Minneapolis Music Events

Events

Event & Venue	Date (choose)
Recommended Events

Rhymesayers Presents: A Benefit For Haiti First Avenue	Tue., February 9, 7:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Benefits Music
There are benefit shows, and then there are benefit shows. One can hardly be called more noble than another, but in the wake of a tragedy like the earthquake that devastated Haiti last month, the best and brightest of our best and brightest are pitching in to curry relief funds for one of the... More >>

B-3 Organ Night Artists' Quarter	Every week Tuesday, 9:00pm	St. Paul (Downtown)	Music
The B3 organ is second only to the good old piano in the annals of jazz and soul keyboard instruments, hitting its peak of popularity between the late '50s and early '70s with the legendary recordings of Richard "Groove" Holmes, Booker T. & the MGs and the legendary Smiths -- Jimmy, Johnny and... More >>

Mike Dreams (CD-Release) 7th St. Entry	Wed., February 10, 8:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Michael Hannah is a rarity, an artist with a positive message and the conviction to follow through on it. An MC with a smooth flow, Hannah has long since eliminated all curse words from his rhymes, which lay out a credo of peace and social activism informed by, though not limited to, his... More >>

Transmission Clubhouse Jager	Every week Wednesday, 10:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
"Retro" is a tricky niche to slot a dance night into. Usually you've got to find yourself an era and a genre, hew towards the hits, and maybe garnish it with an outsized wink, a double-pistol-point and a smirking acknowledgement that you think the past is, well, kinda goofy. Clubhouse Jager's... More >>

Willy Porter Fine Line Music Cafe	Thu., February 11, 7:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Always adept at crafting fantastical stories, Milwaukeean Willy Porter didn't have to stretch the truth at all on "How to Rob a Bank," the title track from his latest album (on the appropriately named Weasel Records). Although written with Porter's characteristic adept use of language, and... More >>

The Pink Floyd Experience Fitzgerald Theater	Thu., February 11, 7:30pm	St. Paul (Downtown)	Music
It's got to be a hell of an undertaking to be a Pink Floyd tribute band. Most cover bands – your Led Zeppelin and AC/DC and Beatles homage-payers – simply have to look and sound the part; usually the most elaborate you'll get is the fire-breathing, platform-boot lunacy that comes with... More >>

Solas The Cedar	Fri., February 12, 7:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Although Solas straddles the Atlantic in terms of personnel and sometimes temperament, its roots are unquestionably Celtic. In fact, Solas often is cited as one of the world's leading Irish bands, despite being based on American soil. The quintet's seemingly casual virtuosity and fervid spirit... More >>

Big Quarters Whole Music Club	Fri., February 12, 7:30pm	University	Music
In only five years, Big Quarters has transitioned smoothly from early future promise to local rap cornerstone. You could put that strictly on the backs of their first two albums, 2007's striking debut Cost of Living and last year's heavier, harder-hitting followup From the Home of Brown Babies... More >>

Dawes Triple Rock Social Club	Fri., February 12, 9:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Taylor Goldsmith's contemplations of eternity may be a bit precocious for someone in his early 20s, but then he and his similarly youthful bandmates in Dawes suggest they have old souls on their debut album, North Hills. Or at least souls whose vintage musical tastes place them specifically in... More >>

Street Sounds Swirlin' Through My Mind First Avenue VIP Lounge	Second Friday of every month, 10:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
In a town almost overrun with DJs, it's worth noting that Attitude City (veteran vinyl hounds Karl Frankowski and Jeff Dubois) have kept slinging wax long after droves of their younger competitors hung up their headphones. Maybe it's because they don't seem to be in it for any kind of... More >>

Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles are in Big Trouble: Celebrating, Like, 100 Years of Romantic Comedy The Cedar	Sat., February 13, 7:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
No matter what your thoughts are about Valentine's Day, it's pretty hard to argue that affairs of the heart have spawned some great songs over the years, many of which have been featured in romantic comedies. If you've ever yearned for an entire performance filled with these songs (but without... More >>

Mr. Dibbs Nomad World Pub	Sat., February 13, 9:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
There's not a lot of turntablists with Mr. Dibbs' resume, so to get the bigger picture, it helps to look outside the realm of DJing. Maybe Mr. Dibbs is the Bernard "Pretty" Purdie of hip hop: the sessionman who's just as famous for who he's backed up live and on record (El-P, Atmosphere, Sage... More >>

Black First Avenue VIP Lounge	Every week Saturday, 10:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
The spirit of SNDP -- First Ave's legendary '90s club-rave Sunday Night Dance Party -- lives on in a scaled-down size and a more day-job-accommodating Saturday night form in the VIP room's long-running Black. A sort of time-warp tonic for aging ravers, the night itself is the only real constant... More >>

28th Annual Battle of the Jug Bands Cabooze	Sun., February 14, 12:00pm	Uptown/ Eat Street	Music
Need a place to hang your hat on Valentine's Day? Well boy howdy, round up the sweetie or find yourself a babysitter and head down for the most romantic jug-band battle you ever did see, with 20—count 'em, 20—bands playing their darnedest to out-pluck their neighbors and kinfolk,... More >>

Cadillac vs. Cornbread Palmer's Bar	Every week Sunday, 8:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Don't let that "vs." fool you: eighty-something local music vet James Samuel "Cornbread" Harris isn't so much a rival to rockabilly revivalist Cadillac Kolstad as he is a mentor. The two pianists have been sharing double-bills in a number of local music hot-spots, including their regular Sunday... More >>

DJ Andrew Broder Turf Club	Every week Monday from Mon., January 25 until Mon., March 29, 10:00pm	Macalester/Groveland	Music
Whether you're talking about instruments, genres or moods, Andrew Broder plays a lot of things -- heavy on the guitar as of late. But while Fog's Ditherer looked like a sign that Broder was setting his turntable aside from excursions into power-trio indie rock, subsequent guest spot... More >>

BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant	Tue., February 16, 7:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Minnesota is slowly turning more Louisianan all the time, although you couldn't tell by the weather or the food or the drinks or the wildlife or the flora or the language or the Mardi Gras celebrations. Football teams, either. Hell, Minnesota isn't anything like Louisiana except for a few... More >>

The Weekly Triple Double Triple Rock Social Club	Every week Tuesday, 9:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
What softens a recession's bite as effectively as cheap booze? Nothing...except free entertainment. While "Triple Double"—the Triple Rock's freshly reinvented Tuesday bacchanal—offers both commodities by the truckload, the night's ever-changing DJ roster and floating-genre music... More >>

III Kings Soundsystem Nomad World Pub	Every week Wednesday, 8:00pm more dates/times	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Anyone can throw on a red-green-and-gold ensemble, guzzle Red Stripe after Red Stripe and natter on about how they had a real deep experience getting zooted to a midnight showing of The Harder They Come, but to actually make your way as a Selector, well, that's another thing entirely. For over... More >>

The Bungalow First Avenue VIP Lounge	Every week Thursday, 10:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
Friday night gets all the love, Wednesday night has its nudge-wink "hump day" cachet and everyone hates Mondays so much that there's no choice but to go out and wash that start-of-the-week ennui away. But what about Thursday, the day of the week where people are most likely to put... More >>

Last of the Record Buyers Fifth Element	Third Thursday of every month, 6:00pm	Uptown/ Eat Street	Music
MCs may get all the mainstream attention nowadays, but hip hop started as a DJ-centered movement, and the truest heads can rattle off their all-time favorite producers as readily as they can list their top lyricists. Brandon Allday, who shares producer/MC double-duty honors with fellow Big... More >>

Too Much Love First Avenue	Every week Saturday, 10:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
There're two things you might want to keep in mind about First Ave's trendy Saturday-night cool-kid institution before you start muttering the same anti-hipster sentiments you've been harboring since !!! were an ellipsis. The first thing? Well, it's an 18+ dance night. Being 18 in 2008 means... More >>

Dr. Mambo's Combo Bunker's Music Bar & Grill	Every week Monday, Sunday, 9:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
1987 was a notable year for Minnesota: the Twins won the World Series, Prince released one of his best albums in Sign 'O' the Times, and St. Louis Park's own Coen Brothers released their first great comedy Raising Arizona. 1987 was also the year that Dr. Mambo's Combo was formed, and it just so... More >>

Jazz Implosion Turf Club	Every week Monday, 9:00pm	Macalester/Groveland	Music
There's something endearingly weird about the Turf Club's recurring Monday night jazz showcase: it's situated in the surrealist circus decor of the wood-paneled basement Clown Lounge, and the grand marshals of the whole undertaking, the free jazz trio Fat Kid Wednesdays, can shift from an... More >>

Get Cryphy! First Avenue VIP Lounge	First Friday of every month, 10:00pm	Minneapolis (Downtown)	Music
We may be a few years past the point where crunk and hyphy are the hot-trend hip-hop subgenres, but First Ave's recurring Get Cryphy! night isn't just a matter of trying to breathe new life into a couple of aging styles by portmanteauing them together. Jimmy2Times is the deck-annihilating DJ... More >>