What’s happening this week.

06/12/2024 Wednesday
Free Throw with Slow Joy
with Heart To Gold
at Green Room
greenroommn.com

Nashville’s Free Throw is out touring with Dallas based, New Mexican born Chicano artist Slow Joy (solo project of Esteban Flores) as support. The two bands will stop in Minneapolis at the Green Room… a new Uptown venue that opened up on January 28, 2023.

Slow Joy’s upcoming EP Mi Amigo Slow Joy is due June 7, 2024, via Mick Music.

Local band Heart To Gold to open. We saw the group at their sold-out show in Dec 2022 and wrote, “Now, on to the stars of the show, Heart to Gold. I’ve been wanting to see a local band pull off a mosh pit with ease. A sold-out show at the 7th Street Entry with rabid/die-hard fans causing quite the scene and crowd participation. They even had a ring leader of the mosh that would climb on the pipes on the ceiling and surf back into the crowd. Fans would climb on stage and jump right in for crowd surfing, including the bandmates from Gramma on the encore.”

Slow Joy Confirmed Tour Dates:

June 1st @ So What?! Festival in Fort Worth, TX
June 4th @ Blueberry Hill in St. Louis, MO
June 5th @ HI-FI in Indianapolis, IN
June 6th @ Ace of Cups in Columbus, OH
June 7th @ Pike Room in Detroit, MI
June 8th @ G-Man Tavern in Chicago, IL
June 10th @ Raccoon Motel in Davenport, IA^
June 11th @ X-Ray Arcade in Cudahy, WI^
June 12th @ Green Room in Minneapolis, MN^
June 13th @ West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg, MB^
June 15th @ Buckingham in Edmonton, AB^
June 16th @ Modern Love in Calgary, AB^
June 18th @ The Pearl in Vancouver, BC^
June 19th @ Mission Theater in Portland, OR^
June 20th @ The Dip in Redding, CA^
June 22nd @ Harlow’s in Sacramento, CA
June 24th @ The Black Sheep in Colorado Springs, CO^
June 26th @ Reverb Lounge in Omaha, NE^
June 27th @ The Rino in Lawrence, KS
September 7th @ Ohio Is For Lover Festival in Cincinnati, OH
^ Supporting Free Throw

06/13/2024 Thursday
Puppeteers For Fears presents – Cthulhu the Musical!
with Blunderbusst
at Turf Club
first-avenue.com

Oregon’s premier rock’n’roll puppet troupe Puppeteers for Fears is bringing their Cthulhu the Musical! to the Turf Club, in St Paul.

The feature-length musical comedy adaptation H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror classic, “The Call of Cthulhu”, will be done entirely with puppets, backed with a live band.

The show is written by Josh Gross, and directed by Katy Curtis. Starring Forest Gilpin, Alex Giorgi, Hunter Prutch, Alyssa Mathews, and Owen Webb. The show will also feature special musical guest, Blunderbusst.

NOTE: Attendees should be aware that though this is a puppet show, it is NOT a children’s show. The material is R-rated, and children should be brought only at parent’s discretion.

The last time we saw a full puppet show was at the Kid Koala’s “Nufonia Must Fall” show in 2016, and I can tell you it is a very unique and captivating experience.

Tour dates:

June 13: St. Paul, MN…Turf Club
June 15: Madison, WI…The Bur Oak
June 16: Milwaukee, WI…Shank Hall
June 18: Chicago, IL…City Winery
June 19: Indianapolis, IN…Irving Theater
June 20: Westland, MI…The Token Lounge
June 23: Pittsburgh, PA…Crafthouse
June 24: Buffalo, NY…Buffalo Iron Works
June 26: Concord, NH…Capitol Center for the Arts
June 27: Providence, RI…Fete Music Hall
June 28: Lowell, MA…Taffeta
July 1: Brooklyn, NY…The Meadows
July 2: Asbury Park, NJ…House of Independents
July 3: Richmond, VA…Canal Club
July 5: Raleigh, NC…King’s
July 6: Greenville, SC…Radio Room
July 7: Charleston, SC…Music Farm
July 9: Atlanta, GA…Smith’s Olde Bar
July 10: Nashville, TN…City Winery
July 11: Louisville, KY…Zanzabar
July 13: Knoxville, TN…Open Chord
July 15: Kansas City, MO…Record Bar
July 16: St. Louis, MO…City Winery
July 18: Denver, CO…Meow Wolf
July 20: Salt Lake City, UT…Urban Lounge

06/14/2024 Friday
They Might Be Giants
at First Avenue
first-avenue.com

06/15/2024 Saturday
They Might Be Giants
at First Avenue
first-avenue.com

06/16/2024 Sunday
They Might Be Giants
at The Fitzgerald Theater
first-avenue.com

It’s a massive three-day celebration with They Might Be Giants all weekend in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. We are happy to be able to cover TMBG’s Friday and Saturday shows (sorry St Paul!).

As you know, we’re longtime TMBG fans, ever since we heard “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, we’ve book hooked on their strange, smart, and very funny lyrics.

TMBG (14 Oct 2022)

We last saw the band on their long-delayed Flood tour (rescheduled four times!) in Oct 2022 and wrote, “Of course, since they were playing First Avenue, the band had to play the First Avenue song, “Minneapolis”. The song came out in 2004, and tells the story about how “all the guys were having a fight” but all their hatred was left behind when they “took command of the First Avenue Stage… Stage! First Avenue Stage!” Since the band promised to play every song on Flood and also some songs from Book, it turns out that this is a massive undertaking. As you can see from the setlist, they had to break up the show into two full sets.”

Tour Dates: