Minnesota winters are magical, if you look in the right places. Icehouse in Minneapolis is one of those hotspots – where late on a Saturday night, you can retreat inside, escaping frigid weather to be warmed by Minnesota sounds. Icehouse is an intimate venue, where friends sip cocktails over candlelit tables, excited for the live […]
All too often, we in the Twin Cities only pay tribute to beloved musicians after they’re gone. So it was a treat to gather with a few hundred others last night at the Turf Club, celebrating someone who’s very alive: Dolly Parton, whose 74th birthday is Sunday, Jan. 19. Dolly Parton feels zeitgeisty lately, thanks […]
Singer/songwriter/producer Lady Midnight poured out wisdom at the Turf Club last night. She said: “It is far worse to live life on your knees than to be killed standing.” She sang: “Can’t nobody put a claim on/ What you put your name on.” She proved: It is better to take your time on a project […]
The weather was so gorgeous last night, Tame Impala would’ve had to lock Kevin Parker in the tour bus to ruin the mood at Minneapolis’s Surly Festival Field. Luckily, the project’s frontperson/auteur was in no such bind, striding to the front of the stage and staying there while he sang hits from 2015 album Currents […]
My Brightest Diamond has released five albums and played hundreds of shows, but each one is a novel experience. Two of their only constants: Shara Nova’s classically trained voice and her bent toward artsy surprise. In Nov. 2018, she released the My Brightest Diamond album A Million and One, a more electronic, dancey project than […]
One of Beyoncé’s biggest fans had her own homecoming last night. Lizzo, aka the former queen of Minneapolis hip-hop, returned to the Twin Cities for her first local headlining show in about two years. Like the rest of the shows on the Cuz I Love You tour, this Palace Theatre date sold out minutes after […]
After Willie Murphy passed away on Jan. 13, friends and fans hastened to post remembrances of the West Bank trailblazer online. Last weekend, Murphy’s community gathered to honor him in person: first on Saturday at an Augsburg Chapel memorial service, then on Sunday at “Fairytales,” a Cabooze tribute show and celebration of life. The Cabooze […]
It had been months since I saw a good thunderstorm. Sharon Van Etten put an end to that stretch last night at First Avenue. She summoned angry synths, crashing cymbals, and even windchimes and threw them into a shuddering cacophony. More impressive: She quieted the chaos at will. Van Etten has returned to the music […]
“I feel like everyone here has been cooped up inside,” Kacey Musgraves told the crowd at St. Paul’s Palace Theatre on Saturday night. After a week of polar vortex-induced blistering temperatures, the St. Paul audience seemed eager to be out of their homes and shoulder-to-sholder with thousands of strangers for the sold-out show. Georgia-based singer-songwriter […]
The Current enters adolescence this year, and part one of the celebration kicked off Friday night with a sold-out First Avenue show. “I got really strong when I was 14 carrying those heavy books,” quipped Kerry Alexander of Bad Bad Hats in a sweet deadpan, “and emotionally strong for other reasons.” The first night of The […]
