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We’ve Got an Especially Good Saturday in Your Complete Concert Calendar: Jan. 23-29

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

Provided; Elise Radspinner|

Digable Planets; Gully Boys

Not to be all rock radio morning show about it, but do you like weekends? If you're one of us Monday-to-Friday-ers who gets all Loverboy about it when the end of the week rolls around, all I can say about this Saturday is: You wanna be in the show? Come on baby, let's go!

And the rest of the week? Not so bad either.

Tuesday, January 23

International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers

Southside Aces @ Dakota

St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood

Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34

Mickey Darling with Nick Wagen @ Fine Line

Jamasons Cinquante: An Epic 50th Birthday Extravaganza @ Granada

Kevin Gamble Trio @ Green Room

Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra @ Jazz Central

The Dirty Shorts Brass Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Students Center Stage @ Orchestra Hall

DJ Zachmouth @ Palmer's

All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge

Mali Velasquez with runo plum @ 7th St Entry

Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar

Worker’s Playtime: Mike Munson @ 331 Club

January Conspiracy Series featuring Ben Cook-Feltz, Mother Banjo @ 331 Club

William Tyler & The Impossible Truth with Oscar Tengo @ Turf Club

The Mary Cutrufello Band @ White Squirrel

Pure Shifter (Tuesday Residency) with Junkies & Time Room @ White Squirrel

Karaoke @ Zhora Darling

Wednesday, January 24

jonger with SYFN, and Baumgardner @ Amsterdam

MN Songwriter Showcase hosted by Nick Hensley @ Aster Cafe

Dylan Salfer @ Bunkers

The Sudden Lovelys @ Como Zoo Conservatory

Maggie's Wednesday: Linda Petersen @ Crooners

Shelby Lynne @ Dakota

The Very Bad Days, Fever Pitch, the Flying T @ Driftwood

Riverside Rockets @ Eagles 34

Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34

Trent Romens Band @ Green Room

  • Yellow Ostrich 3rd Annual Winter Shindig Night #3 @ IcehouseFor the third year, Alex Schaff's Yellow Ostrich is hunkering down at Icehouse for a weekly January residency. Max and Jeremy Ylvisaker and Trash Date join Yellow Ostrich for the third week, and for the finale, Aesha Minor and Nat Harvie are on hand.

Maurice Jacox & the We Still R Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Students Center Stage @ Orchestra Hall

KFAI'S Desert Islands Presents Nici Peper hosted by Theyself @ Palmer's

In Solid Air @ Rok Music Lounge

Soul Trouvère @ Schooner Tavern

Ominous the Monster and Jake Giller with RUUCH, Tony Dent, Kelvino @ 7th St Entry

Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Potential New Boyfriend @ 331 Club

Lenz & Frenz @ 331 Club

JoJo Green, Adam Bohanan, The Morning Kings, and Joan of Profile @ Turf Club

Sarah Morris and the Sometimes Guys with 4th Wednesday of the Month @ White Squirrel

Nights With Tim @ White Squirrel

Thursday, January 25

Sole2dotz @ Acadia

Disposable Days (EP Release) with Emma Jeanne @ Bryant Lake Bowl

Deletist, Full Catholic, Luddgang, Sock Hop Massacre @ Cloudland

Gwen Matthews and Dan Chouinard @ Crooners

Vic Volare with Steve Roehm @ Crooners

Shelby Lynne @ Dakota

LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34

Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34

Lucius with Jeff Taylor @ First Avenue

Private Oates, A Little Too Short to Be Stormtroopers @ Green Room

John Louis (CD Release) with Bad Posture Club, and Jon Rodine @ Hook and Ladder

Venus DeMars & All The Pretty Horses, Surly Grrly, and Mary Jam @ Hook and Ladder

Leslie Vincent + John Jamison @ Icehouse

Kijana @ KJ's Hideaway

Drums of Navarone @ Minnesota Music Cafe

The Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs @ Palmer's

Rock the ROK Presented by Chuee @ ROK Music Lounge

Scott Allen & the List, Colby Kent & the Stomping Ground @ Schooner Tavern

Caleb Dee with The Dalmatian Club and Anna Graves @ 7th St Entry

Cross Pollination: Awful Offal @ 331 Club

Nothing But Joy and Mik Cool with Oftener and Hyooman @ Turf Club

Paul Cerar with Linus and Izek Rose @ Underground Music Cafe

Lucinda Williams Birthday Tribute with Carolyn Young and West Seventh Band @ White Squirrel

Michael Gay with Rachel Bearinger @ White Squirrel

Friday, January 26

Moon Pail @ Acadia

Taylor James Donskey and Friends @ Aster Cafe

Hight & Mighty @ Bunkers

  • Drone Not Drones @ Cedar Cultural CenterOnce again, it’s time to gather up your bedding and head on down to Cedar-Riverside to immerse yourself in round-the-clock experimental music. Now in its ninth year, Drone Not Drones occupies the Cedar annually for a full 28 hours as dozens of musicians, from Minnesota and elsewhere, demonstrate the range of sounds and styles that can fall under the broader label of “drone music.” Highlights this year include San Antonio ambient performer Claire Rousay, Oakland experimentalist Chuck Johnson with former Minneapolitan Cole Pulice on sax, event inspiration Alan Sparhawk of Low, and pow wow music reinterpreter Joe Rainey, who’ll be collaborating with IOSIS. As always, this event is a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders, who sadly can really use the support right now. And of course, if you’re not in it for the long haul, you can just pop in for a bit of drone, though you might be tempted to stay longer than you planned.

The Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Excellence, Little Man, the Unnamed @ Cloudland

Django Reinhardt Birthday Celebration with the Ryan Picone Quartet @ Crooners

The Soul of Daryl and John: Songs of Hall and Oates @ Crooners

Maggie's Afterglow: Thomas Bruce and Rick Carlson @ Crooners

BC Collective, Trusion, Grey Duck @ Driftwood

Miss Shannon's 4th Friday Sock Hop featuring Lena and the Lovekills @ Eagles 34

The Serfs @ Eagles 34

The Current's 19th Anniversary Celebration with Lucius, BER, and Abraham Alexander @ First Avenue

A Tribute to Dolly Parton @ Fine Line

Lucius with Jeff Taylor @ First Avenue

Corsair (Album Release) @ The Garage

Aluna @ Green Room

Wandering Eye (WEEN Tribute) with REVO (DEVO Tribute) @ Hook and Ladder

Brass Elephant with Street Hassle and The 99ers @ Hook and Ladder

Sixth Annual Minneapolis SongSLAM @ Icehouse

Paul Hecht and Kat Sherman @ Jazz Central

Jazicality @ KJ's Hideaway

The Gated Community @ KJ's Hideaway

Hoang with Caslow, Kepik, Red Comet @ The Loft

Ray Covington Anthology Tour @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in Concert @ Orchestra Hall

Cassie Pilgrim Plays Strauss’ Oboe Concerto @ Ordway

Trigger Armada, Blur Curve, and Self-Destruct Sequence @ Palmer's

Mary Chapin Carpenter & Shawn Colvin @ Pantages Theatre

Nothing But Nice @ Pilllar Forum

Forever 21, Fauna Sauna @ ROK Music Lounge

Sunshine & the Night Walkers @ Schooner Tavern

Levi Hummon @ 7th St Entry

29 Wolves @ Terminal Bar

Manias, Flavor Crystals, Moy Dukksen @ 331 Club

McNasty Brass Band with Gifted Handz and room3 @ Turf Club

White Line Darko, Civil Decline, Amateur Hour @ Underground Music Venue

Ascen/Dance Presents: YULE BALL @ Uptown VFW

Feels So Close: An EDM Golden Era Dance @ Varsity

Woodzen @ White Rock Lounge

The Collaboratory 4th Fridays @ White Squirrel

Friday I'm In Love Dance Party @ Zhora Darling

Saturday, January 27

Untilapocalypse @ Acadia

Tunde Olaniran: Chaotic Good @ Amsterdam

The High 48’s Bluegrass Brunch @ Aster Cafe

Brandin Lea + Mo @ Aster Cafe

70s Magic Sunshine Band @ Bunkers

Clidesfeld, Ginny and the Fizz, Ray Gun Youth @ Caydence

Maud Hixson @ Crooners

Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society @ Crooners

Maggie's Afterglow: Thomas Bruce and Rick Carlson @ Crooners

Blue Note Records 85th Anniversary Tour @ Dakota

Hay Bale, Short Pay Riders, Down on Curfew @ Driftwood

Cindy Lawson with Parishes @ Dusty's

The Saddle Sores @ Eagles 34

Just Luv, Inc., Speed Riders, Mean Magic @ Eagles 34

  • Armand Hammer with Quelle Chris @ Fine LineIs billy woods the absolute best at what he does right now? His rhymes are somehow both allusive and concrete, never crystalizing into a linear narrative but rarely drifting into the ether. With We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, he and his partner in Armand Hammer, Elucid, are responsible for the album title of the year (sorry, Lana), which includes song titles like “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die.” The production on a few of these tracks are a little, well, out, as they say in jazz, the rhymes tending toward the abstract, but whenever you get a bit woozy they yank you back in with a line like “Don't invite me to your house, ask me to remove my shoes and your floors ain't clean.” And yet, the Armand Hammer record is probably woods’s second-best album of the year, after maps, a collaboration with producer Kenny Segal. Damn. Recently, woods has swung through here a few times, both solo and with Armand Hammer, playing venues as varied as the Green Room and Dakota. You can’t say you haven’t had plenty of chances to catch him live.

Magic City Hippies with The Palms and Josh Fudge @ First Avenue

The 19th Annual Tribute to The Last Waltz ft. Big Pink with The Belfast Cowboys @ Fitzgerald Theater

Dave Rave & The Governors, Scott Allen & The List @ Hook and Ladder

Rocksteady Breakfast, Lost Island Society, Socktopus, Push & Turn @ Hook and Ladder

Cornbread Harris @ Icehouse

The Ocean Blue with DJ Jake Rudh @ Icehouse

Geoff LeCrone Quintet @ Jazz Central

The High & Might Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe

Reformation Dance Night: Life of the Party 2024 @ Mortimer's

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in Concert @ Orchestra Hall

Cassie Pilgrim Plays Strauss’ Oboe Concerto @ Ordway

Savage Moods, Night of Joy, and Little Lizard @ Palmer's

Lissie's Midwinter Residency with Chris Koza @ Parkway

My Kid Banana @ Pilllar

Airship Caravan, Lost Evidence, Rob Daniel Band, 1947 @ ROK Music Lounge

Ray Barnard @ Schooner Tavern

killusonline with RIOTGRRRLDARKO, CA$UAL, and Popstar @ 7th St Entry

Barely Alive with Delta Heavy, Ace Aura, Godlands @ Skyway Theatre

TC Ramblers Honky Tonkin' @ Terminal Bar

Red Eye Ruby, Color Chord, The Johnny Sincerely Orchestra @ 331 Club

Stringdingers @ 331 Club

Allie Colleen @ Turf Club

A Ladies Affair Female Showcase @ Underground Music Venue

DecaDance @ Uptown VFW

  • Digable Planets with Kassa Overall @ VarsityOne of my great “history will prove me right” moments was preferring this spacey, jazzy hip-hop trio to conscious pop-rap chart toppers Arrested Development, and I swear, this was a choice some of us felt we had to make in the ’90s. With their trippy names (Butterfly, Doodlebug, and Ladybug), laidback flow, and cool-jazz samples, the group that released Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) felt like they lived in a world all their own, or were at least in search of one, yet they also released what’s probably the only great pro-choice rap song. The rhymes and attitude firmed up a bit on Blowout Comb without losing any of their cool. And then that was that. Rap had no shortage of such beautiful dead ends in those days, bursts of creativity that brought forth no stylistic descendents or future echoes. Still, Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler did go on to become the prolific abstract rapper Shabazz Palaces. A nostalgia show, yes (trust, I did not pay $100 to see them in 1994) but nostalgia for a moment that’s easy for the writers of history to overlook.

Ashes From Stone @ White Rock Lounge

Martin Devaney @ White Squirrel

Saturday Is Instrumental with Big Trouble @ White Squirrel

Anothernight with A Sunken Ship Irony, Red Lovely @ White Squirrel

Lifestyle Shakes, Spit Takes, Pals @ Zhora Darling

Sunday, January 28

Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe

Mary Bue & The Scarlet Goodbye @ Bryant Lake Bowl

Dr. Mambo’s Combo @ Bunkers

Cloudland Laid Back Sundays @ Cloudland

Nathan Griner with Matthew Probst @ Como Zoo Conservatory

Story Tellers: Songs of James Taylor, Billy Joel and Cat Stevens @ Crooners

BluLuna featuring Dean Magraw and Rick Carlson @ Crooners

Patty Peterson Presents: Jazz Women All Stars with Lucia Newell @ Crooners

  • Cécile McLorin Salvant @ DakotaSalvant has been all but universally acclaimed as the most inventive jazz vocalist of her generation, and her grasp of conceptual frameworks is almost as exciting as her technical ability. Her execution matches her ambition. Last year at the Walker, she collaborated with a 13-piece orchestra to perform her work Ogresse: Envisioned, which also included visuals and costumery she had a hand in designing. Also last year, she released Mélusine, a collection of originals and rearranged traditional songs, sung in French, Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyol; it offered her twist on the old folktale of a woman who becomes half-snake once a week. 

Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood

Johnny No Cash @ Eagles 34

Rogue Tango @ Eagles 34

Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34

Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34

Kai Brewster's Millions, Andy Holmaas Band, and Super Secret Very Special Guests @ Green Room

George Scot McKelvey @ Icehouse

Jaspar Lepak (Album Release) with Haley E. Rydell @ Icehouse

Murf, Time Room, Gay Witch Abortion @ Mortimer's

Cassie Pilgrim Plays Strauss’ Oboe Concerto @ Ordway

Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's

Black Widows' Open Mic @ Palmer's

Music Jam @ Schooner Tavern

Juice with The Get Together @ 7th St Entry

Kelly Smith @ 331 Club

The Real Chuck NORAD @ 331 Club

Gnaw @ White Rock Lounge

Lonesome Dan Kase, Kismet Rendezvous @ White Squirrel

Saint Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel

Monday, January 29

Robert Robinson @ Dakota

Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34

Cajun Dance @ Eagles 34

Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s

DJ Nanobyte Presents Byte Nyte @ Palmer's

Open Mic @ Terminal Bar

The Cactus Blossoms with Clare Doyle @ Turf Club

Urban Hillbilly Quartet @ 331 Club

Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club

Enter the Void Further with American Cream, New Confusion, Michael Moore @ White Squirrel

Bryan & the Haggards @ White Squirrel

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