ecphasis, Left in Rot, Floh, Baned Existence @ Klash Coffee
- Miranda Lambert, Randy House, Dillon Carmichael @ Lakefront Music Fest—Prior Lake ain’t too far to drive to see the greatest Nashville star of her generation, but $115 a pop? I’m starting to suspect that country may not be the music of the working class after all.
Minneapolis Pops @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Barking Daisy @ Mainstreet Bar
PV$$¥ CNTRL: DJ Shannon Blowtorch & Sophia Eris @ Mortimer’s
Beethoven and Brahms @ Orchestra Hall
The Crane Wives with Arny Margret @ Palace Theatre
Bathtub Cig, Ancient Waves, Redwing Blackbird, Phantom Fields, and Beemer @ Palmer’s
VIN with Dragged out to Sea, Shrive, and Onlytime @ Pilllar Forum
The Ordway Presents the String Queens @ Rice Park
Jiggs Lee Invasion @ Schooner Tavern
- Scrunchies, RiGBY, Doll Chaser, and BOOBLESS @ 7th St Entry—Bands like to do all sorts of funny things with capital letters when it comes to spelling their names, and it’s my job as the editorial funsucker around here to standardize ’em into mundane shape. But I’ll make exceptions for two clever groups here so I don’t squash the lulz: color-wheel adapters RiGBY and calculator jokers BOOBLESS. Not that I’d give either the benefit of the gag if their music didn’t earn it. BOOBLESS’s wonderfully silly Second Puberty tackles important topics like getting ogled in the grocery line, wearing a MAGA hat to a funeral, the self-declared “King of the Lesbians,” and how football terms make for good racehorse names. RiGBY’s Barely Passing kicks off (get it?) with “Slut Boots” (get it now?) and keeps on stomping in sprinting and sludgy modes both. Doll Chaser can get fancy in the studio with trumpets and such but if you doubt they can rock out live check out their March EP Live From Downstairs. As for headliners Scrunchies, you could check this feature even though it was written at least one bass player ago, and before last year’s great Colossal, one of the last albums produced by Steve Albini before he left us for that great studio in the sky. Whew, this blurb is too long. That’s why I usually don’t write about all the bands.
Christmas on Neptune, WAAR Party, MIA @ Terminal Bar
Fairy Boat, Bobby Rethwish, Madame Blu @ 331 Club
Chris Night with Laurel Lewis @ Turf Club
Leila’s Rose @ Underground Music
Shotgun Ragtime Band with Camile Baudoin @ Utepils Brewing
- Fort Road Folk Fest @ White Squirrel—Another way to catch my attention? Call your show a festival. But don’t try to fool me—it had better be a damn festival, and this 10-hour party, thrown by ace songwriter and all around good guy Martin Devaney, has got the goods. There will also be a vintage and makers market, food from the Angry Line Cook truck, and lots of music indoors and out. Here’s the lineup, which includes plenty of White Squirrel regulars: John Swardson, the Dieselfitters, Corpse Reviver, Laura Hugo, the Bad Companions, Boots and Needles, and the Mary Cutrufello Band, and, of course, Devaney himself, who also performs with unspecified “friends” every third Thursday at the bar.
Twin Citizen, Handsome Midnight, & Labrador Wild @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, July 13
Nicotine Addiction Band @ Acadia
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Mid-Summer Sound Bath @ Cedar Cultural Center
Time Room, American Cream Band, Fend @ Cloudland
Doug Anderson and Friends @ Crooners
Michael Monroe’s Tribute to James Taylor @ Crooners
Django Generations: The Art of Musette with the Ryan Picone Quartet @ Crooners
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime Band @ Driftwood
North Star Jazz Community Jazz Session @ Dual Citizen
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Montez De Durango @ EME Antro Bar
Second Breakfast String Band @ Finnish Bistro
Nile Flows Red, Ecphasis, Disembodied Humanity, and Recompense @ Flying V
Services, Despondent, Drug League @ Green Room
Martin Zellar @ Hewing Rooftop
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys with Lena & The LoveKills @ Hook and Ladder
Rich Hinman vs Adam Levy Summer in the Starlight Room @ Icehouse
Night Shift Dance Party @ Icehouse
Minnesota Pipes and Drums @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Minneapolis Pops @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Retro Rhythms with DJ Kenny D @ Mortimer’s
Beethoven and Brahms @ Orchestra Hall
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer’s
- The Owl-Eyes with the Makeouts and Kym & the Kick @ Pilllar Forum—Not to be confused with 11th place Australian Idol finisher Owl Eyes, Cap’n Jazz revamp Owls, local indie-poppers the Owls, or (absolutely not) Owl City, the Owl-Eyes are studio-hound Ethan Tee’s solo project turned IRL band. “My Morning Jacket with a 90's kick” and “if the Velvet Underground played music by Alice in Chains,” to quote two online encapsulations of their sound, are wide enough of the mark that I’m hesitant to describe Tools of the Trade in my own words. Someone else’s tag—“glam grunge”—does come pretty close though.
Bones Owens with Luke LeBlanc @ 7th St Entry
Emmy Woods, Ryan Young @ 331 Club
Suzy Plays Guitar with Sammie Jean Cohen, Jerrika Mighelle @ White Squirrel
The Falderals with Art Vandalay @ White Squirrel
Smokin' Joe with Izzy Cruz & *SPLASH!* @ White Squirrel
Future Crib, Dream of the Wild, & Emma Jeanne @ Zhora Darling
Monday, July 14
- Bastille Day @ Alliance Française—Barbette’s Bastille Day festival (see Sunday’s listings) gets all the press, and I’m not gonna begrudge anyone who wants to kick it in Uptown on a Sunday afternoon—depending on the weather, I might head over myself. But I’m intrigued by the lineup here: accordion-violin-voice combo the Francine Roche Trio, immigrant roots preservationists Siengkane Lao MN, and most of all the tribute to French ’60s pop Ye Ye Pow, fronted by Stephanie Winter of Mere Kats and Autumn Leaves, and featuring members of the Flamin’ Oh’s, Run Westy Run, Kinda Kinky. Très something or other, bien sûr.
Fridley City Band @ Como Lakeside Pavillion
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Queer Contra Dancing @ Eagles 34
Saltydog @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
EKKSTACY with Max Fry @ 7th St Entry
Mumblin’ Drew’s Oldfangled Orchestrators @ White Squirrel
Goatroper with the Federales @ White Squirrel
Billy the Shoe, Cute Intentions, Ty & the My My's, & Frank and Janea @ Zhora Darling
