Minneapolis: May 11 to May 13, 2016

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ALLEN STONE
at Varsity Theater
Wednesday, 05/11/16, 7pm ($23/$28)

Remember soul artist Allen Stone? We previously caught him in New York (October 2014) and wrote, “Throughout Stone’s set, he had much advice to give and anecdotes like officiating his bassist, Brent Rusinow, and his wife’s wedding. Halfway through his set, Stone announced that he was now an ordained minister, which “only took me ten minutes online” to do, and had been asked by a Rusinow to officiate his marriage. (Perhaps, dear fan, this means Stone can not only sing at your wedding, but also legally marry you and your significant other, or even do both at the same time!)”

Stone will be back in Minneapolis (he was previously in town last November 2015), touring in support of Radius (Deluxe Edition) (ATO Records). The record was made in close collaboration with Swedish soul singer/songwriter/phenom Magnus Tingsek and producers Benny Cassette (Kanye West) and Malay (Frank Ocean).

Special guests Jared & The Mill to open. We previously caught Jared & the Mill in June 2015 and noted that they have a large fanbase in Minneapolis.

Tour dates:

EMBLEM3
at Varsity Theater
Thursday, 05/12/16, 5:30pm ($22/$25)

I’ll never forget seeing Emblem3 in November 2013 when they exploded out of custom crates.

The American reggae/pop trio (brothers Wesley and Keaton Stromberg, and Drew Chadwick) will be headlining the Varsity Theater next Wednesday, May 11th, in support of their 2016 EP Waking Up.

Before You Exit and The Ready Set to open.
You might remember we caught BYE with The Vamps last August 2015 and wrote, “According to the brothers, it was clear that Wednesday’s show was “best show on the tour so far!” This must be in response to hearing their fans singing back some of their songs, including their new single “Model” and an Ed Sheeran cover “Thinking Out Loud”.”

Update: BYE is no longer on this tour, Megan Nicole has been added and will take their place as opener.

Please note start time for this all-ages show.

Tour dates:

NADA SURF
at Fine Line Music Café
Friday, 05/13/16, 8pm ($20)

We love Nada Surf, but after their 2012’s The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, the band took a lengthy break. It’s not that the band was inactive, in fact, we caught singer Matthew Caws with Juliana Hatfield with in their group Minor Alps in November 2013.

Nada Surf is back together, now with their eighth studio album You Know Who You Are on one of our favorite labels Barsuk Records. I’m pretty excited to learn that two songs on the new record were co-written by Dan Wilson of the local favorite Semisonic!

Good Old War will open. We previously caught GOW last Rocktober 2015 and really liked them: “There were plenty of fan favorite songs on their set, fans loved hearing “Better Weather” (from their 2012 album Come Back As Rain), but with a nice nod to Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” snippet at the end of the song.”

Tour dates: