If Christmastime gets you in a musical mood, the annual celebrations of song are starting to pop up, as you can see below. Still waiting to find out if I'll get review tix for Doja Cat and Ice Spice, btw.
Tuesday, December 5
Mik Cool with Splimit, Rosie, and Ghost Kitchen @ Amsterdam
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
A Blue Christmas with Tim Sparks and Phil Heywood @ Crooners
A Bluegrass Christmas with Monroe Crossing @ Crooners
Jake Shimabukuro with Justin Kawika Young @ Dakota
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Kevin Gamble Trio @ Green Room
The Interstellar Cowboy Band + Jeremy Ylvisaker/Patrick Horrigan @ Icehouse
Bill Simenson Orchestra @ Jazz Central
The Bluewater Kings Showcase @ Minnesota Music Cafe
62nd Annual Marching Band Indoor Concert @ Northrop
Afro House With DJ Vegan Water and Friends @ Palmer's
1947, Nicotine Addiction @ ROK Music Lounge
CITY TKOVR VOL 9 ⏤ Birds Of Prey @ 7th St Entry
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
Worker’s Playtime: Mike Munson @ 331 Club
The New Havoline Supremes! feat. Mary Cutrufello, Dan Lowinger @ White Squirrel
Caitlin & Alex (Residency) with Art Vandalay @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, December 6
MN Songwriter Showcase hosted by Nick Hensley @ Aster Cafe
Back Home for the Holidays: Jennifer Eckes and Kevin Werner Hohlstein @ Crooners
Pat Donohue and the Prairie All Stars Christmas Show @ Crooners
32nd Street Jazz, the Hamm Sammies @ Driftwood
Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34
- Cattle Decapitation with Immolation, Sanguisugabogg, and Castrator @ Fine Line—That's Cattle Decapitation at the Fine Line. We live in amazing times.
Candlelight Vivaldi's Four Seasons @ Granada
Zaq Baker Team, Fend, the Briefly Gorgeous @ Green Room
Advance Base + JE Sunde + Walker Rider @ Icehouse
Free Music + Realtree + Lyn Corelle @ Icehouse
The Clark Craig Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Whiskey Rock 'n' Roll Club @ Mortimer's
62nd Annual Marching Band Indoor Concert @ Northrop
Karaoke Crime Scene @ Palmer's
Open Decks: Presented by Sub:Culture @ ROK Music Lounge
Ken Valdez @ Schooner Tavern
The Dead Century with Amateur Hour and Electric Church @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Aaron Lee Kaplan and Mikkel Beckmen @ 331 Club
Cole Barnhill with Shea Abshier & The Nighthowlers @ Turf Club
Lars-Erik Larson & The 2nd Stringers @ White Squirrel
Full Catholic, Uncle Jesse’s Comb, Corey Avery, Lus Sangules @ White Squirrel
Thursday, December 7
Beats Antique Soundsystem with Equanimous @ Amsterdam
Floodwater Angel, NATL PARK SRVC, Baumgardner @ Cloudland
Joel Shapira Presents: We Three Strings @ Crooners
Sue Scott's Island of Discarded Women with Mary Kunesh and Jaspar Lepak @ Crooners
Karla Bonoff & Livingston Taylor @ Dakota
Tango Night, Switchgrass @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Strange Dust, Adriatic, Anthony Cervantez, CLIFF @ Eagles 34
Lukas Nelson + POTR with Meg McRee @ First Avenue
Candlelight Holiday Special feat. The Nutcracker @ Granada
Derecho Rhythm Section @ Icehouse
Young Relics @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Dirty Lowdown Fools @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Rejoice and Sing @ Orchestra Hall
Throwback Thursdays with DJ Bootsy Ballins @ Palmer's
My Kid Banana @ ROK Music Lounge
Lolo's Ghost with Mary Strand @ Schooner Tavern
Waldemar with Harlow and Dot Operator @ 7th St Entry
- Doja Cat with Ice Spice @ Target Center—Bad bitches rarely play as nice as Doja Cat did on Planet Her. Mimicking hyperpop, asking “When can we take off all our clothes?,” and making nice with guests as varied as Ariana Grande and Young Thug, the woman born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (really, why even bother with a stage name?) embodies a plastic sexuality with cyborg elements but human responses, far from fragile but never engaged in battle bot mode. Doja’s follow up, Scarlet, released in September, has offered the Dionne Warwick-jacking single "Paint the Town Red," the sultry “Attention,” and “Demons,” a braggadocious wink from “the fastest growing bitch on all your apps now.” I suspect plenty in attendance will be just as excited to see Ice Spice, who, with just one juicy EP to her name, has summoned up her own world of slang, a vocabulary for dissing men, rizzing them, and sealing the deal.
¡What!, Minor Setbacks, Ausgang City @ Terminal Bar
NORTHEAST INVITATIONAL: TOUSSAINT MORRISON DAMASCUS @ 331 Club
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band with The Hooten Hallers @ Turf Club
Drake White & William Clark Green @ Varsity Theater
Tom Waits Birthday Tribute Show @ White Squirrel
The English Beat @ The Women's Club of Minneapolis
Friday, December 8
Falling in Reverse with Daughtry + Sleep Theory @ Armory
Billy Johnson, George McKelvey, and Jon Hercher @ Aster Cafe
The Gated Community + Paperbacks @ Aster Cafe
Tim Schumann, Luke Lecheler and Lewis Miller, Nato Coles, Sam McColley @ Cloudland
A Cheeky Christmas: Top of the Naughty List @ Crooners
Wayne Anthony and Friends @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Colleen Raye and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Karla Bonoff & Livingston Taylor @ Dakota
Festivus: All Night Party @ Driftwood
The Strolling Clones @ Driftwood
Swingin' on a Star @ Eagles 34
The Last Revel with Kiernan @ Fine Line
The 44th Annual John Lennon Tribute @ First Avenue
Psylo, Basketball Divorce Court, Eudaemon, Odd Prospect @ Green Room
Sarah Morris & The Sometimes Elves with Amanda B. Perry @ Hook and Ladder
Reggae Chills ft. Chuck Fenda @ Icehouse
Christian Swenson Quintet @ Jazz Central
Samantha Grimes Band @ KJ's Hideaway
Tommy Bentz Band @ KJ's Hideaway
Adictoxaty, Xawaro, Marcianos @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Handel's Messiah @ Orchestra Hall
Southside Food Share Benefit with Wet Denim, Fletcher Coulee, Saffron Dealer, and Kalot @ Palmer's
The Blenders @ Pantages Theatre
Figment: Live Painting & House @ ROK Music Lounge
Moonshine Prophets @ Schooner Tavern
- bugsy (EP Release) with Scarlet Demore, Haze Gazer and 12th House Sun @ 7th St Entry—Back in 2020 Bugsy became the last act I ever profiled for Picked to Click, the best-new-band poll that was conducted annually by City Pages for decades. I’m happy to report the grungy, fuzzed-out local rockers have kept leveling up since. (More than I can say for myself as a writer—is “grungy, fuzzed-out” the best I could come up with?) Tonight Bugsy will celebrate the release of their new EP, Now I Spend All of My Time Alone, whose lead single “Recluse” was celebrated last month by Racket music dude Keith Harris. Writes Keith: “This standout track from Bugsy's terrific new EP, Now I Spend All of My Time Alone, starts a little muffled then breaks into a full indie raver as Emily Schoonover vents their story of ‘sweat, spite, & boredom’ over top.” The song has racked up 35,000+ plays on Spotify—nice!—Jay Boller
Taylor's Version: A Swiftie Dance Party @ Studio B
Rank Strangers, Scott Hefte and the Bury ‘Em Deep, Superfloor @ 331 Club
Triple Threat Tribute Night @ Turf Club
VIN, longwinter, TLITO, & Or Does it Explode @ Underground Music Venue
Jon Sullivan Band (Album Release) with Mikel Wright & The Wrongs, & New Salty Dog @ Uptown VFW
Lungs, Ulkum, Wilbur @ White Rock Lounge
Northern Hammer, Casey Gerald, Beggars @ White Squirrel
Saturday, December 9
Golden Garters Burlesque @ Amsterdam
LSDream with INZO, Zingara, and Chmura @ Armory
MPLS Afrobeats Dance Party @ Cedar Cultural Center
Mind Harvester, Virgin Whores, Infuriate, Bad Ideas @ Cloudland
Erin Schwab and Jay Fuchs: Naughty and Nice Holidays @ Crooners
Maria Jette and Timothy Lovelace: A Classical(-ish) Christmas @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Colleen Rae and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Songs In The Key of Life – A Tribute to the Music of Stevie Wonder @ Dakota
School of Rock, Eden Prairie House Band @ Driftwood
Mary Strand with Ryan from Soul Asylum and Joe from Belfast Cowboys @ Driftwood
Clidesfeld, Cola Horse, Shrimp Olympics @ Dusty's
Sleepyeye, Paul Cerar, Citrine Shandy, Portside Dive @ Eagles 34
Shatter, Skimask, Kaldeket, Ruin Dweller @ Eagles 34
- sapphic factory: queer joy party @ Fine Line—I was just having a conversation with a friend about how there aren’t very many “dance clubs” in the Twin Cities these days (yes, we were watching Basic Instinct), and he countered that while there aren’t “clubs” per se, there are lots of groups putting on fun dance nights on a more roving, freewheeling basis. Like this one! (Do y’all think there’s a story there?) This Sapphic Joy Dance Party is a place to “be free to the music of Muna, Fletcher, Phoebe Bridgers, boygenius, Kim Petras, Marina, Elio, Ashnikko, Girl in Red, Tegan and Sara, and more,” according to organizers. A dollar from every ticket sold goes to local organizations that support and empower the LGBTQ+ community.—Em Cassel
- Los Lobos @ First Avenue—These Mexican-American roots-rockers blasted out of East L.A. in the ’80s with a soulful Chicano-rock sound that made lots of the heartland rockers then in vogue sound kinda wimpy and strained. Rather than resign themselves to being “that ‘La Bamba’ band” after a fluke Richie Valens cover landed them on the pop charts, they swerved into more experimental ventures in the ’90s with producer Tchad Blake. (Think of them as progenitors of Wilco in that way.) It wasn’t quite like old times when they returned to straight-up rocking in the ’00s, so it was heartening that their 2021 album, Native Sons, which collected covers of Los Angeles bands from the ’60s and ’70s such as Buffalo Springfield and War, had a bit of the old spark. But albums hardly tell the full story of Los Lobos. This tour marks 50 years that the four original members have been playing together, and they’ve barely lost a step live.
Chiddy Bang and Friends. JDynamic, DJ Dmil, Mr Peter Parker @ Granada
Creeping Charlie, Lighter Co, Diet Light, Soulflower @ Green Room
VocalEssence: Welcome Christmas @ Northrop
Handel's Messiah @ Orchestra Hall
GRRRL SCOUT: Don the Gay Apparel @ Hook and Ladder
Potential New Boyfriend @ Icehouse
Ted Godbout Trio @ Jazz Central
Jessie Street Jazz Band @ KJ's Hideaway
Blue Ox Jazz Orchestra @ KJ's Hideaway
The Good, the Bad, and the Funky @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Thompson Springs, Jack Klatt, and Hemma @ Palmer's
Jack Knife & the Sharps @ Schooner Tavern
Smells Like Nirvana Tribute with Dead Original @ 7th St Entry
Adventure Club @ Skyway Theatre
Curve, The Great Went, and Do Not Crush @ 331 Club
Delilah Daybreaks and Friends @ Underground Music Cafe
Andrew McMahon @ Uptown Theater
Loadie, Beulah Rue, Short Timer @ White Rock Lounge
Rat Castle Jazz Ensemble with Lifestyle Shakes, Erratix @ White Squirrel
Crash Cuddle, Little Lizard, Celica @ White Squirrel
Sunday, December 10
The Skeleton Crew with SoF(Sunsets Over Flowers) and Red Lovely @ Amsterdam
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Sweet Rhubarb + Barrel Flash @ Aster Cafe
Capri Big Band Presents: Music of the Season @ Capri Theater
Stephen Kellogg with Lee Totter @ Cedar Cultural Center
Singin' in the Kitchen: Presented by Lori Dokken @ Crooners
Gypsy Mania Quartet: Hot Club Holiday Show @ Crooners
Spiked! Put Some Punch In Your Holidays @ Crooners
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Music of Taylor Swift + More for Kids with Bri & The Antiheroes @ First Avenue
Bloodline, Rosie, Nina Luna, Tarias & The Sound @ Green Room
The Red Hot Django Peppers @ Icehouse
Holly Jolly Christmas Show @ Icehouse
Ben Cook-Feltz’s Holiday Shindig @ KJ's Hideaway
Merry & Light with Charles Lazarus @ Orchestra Hall
Church of Cornbread: Cornbread Harris and His Band @ Palmer's
Mystery House with Chris Hepola and The Real Chuck Norad @ Palmer's
Robert Jon & The Wreck with Ty Pow and The Holy North @ 7th St Entry
Emmy Woods & The Red Pine Ramblers @ 331 Club
As Seen on TV feat. Al Church and the Congregation @ Turf Club
Nico Play with Molly Brandt @ Underground Music Venue
Jeff Ray with PK Mayo @ White Squirrel
St. Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel
Monday, December 11
Choro Borealis Presents Samba Claus: A Brazilian Holiday @ Crooners
The ACME Jazz Company @ Crooners
Holiday Swingin’! A Kat Edmonson Christmas @ Dakota
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Queer Contra Dancers @ Eagles 34
Richard Moody’s 32nd Annual Holiday Party to Benefit the Senneh Foundation @ Granada
December Mondays with Zacc Harris @ Icehouse
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Billy Raffoul with Peter Raffoul and The Indiana Drones @ Turf Club
Poppa John & the Poppettes @ 331 Club
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
From Ashes to New @ Varsity Theater
Mumblin’ Drew’s Oldfangled Orchestrators Monthly Residency @ White Squirrel
