This week, a new name was added to the constellation of legends watching over the intersection of North 1st Avenue and South 7th Street on First Avenue’s iconic exterior. The star belongs to Byron Frank: not a musician, but a man nonetheless instrumental in shifting First Avenue’s reputation 15 years ago, and a big reason […]
The day of a concert, I’ll usually find myself refreshing Twitter to see what the Internet has to say about the performer who’s about to stop into town. It was no surprise to me when I opened my feed to a flood of tweets about how people were preparing to cry to Snail Mail at […]
“This is a really bad idea,” said Stephen King, “especially considering that the band that first had a hit with this song came from Minnesota. Anyone remember the Trashmen?” Some of us remembered the Trashmen playing “Surfin’ Bird” on that very stage in First Avenue’s Mainroom. King dropped his guitar and stepped forward for that […]
This Saturday, May 4, the exhibit First Avenue: Stories of Minnesota’s Mainroom opens at the Minnesota History Center. We were able to take a look inside. Here are a few of the things we learned! There are still many Minnesotans who know First Ave best as a bus station. While many Minnesotans may think of […]
On recordings, you can sound like anything. It’s one thing to create those sounds in the studio, but bringing them to life is another matter when you have an attentive audience waiting in anticipation in the First Ave Mainroom. Fierce and all-encompassing, Foals have an energy that sucks you in and spits you out, something […]
The Revolution now have a star of their own at First Avenue, unveiled on April 28 during Celebration 2019. Although “Prince and the Revolution” was one of First Avenue’s original stars, the star changed to just “Prince” when the building was repainted in 2010. Since Prince’s death, the Revolution have worked hard to continue his […]
For the second night in a row, a crowd streamed through First Avenue’s doors for a sold-out celebration of The Current’s 14th birthday. Four local acts helped The Current usher in its second teenage year on Saturday night: Cloud Cult, J.S. Ondara, Annie Mack, and Porcupine. While the temperature outside hovered in the single digits, […]
On May 11-12, the Loft Literary Center will stop traffic in the East Town neighborhood of downtown Minneapolis to make way for more than 100 writers and thousands of eager readers at the largest literary festival the Twin Cities has ever seen. “Anybody who thinks of Minnesota should think about books,” said Britt Udesen, the Loft’s […]
I have a certain admiration for angry people. As a citizen and scholar of the United States, I’ve read about the provocative suffragettes; the can’t-be-tamed flag-wavers; the defiant revolutionaries. I’ve imagined myself joining their fights. But when I think about the issues threaded through present-day America, I feel numb and/or scared more often than roused. […]
The iconic music venue First Avenue will be the subject of a new exhibition at the Minnesota History Center opening in May 2019. The exhibit, “First Avenue: Stories of Minnesota’s Mainroom,” will feature everything from memorabilia of the bands that have adorned the stages since the venue’s inception, to the “scenes, sounds and stories” that […]
