Why can't they all be three-day weekends, right folks? (Because the economic system we live under demands that we maximize our productivity so that others may accumulate capital.)
Tuesday, May 27
International Reggae Allstars @ Bunker’s
Lutheran Heat, Gentlemen Rogues, the Slow Death @ Cloudland
- The Klezmatics @ Dakota—Now pushing 70, Lorin Sklamberg remains one of modern klezmer’s great singers. He’d have excelled in any style, but there’s something special about how his supple tenor, alternating between Yiddish or English (often in the same song), soars over swirling clarinets and brass and his own pumping accordion. On the cusp of celebrating their 40th anniversary as a band, these klezmer revisionists will be performing material from The New York Sessions, due next year. Their first album in a decade, the collection promises cross-cultural fusions, politically incisive lyrics, and a version of Woody Guthrie’s still-timely “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).”—Keith Harris
St. Dominic’s Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Cosmic Supreme Tour feat. John Mark McMillan + Citizens @ Fine Line
Rakuyo, Time of Tradition @ Flying V
Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Will Kjeer Trio @ Metronome Brewery
Dirty Short Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Pop Punk Princess @ Mortimer’s
Ragefuture Open Mic @ Palmer’s
Dreamer Isioma with ivri @ 7th St Entry
Artist Showcase @ Sociable CIder Werks
May Conspiracy Series featuring Lena Elizabeth, the Twins of Franklin @ 331 Club
Worker’s Playtime: Mike Munson @ 331 Club
COLD with September Mourning and University Drive @ Turf Club
Ali Grey’s Country Jamboree @ White Squirrel
Cheap Bouquet (Residency) with Kyrie Nova & the Defiant, Homunculus Rex @ White Squirrel
The Atlas Moth with Oriska & LUNGS @ Zhora Darling
Wednesday, May 28
Shady Babies Open Mic @ Acadia
The Johnny Sincerely Orchestra + Charming Disaster with Charlotte Montgomery @ Amsterdam
Jazz Standard Deviants: Barbara Piper & Larry McDonough @ Aster Cafe
The Cherry Pit Presents: Bible Study @ Berlin
Wish Wash, Moontype, Geneva Kemp @ Cloudland
Antonio Rey with Juanito Pascual @ Dakota
The Outcats, Longfellers @ Driftwood
Miss Shannon’s Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Funk N Spuds @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The David Mitchell Group @ Metronome Brewery
Maurice Jacox with the We Still R Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Mortiholics Residency feat. M.A.Y. @ Mortimer’s
The Matt Arthur Contraption @ Palmer’s
Laura Hugo with J-Mo & The J-Lighters @ Pilllar Forum
BZ3 Organ Trio @ Schooner Tavern
Breaking Benjamin & Staind @ Target Center
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Connor McRae Trio @ 331 Club
Dallas Ugly & Molly Brandt @ Underground Music Venue
Sarah Morris and the Sometimes Guys @ White Squirrel
Nights With Tim @ White Squirrel
Our Heart Will Go On: An All-Star Concert @ Woman’s Club
Thursday, May 29
Sand County & Jonah Lyddon Hatten @ Aster Cafef
Cornbread Harris and Friends @ Berlin
Artaria Quartet & Ernest Bisong Group @ Berlin
Mother Coyote with Dan Lawonn @ Bryant Lake Bowl
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunker’s
Rivers of Nihil with Holy Fawn, Inter Arma, Glacial Tomb @ Cabooze
Fiona Hayes, Postcards, Quarter Moon @ Driftwood
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Ziggy Alberts with Steph Strings @ Fine Line
Combust, Apex Predator, Steamroll, Everybody Takes One, Oath, Paralyzer @ Flying V Music
Bakkwooddrift ft. Solorah with Room3 and Sophie J @ Icehouse
Necessary Diversion @ Logan Recreation Center
Tjärnblom @ Minnehaha Bandstand
The V Gees @ Minnesota Music Cafe
DSN Presents: Throw the Sage Into the Fire @ Mortimer’s
Chemistry Set, Johnny O'Brien and Nikki Matteson, & Rich Rue @ Palmer’s
Walker Rider with Nat Harvie and Mouthful @ Pilllar Forum
Scott Allen and the List, TH3 @ Schooner Tavern
Joshua Ray Walker with Boy Golden @ 7th St Entry
Cake @ Surly Brewing Festival Field
Rue & Sabien with Laura MacKenzie @ 318 Cafe
Go Your Own Way ⏤ A Fleetwood Mac Sing-along @ Turf Club
Lasalle Sounds, Yuh-huh Go @ Underground Music Venue
John Magnuson Trio with Doug Otto & Hilary Thavis @ White Squirrel
Lakeside Effects with Sun Stereo, Ghostlands @ White Squirrel
The Light in the Ocean, Red Lovely, Heliocene @ Zhora Darling
Friday, May 30
Peach Pit & Briston Maroney @ Armory
JJ Slater, Gelding, & DJ Blue Funk @ The Arthouse
DJs Jenny and Hannah @ Barely Brothers Records
The Dick Von Dyke Show @ Black Hart
Some Shitty Cover Band @ Bunker’s
Muun Bato, La Cerca, Squinny @ CloudlandArne Fogel with Rick Carlson @ Crooners
The Neighborhood Quartet @ Crooners
Adi Yeshaya Jazz Orchestra Feat. Jennifer Grimm @ Crooners
Ronny and Jake, Seafood Green Tambourine @ Driftwood
Jayboys, Jeffery Robert Larson, The Singing Nettles @ Eagles 34
Emo Nite with Derek DiScanio (of State Champs) @ Fine Line
Solid Pink Disco with DJ Trixie with Daya, DJ Mateo Segade and JEN-E @ First Avenue
Twin Cities Pride Benefit Concert and Dance Party @ Granada
Cat Tales (Album Release) with Beneath Green, Bryn Battani @ Green Room
Sashay for Sanctuary @ Green Room
New Orleans Suspects with Kung Fu Hippies @ Hook and Ladder
Laamar (Album Release) with Lady Midnight @ Icehouse
Kjeer/Smith/Healey @ Jazz Central
B & the Sting @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Tisoki with Dream Takers @ The Loft
South High Community Band @ Minnehaha Bandstand
R Factor @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Ott Plays Beethoven @ Orchestra Hall
Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band @ Ordway
Galleon with Cause for Concern and Grieving Pines @ Pilllar Forum
Jimmi & the Band of Souls @ Schooner Tavern
Afters (Single Release) with Anna Devine and Quietchild @ 7th St Entry
D-Burg, Hallowed Hive @ Terminal Bar
Monica Livorsi (Album Release) @ 318 Cafe
Superfloor, Rank Strangers, Stephanie Was @ 331 Club
Suns Out Tums Out 2 @ Underground Music Venue
Aaron Kerr’s Dissonant Creatures, Carlisle Evans Peck @ Uptown VFW
Vinyl & Vibes V: St. Xose, Lustyr, Haute Carl @ Uptown VFW
Blue Earth Collective @ White Squirrel
FLOWTUS with Eldest Daughter, SYFN @ White Squirrel
Handsome Traveler with Whispered The Rabbit, Mostly Trees @ White Squirrel
NUNNABOVE, Jearlyn Steele, & Patricia Lacy @ Woman’s Club
Heartsick Heroine, Mvrrow, & Evernoir @ Zhora Darling
Saturday, May 31
Lovehouse & Aaron St. Claire @ Aster Cafe
Bruised Heel Band, DJs Tarik Thornton & Miguel Vargas @ Barely Brothers Records
Emma Garau & Babo Cogan @ Berlin
Steven Hobert n Sirclesound @ Berlin
Andre1000 Presents: Black Boy Joy @ Black Hart
Mikel Wright & the Wrongs @ Bunker’s
Cut Rate Clones, Los Outsiders, The Prizefighters @ Can Can Wonderland
Arne Fogel with Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Steve Kenny Quintet @ Crooners
Seaweeds, the Reckoning Crew @ Driftwood
Bethany Larson & the Bee’s Knees, Boots & Needs, Strawberry & the Jam @ Dusty’s
Malcolm Todd with Sophie Gray @ First Avenue
Lisa Gutkin Klezmer Band with Ahmed Yusuf & Araa Ensemble @ Hook and Ladder
Barking at Ghosts (Album Release) with The Long Honeymoon & The Famous Volcanoes @ Hook and Ladder
- TGNP Party 2025 @ Icehouse—Another year, another Totally Gross National Product Party. But just as every year is different from the last, every TGNP Party is special. This year, the label is bringing in Nashville electronic musician Chuquimamani-Condori along with Brooklyn-based DJ Lauren Flax. And the lineup is rounded out by a slew of great local performers, often collaborating in unexpecte ways. In addition to Marijuana Deathsquads, Nat Harvie, StoLyette, Oeurth, and Christian Music, you've got noisy electronic fella Albert Elmore’s new project, Whole Earth, Channy Leanneagh and Alex Proctor teaming up as Vaels. and Braingiver, bringing in a whole slew of accomplices. The event begins at 4:20, for reasons scholars of initials will surely figure out, with “a quadraphonic sound system exploration” from Terminal Habitat Collapse.—Keith Harris
Brandon Wozniak, Davu Seru, Anthony Cox @ Jazz Central
The Roxxy Hall Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Weekly DJ: MPLS House @ Modist
Jane Hobson with Ciao Bello & Chairmen Chair and the Chairmen @ Mortimer’s
Ott Plays Beethoven @ Orchestra Hall
- Front Row Paul Fest @ Palmer’s—Ya know, the word “beloved” gets tossed around willy-nilly by hack writers ad nauseam these days. (Powerhouse writers, like yours truly, prefer highfalutin words like “willy-nilly.”) But in the case of “Front Row Paul” Engebretson, the adjective really does fit. Engebretson died in March from pancreatic cancer, and the outpouring of love from the Twin Cities music scene has been immense. (Click here to hear local rocker/booker Christy Costello remember the prolific showgoer/activist.) To celebrate his life, Front Row Paul Fest will assemble around 60 (!) acts to “deliver 15 minutes of either fame or shame” over two days at Palmer’s. We’re talkin’ the Hypstrz, Ike Reilly with the Shackletons, the Melismatics, Cindy Lawson, Faith Boblett... the list just keeps going. Proceeds will help establish an annual grant that'll award one band/artist recording time at Flower’s Studio, plus cash for all the things bands/artists need—touring, merch, capos, whatever. The grant will be named after Engebretson and Ed Ackerson, another scene staple who died from the same disease, and is also beloved.—Jay Boller
New Feral Cats @ Schooner Tavern
Jackie Venson with Mary Cutrufello @ 7th St Entry
- Valerie June with Chastity Brown @ State Theatre—Valerie June Hockett sings with a voice of abundance that overflows with spirit, generosity, and warmth, and she’s never showcased it as wonderfully as on her latest album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles. “Country music, it don’t need to be saved,” this open-hearted Black woman from West Tennessee declares in the face of countless would-be saviors (all of’em white fellas, would you look at that?). That’s from “My Life Is a Country Song,” and she doesn’t mean that in a corny “my truck broke down” kinda way either. Local Chastity Brown seems like an ideal opener.—Keith Harris
Hippo Campus @ Surly Brewing Festival Field
Beers With Bands Fest II @ Underground Music Venue
BACCHANALIA: Revelry & Dubstep @ Uptown VFW
Collapsing Stars, Laura Hugo @ 331 Club
The Wedding Present, the Tubs @ Turf Club
Parachute Pandas & Oak and the Woods @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, June 1
MothaMaeHymm, Afro~Deity @ Acadia
Sclera, Echoes of The Fallen, Kalopsya, Intrinsic @ Amsterdam
Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
- Grant Vague with Luke Enyeart @ Aster House—Aster House is the fancy counterpart to Aster Cafe, just down the street at St. Anthony Main, as we previewed here. Like the Cafe, the House will also have live music, which kicks off today with local singer/songwriter Grant Vague.
Sundays With Nona feat. Isa Gagarin & Walt McClements @ Berlin
Communion Opening Party 2025 @ Cabooze
Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Crooners
Phine & Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Rockers Spring Social @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Lyn Lapid with RC AVENUE @ Fine Line
- Grand Old Day @ Grand Ave—Though it takes place in the spring, Grand Old Day is spiritually a summer fest. It’s got food trucks slingin’ eggrolls, ice cream, and homemade lemonade. It’s got multiple parking-lot beer gardens, pockets of live-music stages, and roaming balloon artists. It starts with a parade, and often ends with a big street sweep. There are local artists, petting zoos, local business stands, and lots of direct sunlight. It’s not summer yet, but it’s already summer on Grand Avenue today. Bring sunscreen and water. This year's musical highlights include the Cactus Blossoms, Obi Original, and Ashley DuBose.—Jessica Armbruster
Rachel Kurtz and Going to the Sun @ Hewing Rooftop
- The Burl Benefit with Trailer Trash, ELnO, and the Belfast Cowboys @ Hook and Ladder—Minneapolis journalism lost one of its good guys recently. You’re not likely to find anyone in town who has a bad word to say about Burl “Wiggy” Gilyard, personally or professionally. He began as a music journalist, became a features reporter, and covered business in recent years, ending up at the Star Tribune. (I worked with him, though never directly, for a few years at City Pages.) After long medical problems, Gilyard died at 58, and dying in this country is expensive, so in addition to a GoFundMe, three of his favorite bands—ELnO, the Belfast Cowboys, and Trailer Trash—are gathering at this benefit for Gilyard’s wife, Nicole. There will also be copies of Gilyard’s old zine My Wife on display and for sale. And of course, lots of memories to share.—Keith Harris
Night Shift Dance Party @ Icehouse
TCLJO with Las Guaracheras @ Jazz Central
Lena & the Lovekills @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Homeward Bound @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Drift: A Night of Vinyl @ Mortimer’s
Front Row Paul Fest @ Palmer’s
The Gated Community (Album Release) with Rich Mattson and Germaine Gemberling @ Parkway
Preoccupations with Still Depths @ 7th St Entry
Pogo Ballet with Earload, Nemississy @ White Squirrel
Giant Valley String Band with Half Baked @ White Squirrel
Eldest Daughter with Emily Davis, The Weeping Covenant @ White Squirrel
Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle @ Xcel Energy Center
Monday, June 2
Leslie Vincent + Dylan Hicks & Small Screens @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Dan Israel Band @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
MN Hard Bop Collective @ Metronome Brewery
Cowaoke with Ben Moooker @ Palmer’s
Kitty Craft with the Busy Signals and Thor CB (DJ Set) @ 7th St Entry
Open Mic Mpls @ Sociable Cider Werks
Jared Justen with Nikki Lemire @ White Squirrel
Found Creature, One Big Quilt, Big Big Brain!, Penitent Echoes @ White Squirrel
